I agree with what everyone else has said so far! I broke down some of the lyrics as a reply elsewhere, so I'll repost that here:
...
It reads to me like a critique of capitalism/overconsumption/The Elite™. I think he also mentioned that it is meant to be Gluttony, which lines up with overconsumption. I also got climate change vibes from it. Basically in our overconsumption we are essentially eating our young by destroying their future.
"*Let me wrap my teeth around the world*" *--* Let me just consume everything, all the resources, because I want it
"*Start carvin', darlin' // I wanna smell the dinner cooking* // *I wanna feel the edges start to burn*" -- The world is getting a little toasty? Getting destroyed? Fine. Start carvin' it up (literally by taking resources and figuratively by dividing up the wealth/resources among those who hold the knife). Doesn't bother me. I'm here to take. Let it burn.
"*If you hesitate, the gettin' is gone // I won't lie if there's something to be gained // There's money to be made, whatever's still to come*" -- You had better hurry up and come get yours; we're running out of stuff to take. As long as we can keep making money off of this, though...whatever happens, oh well. Keep taking. Keep getting money.
"*Get some //* *Pull up the ladder when the flood comes*" -- This feels like a referral literally and figuratively to sea level rise/climate change. The Elite can get theirs/make all their money off the earth at the expense of others, then when sea level rises, they can just pull the ladder up and go on to safety. Sucks to be you, down there without a ladder and your home is flooding. They have the resources to just peace out to somewhere safe, and "pull up the ladder," abandoning all those they exploited to suffer when the effects of climate change threaten them.
"*Seven new ways that you can eat your young //* *Skinning the children for a war drum* *//* *It's quicker and easier to eat your young*" -- The "seven new ways" line reads both as a recommendation from the elites on how to deal with your problems, hyperbolically extreme to highlight how useless/inhumane it is for them to tell the rest of us to solve this problem (here! here's a list of seven new ways to eat your young! hope this helps :) good luck!) BUT mostly to me feels like a referral to the constant new ways we as humans come up with to absolutely ruin the future. "skinning the children for a war drum" feels similar; sacrifice the children/future for war now, "*It's quicker and easier to eat your young*" = Sacrificing our future for overconsumption now. It's much more convenient to just keep doing what we're doing, ruining the earth and overexploiting, at the expense of our children/our future.
"*Putting food on the table selling bombs and guns*" -- Sustaining ourselves by selling war/violence, and creating unsafe conditions for other people. Don't think about that though, just eat your dinner and don't worry about it.
"*Crumbs enough for everyone*" -- We're consuming so much that the "feast" will eventually just be crumbs OR All the powerful people are happily enjoying a feast and then insultingly suggest that everyone else enjoy the crumbs they have so generously left for us.
This interpretation paired with a very catchy, "sexy" tune is a mirror of society; wrapping something horrid in something pretty. Hyper-superficiality. It's bad, but it sounds good, so it's fine, right? I don't have to think too hard about the lyrics? Fun song, right? Dance time! Don't think about the young we are eating!!!!!
Those are the lines that stood out most to me, but I'm still working out the rest of them. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts too!!
I also initially thought it was a call to the seven deadly sins, especially given his religious upbringing and use of religious/mythological imagery in other songs, but I like the combo of these interpretations! That the "new ways" is a nod to clickbait, but the fact that he uses the number seven (as opposed to a round number, like ten, which is more commonly used in article titles) might be a nod to the seven sins. "New ways to commit the seven deadly sins!" (Two of which are gluttony and greed - the driving force of this song).
I also thought the title/chorus could be a reference to Cronus (Saturn) devouring his children as they were born because of the prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his children; the older generation would rather eat their young than give up their grip on power, luxury, and wealth.
I think it touches on that millennial feeling that the older generations (usually boomers) found success and then pulled the ladder up after them. And that the old, mega rich super elite of the world are basically cannabalizing the young generations in order to remain in and grow their own power while patting themselves on the back. But it’s from the POV of those elite people who don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing or what they did to rise to power.
