My first Hozier experience,
like it was for most people,
was “Take Me To Church,”
an unlikely pop song that
managed to take the Catholic
church to task while sounding
like a spiritual, or gospel music.
There were those smart, literary
lyrics and that gigantic voice.
It didn’t really matter to me
that stylistically it was not music
in my usual wheelhouse. It just
seemed serious, worthy of my
attention, skillful, sonically big,
and despite it’s Irishness,
like mid-70’s English Elton John,
sounded more American than
most American rock music.
Check out the rock funk groove
of “Jackie and Wilson,” or the playful
soul sound of “Someone New,” or
the deep, deep blues of “It Will Come
Back.” I’m reminded of Van Morrison,
who was also Irish, but sounded
American. Perhaps our ears are
trained somehow to hear all
rock and roll as American music.
Maybe that explains why lately,
feeling kind of sick of that, my
ears have been searching, thirsting
for some kind of expansion,
tracking toward artists like Arooj
Aftab or Rosalia. I want my music
sometimes to get me the hell
out of Dodge, you know. Back to our
friend Hozier: great singer, great writer,
and this record, I think, is fantastic,
and yet, it’s not a record that I reach
for very often and I haven’t been
loyal enough to grab the next
two or even three records that
came after. Hozier in small doses.
That’s what the doctor recommends.
Notes on the vinyl edition: Hozier, Rubyworks Records (Columbia), 2014, double album, black vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 