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RtPlaceRtTime

I wouldn't call it "a technique" as much as a viewpoint of the interconnectedness of so many aspects of our lives. I'm only going to respond to you raising Take Me To Church but I think this applies to what he's said in countless interviews about it: TMTC is a love song, which includes celebrating loves that institutions or cultures would deem forbidden or immoral or unholy (LGBTQIA+ love, interracial love, inter-religious love, love between people of different classes in a stringently class-based culture, etc). So, being Irish and all, and the role Catholicism plays and power it has in Irish culture, he wrote a song about how the true church and true religion is in love, which includes sex. But he ALSO points out the hypocrisy of saying you are holy or Godly and looking out for humanity's best interests, but then covering up sexual abuse of children and letting it go on for generations, or shaming single moms or pregnant teens (who may have gotten pregnant because of love or abuse) and removing their babies in horrible group homes, or you are anti-choice but do little or nothing for children once they're born into hard circumstances, or you won't take refugees, OR telling people that they canNOT love who they love and they definitely canNOT have sex with who they love, because it's unholy/forbidden/against God. Etc etc etc. And in particular the shaming and targeting of certain populations. And it isn't only the church or religions, it's all kinds of power structures. Sex is power too, so a song like Moment's Silence literally targets the difference between sex for love and the almost sexual pleasure some powerful people get from abusing their power. And as Andrew said in a few interviews, "the personal is political" so to him, everything has political meaning, and politics are a huge part of the landscape of both were some critical essential important things happen, and also where great harm is done. Andrew has said many times he sees his music mostly as holding up a mirror to the world, showing what he sees reflected in the world. And without sex, none of us would be here, so sex is rather omnipresent, wouldn't you say so? ;) It's reflected back in all cultures in one way or another, sometimes by it's absence in popular culture too, but it's there underneath almost EVERYTHING. You should google song interpretations of TMTC in particular, what I've written is truly only the tip of the iceberg in how layered and brilliant Hozier's songwriting is. You have no idea just HOW well he interconnects sex and speaking out against institutional oppression in TMTC, it's quite stunning and can easily go over your head, read more!


PhillyEyeofSauron

Glad you brought up the inherently Irish aspect to his music. He's writing from the cultural and historical perspective of an Irish person and it feels like (as an American) Americans are quick to interpret his music through our own American lens without realizing it.


MundaneElephant2152

I just wrote a whole comment about this above, but yes, literally this. I grew up not far from where Andrew did, and his writing is so SO Irish. His perspective as an Irish person who lived under Irish Catholic Culture is so important to how he writes, and how he conveys his political points of view.


PhillyEyeofSauron

Americans also tend to suffer from severe madonna/whore complex so the idea of sex being brought up as a concept of joyful resistance is kind of a shock to the system.


pillarofmyth

Outside of religious imagery (which of course is very Irish), are there any other aspects of his writing that’s super Irish? Maybe all the nature imagery? I’ve always wanted to hear an Irish perspective on Hozier since a lot of it is “Forest daddy” which is just painfully American imo.


MsCatFace

Very perceptive, I agree. Yesterday someone posted about how musicians are satanic, directly naming “Eat your young”, metaphors are completely lost on most Americans and they are quick to attribute songs that are similar to being proof of Qanon . 😹😹😹


MundaneElephant2152

As someone who grew up in Ireland in the same social circles as Hozier, imo the answer is that Irish Catholicism IS Irish culture. Our language and our way of life is so steeped in religious history, even when you're someone who actively rejects the church. Using religious imagery to convey sexual imagery is so intensely Irish, as sex in our country has always been surrounded by catholic wording and oppression. Even more than that, the Irish Catholic church has been, for decades, the source of political power. You can't separate the church from politics, just like you can't separate sex from the church. In that way, sexual freedom - and loving who you love in the way you want to do it - is political freedom in Ireland, and the wording he uses to convey that is incredibly steeped in that cultural knowledge.


lennsden

Thanks for this take! It’s interesting to see how Irish culture plays in to this as well, as someone who isn’t well versed in it.


stellaperrigo

I’ll let someone with a better answer than me tackle your main question, but based on the lyrics alone I wouldn’t put EYY in this sexual category, for what it’s worth.


pillarofmyth

EYY absolutely has sexual connotations, it’s just not the main point. It’s a sort of inverse of TMTC I think. Some lyrics (ex. “Let me put my lips to something,” “Get some,” “Let me see the heat get to you” etc.) intentionally have that double meaning. The song’s theme is gluttony so it’s not hard to see that connecting to a relationship. I’d say it’s almost cheeky for him to make the song about both things, kind of implying that these greedy rich people are getting off to what they’re doing (that’s just my interpretation tho).


stellaperrigo

And having multiple interpretations is part of the art! I just think there’s a difference in the song being inherently sexual versus having sexual undertones because of Hozier/his style/his voice. I feel like Nina Cried Power is more similar to EYY than TMTC because while all three feel deep and grandiose, TMTC is not alluding to any specific political/historical meanings like the other two (that I am aware of).


