Hozier - Unreal Unearth Album Analysis

Written by Thomas Crago

Hozier’s third album: Unreal Unearth – A mythological long play inspired by Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” Specifically drawing from the first part: “Inferno.” If you’re unfamiliar, in great simplicity it is a symbolistic poem written by Dante, following his journey through Hell. Guided by the great Roman poet Virgil, Dante journeys in Hell through nine consecutive circles, each embodying a different aspect of torment.

A preliminary comic depiction of the album featuring Hozier, Dante, And Virgil, having wine together: illustrated by my mother.

Hozier, like Virgil, takes the listener on a walk through his own underworld. Not every track directly links to Inferno, instead having a few integral tracks install the framework of the poem into a breakup album, Hozier uses it as an analogy for his journey through obsession, heartbreak, and despair. The album alternates between these two paths while supplementing elements from Greek mythology to characterize the listen. 

The album opens on Hozier’s path with “De Selby” (Parts 1 and 2) he references a character from Flann O’Brian’s “The Third Policeman.” De Selby is a philosopher obsessed with tangible darkness, and understanding the tragedy of the human condition. His themes are woven into both songs respectively. Part 1 is a slow, surreal piece comparing darkness to loss and reflecting on how freeing despair can really be. The last third of the song features Hozier singing in Gaelic, in Hozier’s lyrical analysis he mentions: “There’s a section in Irish (Gaelic) where it sort of expands on that thought – in the direction of a love song.” Ending with a sequence of eerie sound effects and a sudden switch in key, you segue into part 2: An energetic, funky version of De Selby’s story that plays on the theme of loss more in the sense of losing yourself to suit another’s romantic needs, running away with them and from your mind.

We begin the Inferno parallel with many mythological references in “First Time,” “Francesca,” and “I, Carrion,” representing the first and second circles of hell: Limbo, and Lust. In “First Time" we are described a love story themed after rebirth and the perpetual state of it, similar to Limbo. Somewhere in the beginning he says: “And the first time that you kissed me, I drank dry the River Lethe.” One of the many rivers contained inside the Greek underworld, “Lethe” literally translates to “forgetfulness.” In the myth, souls passing through were made to drink from it to forget their past life and begin anew in the afterlife. 

In “Francesca” we enter the second circle through a passionate and rather loud song in which Hozier truly stretches out his arm for the addressee, saying he would do it the same for them again and again. Lyrically, he is telling the story of Francesca de Rimini: a noblewoman featured in the poem condemned to hell for her affair with her husband's brother. Despite the eternal punishment, she wouldn’t change her wrongdoings. She would do it all over again. “I, Carrion” brings us back to Hozier’s path, yet stays inside the second circle for a few more moments to recount the myth of Icarus in likeness to himself. In the Greek myth, Icarus ignored his father Daedalus’ warnings not to fly too close to the sun with his fragile wax wings. Icarus, thrilled by his capabilities of flight, flew far too close. The sun melted and scorched away his wings and he proceeded to fall into the ocean and drown. Hozier’s romantic spin on it is that one could be so blinded by love that they are oblivious to the consequences that follow. Like how Icarus was so blinded by bliss, that he never even realized how close he was to death.

My personal favorite, “Eat Your Young,” (hence the name) is inside the 4th circle of Hell: Gluttony. We take a step back from the romantic aspects of the album and take a look at the real world. The song uses cannibalism as a metaphor for how much we consume and consume the future of the next generations for our short-term gain, that if we have children, we might as well just eat them. 

The final significant mythological references in the album are about the role of a psychopomp: a conductor and guide of souls across River Styx in the Greek underworld. In the instrumental track “Son of Nyx,” the name’s pronunciation is a double entendre resembling both Charon: a psychopomp and the son of Nyx (Greek Goddess of the night), and a tribute to Hozier’s bassist Alex Ryan’s late father, Nick Ryan. (Son of Nick’s). Alex sent a phone recording of himself softly playing the piano to Hozier promptly after his father’s death and it was used as the ground line of the piece, orchestral elements and distorted lyrics from previous songs were layered on top to create the effect of travelling through River Styx. The role of a psychopomp is not just told again but felt in “Abstract (Psychopomp)." We are vividly described a scene in which someone finds an animal dying in the road, they take the creature in their arms and feel it still moving as they cradle it, comfort it. I believe the person was attempting to save its life yet all they could do was carry it to the ground. The almost book-like storytelling and repeating chorus just nailing into your skull in the midst of it perfectly captures the bittersweetness of the situation. They became a psychopomp for the animal, taking it into the afterlife.

In the final act, Inferno returns one last time in the ninth circle of Hell: Treachery, for “Unknown / Nth:” A seemingly lighthearted song, yet cold and cruel by nature. The theme here is betrayal. Being betrayed and heartbroken by someone you once knew so intimately, becoming unknown. “Nth” is a mathematical term describing an indefinitely large number. Hozier addresses the title in another lyrical analysis: “The song sort of reflects upon heartbreak or having a heart broken, by somebody you trusted. And the joke in it is that it’s something that can happen a lot of times to you.” The album closer: “First Light,” merges Dante’s path through Hell and Hozier’s path through life and love, perceiving the light again as a changed person and accepting every version of yourself through your own Inferno as we escape the final circle and reach the end. It’s not just the journey, it’s the acceptance that we went through shit that lets us see the “first light.” 

The amount of raw material and origin in Unreal Unearth marks this album as a must-listen if you're a fan of classic literature, mythology, or sociopolitical topics. Those themes coil throughout the track list through many more songs that I didn’t cover, and continued through the later released deluxe edition: “Unreal Unearth Unending,” many more amazing songs were introduced such as another personal favorite of mine, “Nobody’s Soldier,” and Hozier’s most popular song: “Too Sweet.” Hozier’s lyrics are often if not every time, complex and thought out, I believe the analysis is always worth it to unearth his messages. (Get it??)