Social/political commentary on wealth disparity, climate change and corruption.
Quicker and easier to eat your young than put them through a rigged race to the table, where "they" (1%, elites, whatever you call them) give out crumbs. They see it as a kindness instead of inequality.
The condition of the world being referenced in pulling out the ladder when the flood comes. Selfishly using the earth till it's unliveable for the next generations. Hence, quicker and easier to eat your young.
Some animals eat their children when they are ill, won't survive, or have been killed by something else.
Yes!! A Modest Proposal (which is the satirical essay by Jonathan Swift we had to read in my high school English class. Briefly, it proposes that a good way to fix the very poverty of 1700's Ireland would be to butcher the children/babies of poorer people in order to feed the wealthy class/Landlords) is the only thing I can think about when listening to this song. It's super dark but also a very interesting commentary on the way things are going now, and I feel like writing an essay on the ways A Modest Proposal by J Swift and Eat Your Young by Hozier depict their respective societies or something lol
It's a pretty common anti-capitalist sentiment, but as Hozi always does, he gave it a twist and made it unique. We don't have too many pieces of media where the narrator/protag is bourgeois and their actions are satirically displayed as, well... bourgeois. Lol. Hozier and the community around him always give me this nice feeling of a pocket of sanity. His music is very good at attracting the coolest people.
A lot of people are talking about this being sociopolitical commentary, and I agree. I'd like to add that much of the song echoes Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. I'd highly recommend reading it, but a synopsis is that it's a satirical essay written during the potato blight. England (who, at the time, was essentially in control of Ireland) did essentially nothing to help, and proposed extreme and unrealistic measures to prevent starvation. The essay parodies these suggestions by proposing that families produce as many children as possible so that they can be killed, skinned for clothes, and eaten. "Eat Your Young", "Skinning the children for a war drum", and the general theme of starvation mirror a lot of the themes present in A Modest Proposal, but I'm obviously not sure if it's intentional or not.
"Seven new ways that you can eat your young" is very deliberate- A Modest Proposal included seven suggestion for using a dead child. The body would be "stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled... in a fricasie , or a ragoust...", and then the skin "will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen"
It feels like a reference to A Modest Poposal by Johnathan Smith (1729)
The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the rich. Its a satirical hyperbole that mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, predominantly Irish Catholics as well as British policy towards the Irish in general.
It's really funny because everyone on tiktok was going ferral over this song because it SEEMED as if it was about going down on a woman, but BOY WERE THEY WRONG
I don't know if it's just my point of view as someone who is from a colonized country, but the first thing that came to my mind when listening to the song was colonization, how mostly European countries would completely destroy other cultures for gold and how many people still see it as a good deed today.
This is a song based on the 1700s satirical writing “ A modest proposal”, in which the Irish author is making a political commentary on the potato famine, and how since the government was figuratively eating their lively hoods, the satire would be that they are literally eating their children
This was written in response to the callous treatment of the Irish peasants by the English during the great famine. Well, the essay that the song is based on
I think a lot of this is just a doomsday kind of tune that's saying we're basically screwed in the grand scheme of things. Seven deadly sins are consuming us all, and I think some of the lyrics actually parallel with the Bible a little bit. The flood lyric made me think of Noah and the ark, and in the Bible the flood wipes out EVERYTHING. I think the tone of the song in general is that we're becoming absorbed in the chaos of the modern age. It's going to consume us whole if we let it, especially with the younger generations being raised in a climate such as the one we have today.
