The Daily Spin, January 20
Hozier | Hozier
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023. Today is our third Favorite Friday - in which I pull an album from one of my top 100 artists and review it.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: Hozier (2014)
Artist: Hozier
Link:
 This album came out at roughly a perfect time for me - I had just started really getting into music and exploring on my own in 2014 - and though Take Me To Church was everywhere then, it never managed to wear thin on me, becoming one of my favorite songs of the year.
It was only natural that I looked into the rest of Hozier’s catalogue, then, and surprised as I was to find just the one album, what a treasure it was and has been these past nine years. His unabashed willingness to go after heavier subjects plays perfectly to the album, with his Irish brogue and slow-touched folk music nestling these dark tunes perfectly in place.Â
There are, of course, weak points. In A Week doesn’t really hit like I think it should have, and It Will Come Back rarely spurs me to do much but skip it when listening to the album - but when it is good, my god, it is good. Obviously, Take Me To Church - which has notched nearly 2 billion streams since publication in 2013 - is a standout, but it’s never been my favorite from this album.
That honor, rather, goes to Cherry Wine, a hauntingly gorgeous tale of domestic disturbance, lighthearted on the surface, anything but after half a glance more. Work Song, with Byrne’s falsetto overlaid over… well, a workman’s hymn, sets a beautiful scene, one you can imagine playing through in your head a thousand different ways.
Songs like Jackie and Wilson and Someone New veer into the happy - but even then, there’s always a twinge of melancholy at the fringes, a reminder that the two shine in parallel.
Rating: 9.6/10
Best Tracks: Cherry Wine; Work Song; From Eden
Worst Tracks: In A Week