In the Black tradition, we name our teachers/ who we've learned from. I see Nina Cried Power as Hozier's way of continuing the tradition. He is acknowledging his influences from pioneers in the genres of blues, soul, gospel, jazz, etc. It is huge especially as a white man to do this and give credit when a lot of white artists don't often do. Also cry power (Black Power) is a very important symbol for the Black community. I love Hozier. He doesn't shy away from history and recognizing where some of his best ideas come from.
i think that’s so beautiful and i love that he’s very open about acknowledging his influences/ idols, and the history that accompanies them. hozier doesn’t shy away from shedding light on any social conflicts/ injustices, and i have so much respect for him for that (and many many other things).
Shrike is so underrated 😫 and the line “If I were born as a blackthorn tree, I’d wanna be felled by you, held by you…FUEL THE PYRE OF YOUR ENEMIES…” 🔥🔥🔥 from NFWMB
The tracks you thought weren't really "developed" he'd actually said he kept more simple for the sake of it being palatable for people to understand, given the headiness of the lyrics.
When I saw him in concert the first time many years ago he explained how he learned the story of a Shrike and that he felt it was so poetic and dark that the bird builds its lover a nest of dead animals on spikes and so of course he wrote a song about it. Shrike is my all time favorite song of his
At one of his shows recently Hozier said that civil movements would be nothing without its artists and that Nina Cried Power was a way to acknowledge that and give back.
No Plan is the winner for me, it still has some of the most romantic lyrics I've heard: "your secret is safe with me, and if secrets were like seeds, spare my body from the fire hire a gardener for my grave" , "your secret is safe with me, and if secrets were like seeds, when I'm lying under marble marvel at the flowers you'll have made" UGHHHH genius
I’m real sad that Talk didn’t resonate so much with you 🥺 I think it’s wonderfully done to hear all the grand romantic stories he alludes to with Orpheus and Eurydice and then almost aside confessing that he’s just putting a gilded layer to the lust he feels, that it’s not a mythical ethereal feeling, it’s just human emotion and desires. For Wasteland baby, it feels like he’s singing through a haze, like how in the wastelands of the world, the fog that descends from the nature reclaiming what we’ve left behind and smoke of the ashes of the ruins of the world , how his voice is so distant and dreamy like an echo of the life before the destruction. So hopeful to me, enduring despite the soft and ghostly quality. My favorites are Shrike, As it was, Wasteland Baby, almost sweet music and… would that I, yeah! Promise us that you’ll do his songs that got left out of the big three albums!!! Especially NWFMB, Swan upon Leda, and Through me (the flood) oh and the song from that game: Blood upon the Snow! It’s up for a Grammy I think! I think you’d like Jackboot Jump and that song that was only partially recorded in a live concert, But the Wages. There’s more im surely forgetting Oh, I forgot to check but did you listen to the bonus tracks from the first album?
@@katherinejackson9770 haha, yeah, exactly! I think it’s one of the more explicit songs and pretty representative of the rest of the album or his songs, I think!
@mwesrik8081 That song! I bet he understands what it's about. 😉😂 Took me a minute, and then I was like, wait...is this song about a ......😳😜 ?! Hahaha Yes. Yes, indeed, it is.
Listening to this album is like a spiritual awakening. My favourite is definitely Wasteland, Baby. I love the little "that's it" that he whispers at the ends
wasteland baby hits best for me because it feels like someone singing me a song as i fall asleep, or like i'm hearing it from another room as i fall asleep (or as the world ends and that's the last thing i hear as i slip away into the next world)
tracklist 2:12 nina cried power 6:56 almost (sweet music) 11:01 movement 14:57 no plan 20:18 nobody 23:51 to noise making (sing) 29:18 as it was 33:09 shrike 38:22 talk 41:05 be 45:00 dinner & diatribes 48:12 would that i 52:58 sunlight 57:25 wasteland, baby! great video btw, love your reactions! ❤✨
@@Luscent you 100% should!! i was able to get there super early and i got barricade and it was genuinely one of the best live performances i have ever seen😭 you can FEEL the passion he has for his music
@@Ayah.Papaya absolutely, i saw him in portland and i have never been more glad i went to concert in my life. i have also never been more glad to get a high up seat bc holy shit so many people keep going down at these concerts
@@Ayah.PapayaI saw him in Philly too! Experiencing “uiscefhuaraithe” live and in person as he sang about it to us on that misty night was magical (loved that we got a cheeky scolding too) 😅✨🖤✨🤘🎸🔥🤩
The Lyrics for Almost (Sweet Music) is mostly songs names and other song lyrics and I find how something somewhat so cohesive can be written by doing so. How complex the rhythm is with the instrumental and also thinking about the man trying to sing while doing so blows my mind. It came to the point that the man had to make a tutorial for the clap and snaps lol. In my opinion it’s a 10/10 so. Definitely one of my favorites of all time.