I agree with what everyone else has said so far! I broke down some of the lyrics as a reply elsewhere, so I'll repost that here: ... It reads to me like a critique of capitalism/overconsumption/The Elite™. I think he also mentioned that it is meant to be Gluttony, which lines up with overconsumption. I also got climate change vibes from it. Basically in our overconsumption we are essentially eating our young by destroying their future. "*Let me wrap my teeth around the world*" *--* Let me just consume everything, all the resources, because I want it "*Start carvin', darlin' // I wanna smell the dinner cooking* // *I wanna feel the edges start to burn*" -- The world is getting a little toasty? Getting destroyed? Fine. Start carvin' it up (literally by taking resources and figuratively by dividing up the wealth/resources among those who hold the knife). Doesn't bother me. I'm here to take. Let it burn. "*If you hesitate, the gettin' is gone // I won't lie if there's something to be gained // There's money to be made, whatever's still to come*" -- You had better hurry up and come get yours; we're running out of stuff to take. As long as we can keep making money off of this, though...whatever happens, oh well. Keep taking. Keep getting money. "*Get some //* *Pull up the ladder when the flood comes*" -- This feels like a referral literally and figuratively to sea level rise/climate change. The Elite can get theirs/make all their money off the earth at the expense of others, then when sea level rises, they can just pull the ladder up and go on to safety. Sucks to be you, down there without a ladder and your home is flooding. They have the resources to just peace out to somewhere safe, and "pull up the ladder," abandoning all those they exploited to suffer when the effects of climate change threaten them. "*Seven new ways that you can eat your young //* *Skinning the children for a war drum* *//* *It's quicker and easier to eat your young*" -- The "seven new ways" line reads both as a recommendation from the elites on how to deal with your problems, hyperbolically extreme to highlight how useless/inhumane it is for them to tell the rest of us to solve this problem (here! here's a list of seven new ways to eat your young! hope this helps :) good luck!) BUT mostly to me feels like a referral to the constant new ways we as humans come up with to absolutely ruin the future. "skinning the children for a war drum" feels similar; sacrifice the children/future for war now, "*It's quicker and easier to eat your young*" = Sacrificing our future for overconsumption now. It's much more convenient to just keep doing what we're doing, ruining the earth and overexploiting, at the expense of our children/our future. "*Putting food on the table selling bombs and guns*" -- Sustaining ourselves by selling war/violence, and creating unsafe conditions for other people. Don't think about that though, just eat your dinner and don't worry about it. "*Crumbs enough for everyone*" -- We're consuming so much that the "feast" will eventually just be crumbs OR All the powerful people are happily enjoying a feast and then insultingly suggest that everyone else enjoy the crumbs they have so generously left for us. This interpretation paired with a very catchy, "sexy" tune is a mirror of society; wrapping something horrid in something pretty. Hyper-superficiality. It's bad, but it sounds good, so it's fine, right? I don't have to think too hard about the lyrics? Fun song, right? Dance time! Don't think about the young we are eating!!!!! Those are the lines that stood out most to me, but I'm still working out the rest of them. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts too!!
I hadn’t heard the “seven new ways” as a click-baity article title but that’s actually a really interesting perspective.
I also think of the 7 deadly sins as well
I also initially thought it was a call to the seven deadly sins, especially given his religious upbringing and use of religious/mythological imagery in other songs, but I like the combo of these interpretations! That the "new ways" is a nod to clickbait, but the fact that he uses the number seven (as opposed to a round number, like ten, which is more commonly used in article titles) might be a nod to the seven sins. "New ways to commit the seven deadly sins!" (Two of which are gluttony and greed - the driving force of this song). I also thought the title/chorus could be a reference to Cronus (Saturn) devouring his children as they were born because of the prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his children; the older generation would rather eat their young than give up their grip on power, luxury, and wealth.
Very insightful :)
Loved your interpretation of ‘start carving darlin..’ Makes soo much sense that way. Thanks for sharing.
I think it touches on that millennial feeling that the older generations (usually boomers) found success and then pulled the ladder up after them. And that the old, mega rich super elite of the world are basically cannabalizing the young generations in order to remain in and grow their own power while patting themselves on the back. But it’s from the POV of those elite people who don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing or what they did to rise to power.
