A Promising Sign of Things To Come
Perhaps the expectations for Hozier’s second record could never be matched by the actual product, but after five years, he could have, and should have, done better than Wasteland Baby! The songwriting is less evocative and more pedantic, and the music does not showcase any notable evolutions, besides some unintentional cheesy vocal arrangements. Hozier seems to have taken the criticism to heart, because his next record is themed around the nine layers of hell. He has teased the upcoming Unreal Unearth with a 3-song EP, Eat Your Young. It’s an improvement over Wasteland, with more effective lyrics and bite-and-darkness on a musical level, and showcases different dimensions of Hozier’s creativity in a way that gives hope for the upcoming release.
Hozier’s music falls somewhere between the intersection of soul, blues rock and folk, and each of the three songs here is built primarily on one of these styles. “Eat Your Young” takes up soul with crystalline piano, falsetto vocals and dramatic strings. “All Things End” is built on dramatic piano and mournful acoustic loops in the first half, inhabiting the folk sphere before a swirling violin signals a huge gospel finale. “Through Me (The Flood)” is the final straightforward rocker, with a drum beat and guitar rhythm out of a Black Keys song, and a sizzling distorted edge to the hook. There’s none of the washed-out blandness that Wasteland fell into at its lowest points, the strings are well-placed, and songs evolve and end in satisfying progression.
“Nina Cried Power” and “To Noise Making (Sing)” were admirable ideas, but the choice of backing vocals combined with overly sentimental writing about the power of protesting turned them silly. Eat Your Young avoids this trap on “All Things End” and “Though Me (The Flood)” by saving the huge gospel arrangements for the back half of songs and pairing them with lyrics that mixed hope and despair in a more balanced way. Hozier’s falsetto remains a weak aspect, even if it matches the vibes of “Eat Your Young.” But the production knows when to let him tower over the entire mix, and he can still belt when called on to.
The most promising aspect of Eat Your Young is the writing. The title track falls into the same category of “Take Me To Church,” in using a mix of religious and sexual imagery to create social commentary — in this case, consumption and prioritizing war profits over alleviating poverty. It turns the need to produce and consume into an almost demonic urge, fitting for a song based on the Gluttony level of hell. The following two songs stare into the abyss, and yet find comfort in the knowledge that everything is temporary, as Hozier proclaims that “we should not change our plans / when we begin again” and “Every time I’d burn through the world, I’d see
That the world, it burns through me.” Even though the two are similar in their final conclusions, they are differentiated enough by their differing topics of an ending relationship and the sense of constant grief during the pandemic to not feel repetitive.
Hozier’s tactic of teasing albums with EPs pays off. After the disappointment of Wasteland Baby, Eat Your Young should have listeners excited for what comes next because the writing and music is up to the standards he is capable of.
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