REVIEW: HOZIER - EAT YOUR YOUNG E.P.

4/5

Youngstown. 

Taking us to more than church, before bringing the fall to a brand-new album, Irish singer/songwriter Hozier gives us an engrossing extended play of three terrific tracks. On the same New Music Friday that Ireland's legendary U2 give us 40 'Songs Of Surrender' for almost three hours of reworked greatest hits, this also leaves us starving for a little bit more. 'Eat Your Young' isn't just what would have served as the world's worst cooking advice during the planet's pandemic, but also the perfect precursor of what's to come out of Hozier's music box and bag of tricks. 

Following 2019's 'Wasteland Baby', this pride of Ireland like the Oscar's overlooked Paul Mescal, or last year's best picture 'The Banshees Of Inisherin', is giving us more than his signature single that seemed to be taken to every Hollywood movie. 'Eat Your Young' is a strong new song, spearheading what could be his year again like his self-titled 2014 debut. Aaaaamen! The call to arms chorus of "Get some/Pull up the ladder when the flood comes/Throw enough rope until the legs have swung/Seven new ways that you can eat your young/Come and get some/Skinnin' the children for a war drum/Puttin' food on the table sellin' bombs and guns/It's quicker and easier to eat your young," is a war cry reminiscent of when Bono and then were just 'Boy's' with that kid and an edgier sound. Giving us a taste of gluttony in the 9 Circles of Hell. Based on Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and riffing on Jonathan Swift's 'Modern Proposal' of 1792.

On 'All Things End' he laments the love and life we lose as quick as the changing tide. It's as heartbreaking as Barry Keoghan in 'Banshees'. "And all things end/All that we intend is scrawled in sand/And slips right through our hands/And just knowing/That everything will end/Should not change our plans/When wе begin again." But yet there is hope for another brighter day in the end, which sometimes is merely the beginning. As you will see on our customary 'Playlist Picks' selection, we have selected this, the EP's title-track and 'Through Me (The Flood)'. This is of course, because this set actually only includes three tracks. But also because it's a damn good one not lost in the flood like Springsteen. Through me like Buckley, this is the best young singer/songwriter with an old soul since Tim's son Jeff. Hallelujah. "Picture a man/Seen like a speck out from the shore/Swimming out beyond the breakers/Like he's done his life before/He feels a coming of a squall/Will drag him out a greater length/But knows his strength, and tries to gather it." Staring out to sea like Colin and Brendan after 'Bruges' you can see it coming in. If 'Eat Your Young' is just a taste of things to come. It's going to be one hell of a fall. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Eat Your Young', 'All Things End', 'Through Me (The Flood)'.