“Wasteland, Baby!” has previous albums’ ethereal feel
The other day, I had a long, lonely drive ahead of me. To pass the time, I listened to the latest album by Hozier. Before I knew it, I arrived at my destination… and I wished my drive were longer.
After releasing an extended player (EP) a few months ago, the one and only Hozier has finally bestowed a second full album upon us, titled “Wasteland, Baby!” His EP “Nina Cried Power” set the stage for this new album, a teaser to get audiences ready. Unsurprisingly, the man behind “Take Me to Church” retains an ethereal feel in his new music.
Terms like “a forest creature” and “an immortal” are constantly used by fans to describe Hozier. With his music so world-shakingly unique, it’s no surprise that his fans aren’t quite sure where he came from. But wherever he came from, fans are glad to have him back.
His new album is full of both surprises and familiarity. Compared to most artists I’ve written about, Hozier has had an overwhelmingly positive response from fans on his newest album. My personal favorite track on the album has an especially interesting backstory.
The track, titled “Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue)” is one long metaphor for a particularly X-rated act of affection. Hozier says that there is “a cure I know that soothes the soul,” which is the “moment’s silence when my baby puts her mouth on me.”
These raunchy lyrics are deceivingly subtle. In fact, it wasn’t until I read a fan’s reaction and, puzzled, Googled the lyrics that I even noticed what the song was about. But the best part of the story is how the track came to be.
Basically, a fan on Genius Lyrics, a website in which anyone can add interpretations to song lyrics, suggested that a lyric in “Take Me to Church” was a metaphor for oral sex. Hozier said that the interpretation wasn’t what he had intended, but he was inspired to write a song with such lyrics. Thus, “Moment’s Silence” was born. “If you want a metaphor about oral sex, here you go,” Hozier said in a video interview.
Although I love this backstory and everything it implies about our artist in question, I don’t mean to diminish the track, or the album for that matter, to its crudest subtext. The music itself is exceedingly powerful, with blues and gospel undertones, Hozier’s wide-ranging vocals and lyrics that call to light social issues like power imbalance.
This is all best compiled in the album’s title track, “Wasteland, Baby!” with lyrics suggesting that every time a boy falls in love with a girl, there is an internal apocalypse within him. The music is simple and comforting. Hozier starts off with a near-whisper that evokes unexplainable emotions. The song sounds like what nostalgia feels like. That’s the only explanation I can conjure up.
The album’s ballads, like “Wasteland, Baby!” are balanced by energetic and catchy tracks like another personal favorite of mine, “Movement.” Its lyrics are about being mesmerized by someone’s fluid, natural, lucid movement.
Another faster-paced track is “Dinner and Diatribes,” which Hozier describes as “a playful number that tries to credit that feeling of relief when leaving any tedious social engagement.”
Hozier’s insightful commentary on his own lyrics is more than we usually get from our favorite musicians, and it is much appreciated. I suggest watching Hozier’s video interviews on individual songs.
But before you do that, you’ll have to listen to “Wasteland, Baby!”
