Hozier: Unreal Unearth album review — solitude, spirituality and a ...

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Hozier is from the photogenically poetic wing of Irish rock. In publicity photos the County Wicklow-raised singer-songwriter broods soulfully against a backdrop of mossy trees or sandy dunes. Seamus Heaney’s deathbed words — “Don’t be afraid” in Latin — are tattooed on his arm. His breakthrough song “Take Me to Church” was a sternum-quaking, foot-stomping anthem in which erotic ecstasy and religious imagery were fused like a chart-topping reboot of a metaphysical poem by John Donne or Andrew Marvell.

That huge international hit came out a decade ago. Since then, Hozier, real name Andrew Hozier-Byrne, has managed to evade the gilded curse of the one-hit wonder. His second album Wasteland, Baby! reached number one in the US in 2019 despite arriving a leisurely five years after its predecessor. And now after a similar duration comes his third album, Unreal Unearth. Its inspirations include Dante’s Inferno.

In Hozier’s past work there has been a mismatch between highfalutin literary references and some rather meat-and-potatoes songcraft. Shades of Yeats and Joyce have been invoked in songs that clomp around the well-travelled byways of blues and gospel rock. Lyrics brush against big issues of climate change and social justice, but they tend to favour fuzzy poeticisms over directness. The critique of the Catholic church’s homophobia in “Take Me to Church” owed more to the song’s video than its verses.

Unreal Unearth has its own shortfalls. The Dantean air feels particularly thin in “Damage Gets Done”, a blaring duet with Brandi Carlile about wild youth in which the two singers holler at each other as though trying to hold a conversation at a loud gig. But overall the album is Hozier’s most rounded yet. 

“De Selby (Part 1)” illustrates lyrics about solitude and spirituality with Nick Drake-style folk-rock that blossoms into a grander orchestral sound. “De Selby (Part 2)” switches to a slinky arena groove as Hozier sings about an all-consuming love affair. There are excursions into disco-rock (“Eat Your Young”) and modern gospel-pop balladry (“All Things End”). 

The singer’s roar is as impressive as ever but he also deploys other vocal styles to fine effect, from tender high crooning to a murmury sing-speak. His Irish accent comes across more strongly than usual — pointedly so in “Butchered Tongue”, which addresses the attempted eradication of the Irish language by the British. Words and meanings carry weight here, more so than previously with Hozier.

★★★★☆

‘Unreal Unearth’ is released by Island Records