Hozier’s success in the past year can be chalked up to more than just simple luck, but it certainly skyrocketed on St. Patrick’s Day of 2023 with the release of his teaser EP “Eat Your Young.” Since then, he released his highly anticipated third album “Unreal Unearth” in August 2023 and went on a sold-out tour around the globe. Now, one March later, Hozier marks two more major milestones. His second album — cheeky, existential “Wasteland, Baby!” — celebrated its fifth birthday on March 1, which he commemorated with the release of an acoustic version of “Be,” and the release of a new vinyl-exclusive song titled “Why Would You Be Loved.” On March 22, he released a surprise EP titled “Unheard,” which he described as the collection of songs that he wished to share with listeners but didn’t make the final cut of “Unreal Unearth.”
At the time of the release of “Wasteland, Baby!” in 2019, “Be” was very much a reaction to the wave of right-wing nationalism dominating global politics. The opening lines of the song, “When the gyre widens on and when the wave breaks,” are spiraling and hopeless. The widening gyre is a reference to the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats, which depicts the coming of the apocalypse as the narrator can only watch powerlessly while it unravels all that he holds dear.
The original version of “Be” is furious in its condemnation of unjust systems: the destruction of our environment, the starvation of migrants at the border and the turning away of refugees fleeing death and destruction. Yet it takes an equally powerful position that stands defiant in the face of such despair in the lines, “Or be like the rose that you hold in your hand / That grows bold in a barren and desolate land,” refusing to give in to the overwhelming desolation of the landscape by growing bolder and more beautiful than ever before.
In a Behind the Song video on Youtube, Hozier explains that “Be – Acoustic” isn’t just a stripped cover of “Be,” but rather an earlier sketch of the version that ended up on the original album. The apocalyptic imagery in the opening verses has been pared down, evoking only a verdant, if bittersweet, image of the loss of Eden. Whereas “Be”’s original instrumentals were loud, urgent, and ceaselessly pushing forward, this version is slowed and suspended underwater, in a scene similar to the album cover of “Wasteland, Baby!” The vocals are floating and gentle, and the acoustic guitar, playing a melody reminiscent of “Would That I” or “Shrike”, is a kind breeze flowing through this pastoral landscape. Hozier prefers the acoustic version of “Be” because it is more focused in the way “it just says what it says.” He describes the song as “part prayer, part lullabye, part request,” asking his lover to continue being the person that they’ve always been in the wake of something terrible, because their continued love for him is the ultimate act of resistance.
Much as the original “Be” was rooted in the political climate of 2019, “Be – Acoustic” takes on new meaning five years later as millions worldwide protest the brutalities committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinians. The song’s urging to clutch onto love is more important now than ever: love for the Palestinian people is resistance against Western narratives that seek to make the masses desensitized or apathetic to Israel’s inhumane acts, and love is resistance against attempts to paint Palestinians as subhuman and justify their calculated starvation and murder. Love then becomes the source for activism: it leads first to sorrow and shared grief, then fuels the defiance and fury that characterizes the original “Be.” In this version of the song, the same line about the rose, “Or be like the rose that you hold in your hand / That grows bold in a barren and desolate land,” highlights how the resilience of the earth is tied to the resistance of the people against occupiers that burn down trees and raze the ground. The song provides a hopeful message for the future — as long as we hold onto the ability to love and to “Be as you’ve always been,” the rose will persist and continue to grow bold no matter how barren or desolate the land.
The topics of colonialism and occupation come up again in the new EP “Unheard” through the song “Empire Now.” A slow march to the beat of a war-mongering drum, “Empire Now” reflects upon British rule of Ireland one hundred years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which marked the establishment of the Irish Free State. Lyrically, this song is more simplistic than some of Hozier’s other work — namely “Foreigner’s God” and “Butchered Tongue,” which both poignantly address the lasting impacts of British colonialism on Irish people — but it does draw important connections between empires of the past and empires today. The repeated line, “One hundred years from the empire now,” carries double meaning in that it considers both the distance between the present and empires of the past, and a future in which the empires of today have become history. The song’s intentional use of the word “martyrs,” a term commonly used by Palestinians to honor all those killed by Israeli forces, in the line “The martyrs of our revolution” emphasizes transnational solidarity as it draws parallels between Britain’s colonization of Ireland, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“Unheard” also features three other songs, “Too Sweet,” “Wildflower and Barley,” and “Fare Well.” “Too Sweet,” with its groovy baseline and charismatic vocals, has been a standout among the four tracks. “Wildflower and Barley” is a bittersweet contemplation of life and death, while the deceptively upbeat “Fare Well” details the narrator’s pull towards pleasurable yet self-destructive tendencies.
Once again, Hozier demonstrates his impressive ability to combine his immense vocal talent with beautiful, resonant lyrics. “Be – Acoustic” and the “Unheard” EP are poignant, nuanced, and more relevant than ever.