My top 5: 5. Talk 4. Would That I 3. Dinner & Diatribes 2. Nina Cried Power 1. Movement This album is in my top 3 favorite albums of all time. The ethereal and mystical vibe that Hozier captures in his music is the most prominent on this album, and he nails it every second. There are no skips on this album.
Okay now we really need your reaction to all of his other songs not on albums, there about a dozen between singles and EPs and they are all incredible. NFWMB, Moments Silence, Swan Upon Leda, Better Love, Arsonist Lullabye, and Through Me are my favorite non album songs
Through me is freaking incredible. the second verse is the most precise image of a house after your loved one dies. Every time I listen to Through me I cry like a baby. phenomenal track and his Irish accent is killing me through the song, so fucking hot
It’s amazing how differently some of Hozier’s songs hit when you also have religious trauma. But I’m so glad you didn’t have to deal with that and I still adore these reactions! I love the way you can focus on both the lyrics and the production I love how much you love to noise making! As an ex choir kid myself, it means a lot to me personally and it’s one of my faves Finally, PLEASE watch the late show live performance of shrike. It’s exceptional and he plays the guitar throughout
i’ve been a huge hozier fan since literal day one, before he even had an album out, and for me this is the album that i’ve had the least straightforward relationship with. self titled and unreal unearthed were absolute hits for me on a first listen but i think when wasteland baby first came out i didn’t fully get it. it felt really different from his previous stuff and it wasn’t all clicking into place for me on my first few listens. but then not too long ago i was having a conversation with my sibling and they told me wasteland baby is their favorite of his three albums and i was like okay i need YOU to talk to me about wasteland baby because there’s something here that i’ve been missing. i feel like wasteland is a totally natural precursor to unreal unearthed, he sort of starts to unpack themes and subjects that are delved into more fully on unreal unearthed. this idea that at the end of it all the only things that will matter are love and sex and music and art and fighting for what’s right, these things that make us human and make our lives worth living. like we are in hell, whether it’s literal hell or just the hellscape we’re turning earth into, so at the end of the day all we’ve got are the things humans have always had, art and each other (and horny poetry)
Here are a handful of fun facts about some of the songs if you’re interested! Nina Cried Power, the music video features a bunch of modern day activists listening to the song for the first time, it’s beautiful, a love letter to the spirit of protest music and those who have come before Almost(Sweet Music), he tried to write a song using nothing but titles of songs he grew up listening to, he then realized that that was a bit too difficult so he wrote a song composed *mostly* of those titles, about music’s effect on memory and vice versa Movement, apparently he wanted to write a song that modulated key, and a song about dance, so he did, that wall of sound that comes at the end is just gorgeous No Plan, the Mack mentioned (“As Mack explained, there will be darkness again”) is Dr. Katie Mack, a theoretical physicist and science communicator, she wrote this book about I think 5 possible deaths of the universe that Andrew read, and one of them was heat death, right now we’re in the springtime of the universe, all this life and energy, but with the universe expanding, all that energy will eventually dissipate, and the universe spread out, and stop interacting, and everything will slow, and eventually die. So in the context of that, and the vastness of the universe everything is relativley inconsequential 😅 To Noise Making makes me really happy : ) Apparently it was inspired by a Seamus Heaney poem “At the Wellhead” Talk is so dirty 😂 He is playing a character, but just one who was an unhealthy obsession with this person, but is trying to be clever and is throwing in all these grand allusions hoping that the person won’t get a glimpse of the way he’s thinking about them, makes me a little uncomfortable 😅 Be, did you catch that line with Adam? Again, so dirty 😂 But the whole thing isn’t, that section “when the man who gives the order is born next time found on the boat sent back, when the bodies starving at the border are on tv giving people the sack” those lines hurt The reverb loses me in some places, but I’ve come to love all of them, on first listen a ton blended together for me, but I kept coming back to sit with them Also I could have sworn NFWMB and Moment’s Silence(Common Tongue) were on this album, but I guess they’re the Nina Cried Power EP! Please make sure you check them out at some point!! (Moment’s Silence was inspired after reading someone’s interpretation of the lyrics “no masters or kings when the ritual begins, there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin” in Take Me To Church, that person said that those lines were about oral sex, and he was like, well, I won’t take a meaning someone finds in a song away from them, but in that case I really wasn’t thinking about that, but decided tongue in cheek “you want a song about oral sex? Well here you go” 😂 And it’s about the relationship between power and oral sex and (mainly conservative) people in power and their views on oral sex
yeah lmao everytime hear Be, I think about the line with adam- Be, dinner and diatribes, talk, and moments silence are songs I need to be careful to to listen to with my older relatives around
@@Ayah.Papaya lol, thankfully I’m pretty sure none of them knew what it meant or listened to the lyrics, but before I knew what “small death” referred to I definitely played Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene in the car while on a trip with older relatives 😂 Not the worst one I could have played thankfully!
