This worried me, a lot going into this album.
This worried me because great singers don’t tend to write
great songs these days.
The reason why great singers don’t write great songs these days is
because their voice is their main asset. Normally great singers have a certain
range, a certain style, a certain pocket within the music that they feel
strength within. That is who they are, and it is what gets them results.
Pockets are small. Pockets don’t give you room to breathe.
Pockets are the enemy in my opinion.
Adele is a great singer. No one can take that away from her.
But man, does she love her pockets. Once you hear one song from her, you hear
her pocket. Pockets are the enemy.
Comfort zones… good god! Comfort zones give a little more
space to breathe, but comfort zones don’t let anything in or out. For better or
for (in the case of contemporary singer-songwriters) worse. They amount to
nothing more or less than what that artist feels is required. Comfort zones are the enemy in my opinion.
James Morrison is a great singer. No one can take that away
from him. But man, does he love his comfort zone. Once you hear one song from
him, you’ve heard them all. Comfort zones are the enemy
Pockets and comfort zones leave little to the imagination,
which in turn leaves little creativity. Most singer-songwriters these days have
little creativity. Throw them an acoustic guitar or a piano (don’t throw that,
wheel it to ‘em this isn’t jackass), show them a few minor chords, a finger
picking pattern and you have a top-ten album, guaranteed.
Boring.
Andrew Hozier-Byrne holds one of these traits and discards
the rest.
Andrew Hozier-Byrne is a great singer. No-one can take that away from him.
However, Andrew Hozier-Byrne doesn’t do comfort zones. Nor
does he do pockets.
Hozier, brings a lot more to the table.
For nearly an hour, Hozier doesn’t amount to just the piano
or the acoustic guitar, he does that, and then some.
Electric guitars on the epic opener “Take me to Church” (which you’ve probably heard on the radio) put the normalities out the wondow from the get-go.
Furthermore, the alternating between a striking reverb riddled guitar and
haunting Piano chords on “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene” is brilliant, great
song title too! Well in Hozier!
Even the song afterwards which provides a quirky riff, has
guitars. This album loves its guitars!
The reason I mention guitars is because this album took me
by surprise. I was expecting more singer-songwriter, pain and melodrama. Yet
another one hit wonder album, which takes the meat and bones from the song that
put the artist on the radar, and fill an album full of the artists' comfort zone.
Get him his vocal range pocket, and there you have it. Just another album. You’ll
never hear of this artist again.
I want to hear more of Hozier. Even when you feel he is
slipping into a filler in the form of “From Eden” 3 minutes in, and an array of
Sgt Pepper-esque strings enter the fray, utterly UN-comforting, then blending back
into the intro guitar line, Brilliant.
Speaking of intros, Hozier nails every single one of them!
Whether it be a clean, crisp finger-picking guitar, a slow, off-beat drum
groove, or a grandiose piano, the album never stagnates. It is constantly
evolving. Evolving in a way that Hozier appears to have looked at other singer-songwriters
and believes he knows how to make a better album than them. Instead of being simply
an acoustic guitar, finger-picking, melancholic vocalist (which he does really
well on the few occasions he gravitates towards this realm). Hozier embraces
huge chorus’, fully orchestrated rhythm and blues stompers and alternative rock
anthems.
ANTHEMS! From a modern day singer-songwriter, who’d have
thought it?
There are moments of beauty darted across this album, mainly
in the guitar leads and Andrews chilling falsetto vocals from time to time. But
there also moments of darkness which lyrics such as “Take me to church, I’ll
worship like a dog in the shrine of your lies, I’ll tell you my sins and you
can sharpen your knife” only perpetuate.
This album took me by surprise.
Hozier joins Angel Olsen and Sun-Kil Moon in my all too short, favourite, contemporary singer-songwriters list.
Evolving, from beginning to end.
'Hozier' - A Pleasant Surprise
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