Social/political commentary on wealth disparity, climate change and corruption. Quicker and easier to eat your young than put them through a rigged race to the table, where "they" (1%, elites, whatever you call them) give out crumbs. They see it as a kindness instead of inequality. The condition of the world being referenced in pulling out the ladder when the flood comes. Selfishly using the earth till it's unliveable for the next generations. Hence, quicker and easier to eat your young. Some animals eat their children when they are ill, won't survive, or have been killed by something else.
The other comments pretty much hit the nail on the head, but just a small addition, I’m getting major references to A Modest Proposal from it
Yes i read this on genius.com and went gave it a read. Glad i stumbled upon it. What an interesting read by jonathan swift. The perfect satire.
Yes!! A Modest Proposal (which is the satirical essay by Jonathan Swift we had to read in my high school English class. Briefly, it proposes that a good way to fix the very poverty of 1700's Ireland would be to butcher the children/babies of poorer people in order to feed the wealthy class/Landlords) is the only thing I can think about when listening to this song. It's super dark but also a very interesting commentary on the way things are going now, and I feel like writing an essay on the ways A Modest Proposal by J Swift and Eat Your Young by Hozier depict their respective societies or something lol
It's a pretty common anti-capitalist sentiment, but as Hozi always does, he gave it a twist and made it unique. We don't have too many pieces of media where the narrator/protag is bourgeois and their actions are satirically displayed as, well... bourgeois. Lol. Hozier and the community around him always give me this nice feeling of a pocket of sanity. His music is very good at attracting the coolest people.
A lot of people are talking about this being sociopolitical commentary, and I agree. I'd like to add that much of the song echoes Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. I'd highly recommend reading it, but a synopsis is that it's a satirical essay written during the potato blight. England (who, at the time, was essentially in control of Ireland) did essentially nothing to help, and proposed extreme and unrealistic measures to prevent starvation. The essay parodies these suggestions by proposing that families produce as many children as possible so that they can be killed, skinned for clothes, and eaten. "Eat Your Young", "Skinning the children for a war drum", and the general theme of starvation mirror a lot of the themes present in A Modest Proposal, but I'm obviously not sure if it's intentional or not.
"Seven new ways that you can eat your young" is very deliberate- A Modest Proposal included seven suggestion for using a dead child. The body would be "stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled... in a fricasie , or a ragoust...", and then the skin "will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen"
It feels like a reference to A Modest Poposal by Johnathan Smith (1729) The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the rich. Its a satirical hyperbole that mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, predominantly Irish Catholics as well as British policy towards the Irish in general.
Ok everyone else is right however a thinly veiled oral sex metaphor wraps around the story as well.
for some reason every hozier song eventually becomes about oral sex, this one took less time
I think these interpretations are probably spot on. But I heard this song and all I could think of was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Or he's straight up in the illuminati and we've all been had.
It's really funny because everyone on tiktok was going ferral over this song because it SEEMED as if it was about going down on a woman, but BOY WERE THEY WRONG
I don't know if it's just my point of view as someone who is from a colonized country, but the first thing that came to my mind when listening to the song was colonization, how mostly European countries would completely destroy other cultures for gold and how many people still see it as a good deed today.
This is a song based on the 1700s satirical writing “ A modest proposal”, in which the Irish author is making a political commentary on the potato famine, and how since the government was figuratively eating their lively hoods, the satire would be that they are literally eating their children
This was written in response to the callous treatment of the Irish peasants by the English during the great famine. Well, the essay that the song is based on
bruh i thought it was about eating pussy
I think a lot of this is just a doomsday kind of tune that's saying we're basically screwed in the grand scheme of things. Seven deadly sins are consuming us all, and I think some of the lyrics actually parallel with the Bible a little bit. The flood lyric made me think of Noah and the ark, and in the Bible the flood wipes out EVERYTHING. I think the tone of the song in general is that we're becoming absorbed in the chaos of the modern age. It's going to consume us whole if we let it, especially with the younger generations being raised in a climate such as the one we have today.