(hello I am here late) The Seamus Heaney reference makes so much sense, because "when the gyre widens" on Be HAS to be a reference to W. B. Yeats' poem The Second Coming. Heaney and Yeats are two of the most famous Irish poets.
shrike is forever and always going to be my favourite hozier song. i'm so glad you loved it and that it resonated with you. i've been wanting to get a hozier related tattoo and i've been waffling between something from shrike and something from in a week, and this is just pushing shrike forward as the choice in my head. also fun fact about shrikes, the reason they impale their prey on sharp objects is because they have blunt beaks - they have no other way of getting prey. so hozier is also kind of dependent on his lover for survival by calling himself the shrike to her thorn.
Oh finally some To Noise Making (Sing) appreciation! I love that song! It speaks to me so much, that urge to reclaim the joy of things you love, shedding perfectionism. I love to see how different people feel connected to different songs. Please check his other stuff! Jackboot Jump is so fun! Or check the live sessions! You'll love them!
This album is definitely one that you need to listen to a couple times to let it just marinate. It took me a while to really appreciate some songs. I honestly couldn't give you a real top five, it changes every couple months, depending of my mood, the season, etc. Right now it's probably No Plan, Be, Talk, Shrike and Movement. My controversial opinion is that I don't really like To Noise Making. It's the only song Hozier has ever released that I haven't liked enough to put on my playlist.
i just saw him live last week and i’m in absolute awe of his talent and ability to speak through his music. he somehow managed to make a sold out arena feel like a small get together. also, he’s so funny and endearing
I love this album so much. Definitely my favorite of Hozier's albums so far. My Top 5 are: 1. Almost (Sweet Music) 2. Nobody 3. Sunlight 4. Wasteland, Baby! 5. Shrike
I have such an emotional connection with this album that I can't listen to some of the songs to much anymore or else it just takes me straight back into when I first heard the album in high school
YEAHHHH I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS FOR AGES!!! top five songs for me!!! 1, shrike 2, sing 3, movement 4, as it was 5. dinner and diatribes i love these songs aaaahh
I never comment on things but I felt like I needed to correct something here because this is my fave album of all time and context is so important. Hozier didn't grow up a Catholic, he grew up as a Quaker, the ties to Catholicism come from his Irish heritage and the relationship between Ireland and the church. There's some great interviews where he chats about it but you really see how that point of view informs his music. Quakers believe there's a divinity in each person and I think Hozier himself believes women, specifically, to be these divine powerful creatures.
Been waiting for this reaction!! I absolutely adore Shrike, Would That I, and Wasteland, Baby! so much. Hearing the beat for Would That I coming in at the concert in Toronto was UNREAL. I think Wasteland, Baby! is my favourite song of his just for the line, "Be still my indelible friend," because it's so beautiful and that friend can really be anything or anyone, be it a person, a spirit, or a feeling. Just the idea of telling that indelible, permanent thing to be still is absolutely wonderful to me. It's right up there with Uiscehuara, Butchered Tongue, and Icarian. I think you'd really enjoy his cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" on RTÉ with all the violins and candles everywhere. Also In the Woods Somewhere is gorgeous and you'd enjoy it!