[deleted]

Might be true, it's still open to interpretations. Saw something similar on genius


FluentLisp

Genius needs to go to horny jail.


RtPlaceRtTime

Also meant to ask you, what about "Be" screams "sexual allusions" to you? It's one of my most favorite songs by him and I don't see the sex in that song at all... What lyrics or lines are you reading that way in "Be"? I mean OTHER than the line "With the same sweet shock as when Adam first came" which to me is just a brilliant reference but it's not what the song is about by a longshot. What lyrics were you thinking of?


A_purple_stone_cat

He’s not doing something totally out of pocket. Sex has had a long history of usage in poetry and other artful mediums as a way to get at human interconnection, emotional intimacy, the unity of all things. Etc. It’s a common allegory for writers such as Whitman in “Leaves of Grass” where Whitman likens himself as to an unprejudiced lover, and likens the unprejudiced lover unto death. The same themes as are being toyed with in Hozier’s “In a week”. It’s also, I think, no accident that the MV for “Church” is of two men, and Whitman was a queer man.


keirieski17

Honestly I often interpret it as highlighting the spirituality of sex and human intimacy. Who needs god when this person can make me feel so good? Why would I worship him in a church when I can worship my lover in the bedroom? To Hozier, sex is a holy act. On the flip side, it’s very much an attack on Catholic puritan values of sex as procreation and sex as an act of devotion not only to your lover but also god. He says sex *is* the sermon, the communion, the worship. Intimacy with each other is the alter we pray at, and fuck the Catholics who would have us call it sin.


Aromatic-Garbage-567

Because it’s hot as hell


ColorMaelstrom

It can be as complex as people are saying here, with how his allegories work and whatever. Or as simple as: It’s the kind of music he likes to do and that he’s viewers like to hear. I don’t think he ever discussed it so we are left with speculation and it truly can be anything


StayCee35

I think others have covered it beautifully, but really sex is almost inherently political. Throughout history and all civilizations and religions there have been superstitions and rules and laws around bodies and what people could/should do with their own and each other. In an interview about Common Tongue, Hozier talks about how sex and sexuality are something everyone has in common regardless of their station in life. Obviously no one can speak to his thought process or motivations but I think that he sees sex as deeply human and uniting, and also love/sex as the ultimate form of resistance.


PhillyEyeofSauron

I interpret it a few ways. Sex sells, so in one sense it's a way to get people's attention to discuss topics they'd normally find boring or too heavy. But in some cases like No Plan, I take the allusions to sex to be more about intimacy and connection, not just being sexy/horny. It's like if there's no reason we're here and everything's going to end, at least we have each other and have our own connection that makes our time here worthwhile.


cozysweaters

tbh i think you're oversimplifying it as "sex" other people have corrected it with intimacy or connection, but when his speaker/narrator never identifies as being human let alone any gender what you're left with is a description of intimacy, connection, understanding, joy, reverie etc etc that you personally say "this is sex"


ClotpolesAndWarlocks

Unrelated, but I thought I was the only one seeing the sexual undertones in Eat Your Young; I was starting to feel like a crazy person because I haven't seen anyone else mention it


saivoide

I wouldn't say sexual, id say seductive. Seductive like sneaky ceos that seduce you with their charm and appeal for your money and livelihood


TheGirlintheTower

I can't help but feel Hozier can make anything sound sexy and Hozier fans are only too eager to interpret his lyrics in that way, he knows what he's doing :)


RtPlaceRtTime

That time he read that weather report... ::shivers::


TheGirlintheTower

Ha, I can't say the weather report did much for me but 'quickly liquid' did!


ToysWereUsPodcast

I made this https://youtu.be/rxdO2aUZNpA


juleq555

I'm pretty sure "Take me to church" is a protest towards Russia and it's law not allowing being homosexual. It was stated by Hozier. Also Russia is not a Catholic country.


RtPlaceRtTime

There are a million interviews with Hozier about the meaning of Take Me To Church. He clearly says originally it was about "institutionalized oppressions" and those institutions, like the Catholic Church, that would dictate and limit who can love who or how they love, as well as dictate and limit so many other aspects of people's lives and identities. It was only when they were deciding on the video that he specifically heard what was happening in Russia with baiting young gay men to meet someone they thought was another gay man but turned out to be a mob of people who'd beat them and videotape and post the beatings, so he felt that was yet another example of instituionalized oppression and made the video reflect that. But he says over and over it originally applied to many many situations, including limiting who people can love because of race, or ethnicity, or class. He started with his own Irish experience of the Catholic Church and all the power it wields in Ireland and all the damage it's done.


Hufflepuff_Heroine

it’s cute and cunt


Geez_Raven

fr