The Irish lost their balance in their pathos folk pop.
It all starts harmlessly. An acoustic guitar, gentle finger picking, heat rising, a little dust blowing by, and Hozier starts singing about what it’s like when a new morning begins, everything’s still asleep, he falls into the head voice, and making love to it God feels very close – and slowly but surely the opening song “De Selby” turns into something pastoral.
Andrew Hozier-Byrne also tests the active principle that has made him an indie star on his third album UNREAL UNEARTH: the agnostic, who was brought up as a Protestant, places his longing for a spirituality without a religious corset in a field of tension between extremely intimate singer/songwriter folk and overwhelming sacred music. Only this time the Irishman finally loses his balance.
In “Francesca” Hozier takes off under the ceiling of the nave, but also crashes evilly into the kitsch. Only to immediately return to the Spartan Simon & Garfunkel folk jingle with a bit of string support in “I Carrion (Icarian)”, as if he had a bad conscience. And in “Damage Gets Done” it really gets too much with the church day mood: masses, let yourself be hugged! Except that this hug sometimes feels like being caught in a vise.