Nina Cried Power is my favorite Hozier song of all time it’s so so powerful. 1. Nina Cried Power 2. Dinner & Diatribes 3. Shrike 4. Movement 5. Almost (Sweet Music)
This is the album I keep in my car's CD player so I can switch to it when I drive through dead zones and spotify craps out. I couldn't begin to guess how many times I've listened to it. My favourites right now are probably No Plan, Nobody, As It Was, Be, and Wasteland, Baby (even though the last one sounds like he's singing through a fan, lmao. I still love the imagery and the lullaby vibes). But I love them all and they take turns as my #1
Oh, how did Talk not make it to my list?? It's one of my most consistent favourites. I find it so funny that he wrote it as "an elaborate self-own" about guys who try to sound all romantic and sophistocated by referencing the same 1 thing they learned that they think will be impressive enough to get in someone's pants 😂 And it's fun to sing along with
MY FAVORITE VINYL TO PLAY so happy to see you react to this to complete the trilogy!! 'would that i' was my real intro to hozier and first song I was obsessed with (after take me to church of course) my favs: shrike wasteland, baby would that I nobody no plan
I'd recommend that you revisit Talk when you look up the meaning behind it. It hit different once I learned the context of his intentions. I would also love to see a reaction to his EP's/ random singles: he has some FANTASTIC songs that did not make it on the albums. I also suggest watching the video to Dinner & Diatribes: it really dives into that darker element of the song and it makes it hit different. ☺
Amazing video as always! It'd be amazing to see one of these on a compilation of hozier's tracks that aren't on any of the albums, because this man has a talent for making the most beautiful powerful song and then leaving it be loose on EPs or singles. Swan Upon Leda, NFWMB, Arsonist's Lullaby, Moment's Silence, Through Me (The Flood), and many many others.
1. Wasteland, Baby 2. Would That I 3. Dinner & Diatribes 4. Shrike 5. Almost i was waiting for this reaction and it didn’t disappoint! i always love to hear your opinions and thoughts on songs because they’re often thoughts i haven’t heard on a particular song.
I would suggest (either on your own or as a reaction video) to watch the music video for Nina Cried Power. Hozier brought in Irish civil rights activists to listen for the first time to the song and recorded their raw reactions, and it adds such an intensity to it. His live solo version from 2019 has more lyrics added too. ETA: the music video bit could go for several of his songs (Take Me to Church/Almost (Sweet Music)/Dinner & Diatribes etc). They do some beautiful interpretations to go with the music.
it's so funny you thought the lyrics of be didnt fit the music bc he originally wrote it to be much lighter and folkier sounding and recently released that version as well
god im such a huge fan of hozier i saw him live on october 11th this year and it was life altering! my top 5 for wasteland, baby! are (in no particular order) as follows: 1. would that i 2. talk 3. shrike 4. sunlight 5. Movement 6. (as a bonus cause i feel that it stands alone) Nina Cried Power
Talk is kind of a funny song where he’s pretending to be “all that” to try and seduce someone. Saying he’d be the love that urged Orpheus to go underground, the devotion that made him turn around” “the sweet feeling of release” he’s truth. He’s love. He’s everything anyone has ever wanted. But if only this woman knew what he’s really thinking (he just wants to fuck essentially) then that would be bad so he talks refined for fear that she’ll find out what is truly on his mind.
So, top 5 in no order: Would That I, Shrike, Talk, Almost, Nina Cried Power. Listen to Talk again, don't think so hard and just vibe with it. It's so sexy and I always imagine that feeling where you meet someone you just want to take home for the night, how your going to get them there. As others have said, pull all off albums songs into your next Hozier. Jackboot Jump, Swan Upon Leda, Arsonist Lullaby, NFWMB, Moments Silence, and a new one that blew my mind completely, Blood Upon the Snow. I know there is more but I see others leaving them. If you ever get the chance to see him live, you won't be disappointed. I just saw him for the third time two weeks ago in Seattle and he just gets better! I saw he just released some summer UK dates. Lastly, I encourage you to watch Take Me To Church, Cherry Wine, and Nina Cried Power videos. Get your tissues ready. Work Song and Almost are also fun videos to watch. Thank you for reviewing these, I watched all three of them 😀
In Talk he's talking about all of these grand, complicated, philosophical, topics in the verses then explaining in the chorus that all that refined talk was actually just to cover up and distract her from the fact that he's thinking of all the ways to make love to her My top five are defiantly Movement Talk Sing Almost Shrike
1. Talk 2. Shrike 3. To Noise Making (Sing) 4. Almost (Sweet Music) 5. As It Was I think I agree with you-I loooove this album but for sure there’s a lack of cohesion with the songs so it doesn’t fully come together for me. Some of the songs (Be especially) feel like they belong in his self titled album instead of this one, to me. As for Talk, the way he’s explained it, and reading between the lines, it’s, well-it’s just a song about picking up a stranger at a bar or something, to hook up with. So he’s invoking this Greek mythology to appear educated/impressive in front of this woman he wants to go home with. Hence the “imagine being loved by me” being followed by the chorus of him essentially saying it’s a good thing she can’t read his mind because, he’s full of it and just wants to have s3x, haha.
