REVIEW: HOZIER - UNREAL UNEARTH

4/5

Take Me To Earth.

Gritting his teeth through the dirt, with a flower in his mouth, Hozier finally releases his third album that he's been working on for a long time, through love and loss. The 'Take Me To Church' singer gave us the 'Eat Your Young' EP earlier this year, but now he marches towards an 'Unreal Unearth' in a time when the real world as we know it has never been so uncertain. Beginning it with the beautiful 'De Selby' parts one and two, the second serving as the album's latest single, Andrew John Hozier-Byrne confirms that he's not only one of the most popular singers today, but also one of the most amazing artists. Recruiting gifted 'Ex Machina' and 'The Revenant' Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson for a brutal, but beautiful black and white video for 'Selby' that takes you to a Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson 'Lighthouse', let alone church.

'Eat Your Young' finds new extended play life here, but there's plenty more to get your teeth into. Smiling through the dirt for the 'First Time' Hozier sings, "Some part of me must have died/The first time that you called me, "Baby"/And some part of me came alive/The first time that you called me, "Baby"", for the new classic chorus for the popular love song for hopeful and broken hearts alike. Making sense of all of this and the last few years for this 'Un' album it's artist composed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by the great Dante's iconic 'Inferno', Hozier brings the brimstone to light. And on the fabulous single 'Francesca', to be Frank he pays tribute to his muse like Springsteen did when 'Frankie Fell In Love'. "For all that was said/Of where we'd end up at the end of it/When the heart would cease, ours never knew peace/What good would it be on the far side of things?" Yearning to be back in love with the one.

The nine circles of hell have never heard eclectic heaven quite like this. On 'I, Carrion (Icarian)', the weightless nature of this beautiful track will take you away like memory's bliss. Duetting with singer of the moment Brandi Carlile, 'Damage Gets Done' in a delightful way. Singing together, "Without shame, two outfits then to my name/You'd end up in one when you'd stay/We had nowhere to go and every desire for going there/I heard once, it's the comforts that make us feel numb/We'd go out with no way to get home/And we'd sleep on somebody's floor and wake up feeling like a millionaire", in perfect unison. You're hearing the album's sixth single I'm sure. We found out 'Who We Are' on this LP with some perfect piano to stir the chords. On 'Son Of Nyx' Hozier haunts like his chain of daisies has turned into the roses you don't want to receive. Instrumentally, it's one of the most powerful and cinematic things he's ever done. And this is a man whose signature hit went from the Subways of New York to every other movie and TV show's soundtrack.

Giving Oscar winning Jon Batiste's Basquiat like artwork of 'World Music Radio' a run for its streams this Friday of new music. Especially with the searing single 'All Things End' that hits you like papers or certificates off its lyric writing pad. But remember, "we begin again". Over and over. Echo this to the ones who need to hear it and monitor your heart. 'To Someone From A Warm Climate', the 'Uiscefhuaraithe)' dedication delves into the heart of matters until ours feel cold no more. "A joy, hard learned in winter was the warming of the bed/You'd shake for minutes there and move your legs/Wrap the blanket over you and keep your head within/Let your breath heat the air until you’d feel it getting thin." Wearing your bedclothes like a matrimony robe of a white dress, isn't that just how real love is, waking up like the morning papers, folded with a glass of orange juice for your cup of coffee? 

'Butchered Tongue' speaking in beauty and 'Anything But' the ordinary, for a well worked album honed by Hozier for the record of the year stakes. Clap your hands along. Beat to beat, a soulful folk has never met the mainstream in a sound so seamlessly entwined quite like this. Yet the 'Abstract' sound of 'Psychopomp' tells us, "Sometimes it returns, like rain that you slept through/That washed off the world, the streets looking brand new/I will not be great, but I'm grateful to get through/The feeling came late, I'm still glad I met you/The memory hurts but does me no harm/Your hand in my pocket, to keep us both warm." This is the type of songwriting that reminds us of the greats by the book. Like the 'Unknown/Nth' single, melting across glacial plains. Or the 'First Light' of the final furlong. Poetic and profound to the "One bright morning changes all things/Soft and easy as your breathing, you wake/Your eyes open at first a thousand miles away", to the letter. Turning from pain to joy coming in the morning again.  Imagine when this three album and an extended play man's discography gets even deeper. When it does, this will be remembered as one of the best, even if Hozier has already had his undeniable greatest hit. More earthbound here, this truly is unreal. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'De Selby (Part 2)', 'Francesca', 'Damage Gets Done (Feat. Brandi Carlile)'.