I had been considering doing an Entertainment Monday on Hozier for quite some time now as I liked his sound when his first hit Take Me To Church came out and became a smash success. His next two songs to get radio play here in the North Eastern United States were even better though and that clinched it.
Hozier, is Andrew Hozier-Byrne who was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland in 1990. This past October of 2014 saw the release of his first album, self titled, Hozier. I found out a bit to my own surprise that he was part of Anuna from 2008-2012. I was familiar with Anuna from their version of Winter, Fire and Snow, a song I shared on the last Entertainment Monday I wrote this two weeks past now. I had no idea until reading up about Hozier on Wikipedia that he had anything to do with Anuna. Off the top of my head I can not honestly recall an artist out of Ireland who's music I really took to since Sinead O'Connor. So I'm obviously dating myself a bit here. It's possible there is musician or two I really liked that I never knew came out of Ireland over that time span, but it's not like the Emerald Isle has exactly been churning out a fountain of hit popular music songs or musicians recently. On edit: U2 has of course stood the test of time and produced a number of great hits over the years, but they proceeded Sinead's brief fame and have since had a number of songs I really enjoy. On looking into it a bit more I saw that the Coors came from Ireland and I had forgotten about the Cranberries. Two very successful bands in their own right. At any rate, Hozier is still predated quite a bit by all of those performers. So while I have to modify my contention about Ireland and successful performers a bit, it's still been a few years at least it seems since someone took the music scene by storm who hailed from Ireland.
As I already mentioned, Hozier's first song to hit the airwaves and launch him globally was Take Me to Church.
After Take Me to Church I heard Angel of Small Death which is the song that really made me a fan of his. I love the soulful sound of his music.
This morning driving into work I first heard Like Real People Do by Hozier, which has much more of an Irish Folk sound to it than the soulful sounds of Take Me to Church and Angel of Small Death. I love Irish, Scottish and Welsh Folk music going back to such classic tunes as Scarborough Fair, Annie Laurie and Loch Lomond. Like Real People Do, while different, brought me back to my childhood listening to those tunes with my father.
So I am now unequivocally a big fan and look forward to listening to more music from Hozier, and maybe some day getting to see him in concert.
I really liked the choices that you have picked for this Monday. I heard Take Me to Church a few times on the radio but I didn't know who had sung it or what it was about before I read your post. I LOVE IT! I think Hozier's lyrics are poetic and powerful. Two years ago, I had to teach students songs that had a social message and Take Me to Church would have been a suitable song.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Like Real People do which reminds me of that poem by e.e cummings about Anyone lived in a pretty how town, mainly because anyone can relate to both.