Nina Cried Power - also just the it’s not just about being woke, it’s about rising into action instead of staying at just the awareness. Movement Nina Cried Power (the live in the studio version is the best tho) Wasteland Baby (there’s a beautiful version that he played on Ellen one time) As It Was Shrike Would I
Awww you skipped over reading the final verse of " would that I" which was a beautifully poetically written oral sex reference/joke. But yeah, both Talk and Dinner & Diatribes are kind of known as Hoziers "sexiest songs"...so yeah, both are about sex. I don't think I have a top five for this album as some of them didnt really hit for me, like you were saying, but I do really like Shrike, Would That I, Dinner and Diatribes, and Movement. Those would be my favorite ones off this album. I kind of love them all equally so really can't rank them tbh.
I think that movement is more about a conversation with ourselves. About all the things that we carry in our backpack all the things that we burry very deep inside us that they stop us to go forward to fight for what we want. So it's about asking ourselves to move so we can move forward so we can continue so we can bring all that things to light and fight for what is correct. But maybe, it's very possible as usual, that I be wrong.
My top 5: 1. Shrike 2. Would That I 3. Movement 4. As It Was 5. Nina Cried Power Hozier honest to god is one of the only artists that has made me want to write my own songs
My top 5 is: 1. Nina cried power (the live version never fails to make me cry) 2. Wasteland, baby 3. Shrike 4. Movement 5. To noise making or as it was depending on the mood
This reaction was entertaining all the way through. I appreciate your opinion especially when it’s different than mine. Be and Sing are not my favorites but now I have new appreciation for them. My top 5 - Nobody Nina Cried Power No Plan Dinner & Diatribes Talk
This was such a slay !! Love everything you react to , really feel like I gain a lot watching you Also omg please listen to the good witch by Maisie, idk if you’ll like it or what but I’d be super intrigued about your perspective
nina cried power is an absolute favourite of mine because of the double meaning of the lyric "it's not the waking, it's the rising." of course he could be talking about the literal act of waking up vs getting out of bed, but he's also talking about being "woke" and how social media perpetuates this idea of being politically correct even though nothing comes from it. being woke isn't enough. we need to take action. "it's not the waking, it's the rising" another favourite is definitely "be" because of the politics discussed in the lyrics. the second verse feels so cathartic. "when the man who gives the order is born next time around on the boat sent back. when the bodies starving at the border are on tv giving people the sack." like bro really said fuck you trump lmfao 😭
Its funny, a lot of the songs on this album are some of my least favourite Hozier songs but its also the origin of some of my absolute favourites xD I think my top 5 in no particular order are: 1. Would That I (seeing this live is one of the most joyful experiences ive ever had) 2. Shrike (I just love nature and brutal love ✨) 3. Wasteland Baby (I used to HATE the voice effect but somehow Im in love with it now, just so soft and sad and hopeful and the weird voice affect kinda fits the end of the world vibe) 4. Sunlight (Again, this makes me feel so much joy and awe, its just so beautiful) 5. Nina Cried Power (Such an empowering and humble song. Its so so important to me as someone who cares a lot about politics, equality and stuff. The song reminds me of what i want and need to be in order to really change somethinga nd just urgh! I adore Hoziers political stuff so much)
if something has already be said about this, i'm sorry; i'd read all the posts if i had the time -- hozier wasn't raised catholic. his family are quakers.
@@sgtobin yes. truth. i was thinking more of his family and the home where he grew up -- with his mother, an artist, and his father, a jazz drummer -- and how he grew up in all that art.
