By Percy Mercer, Full-Time Writing Specialist
November 29, 2022

While Florida’s cold season looks different than anything else in the state, we still celebrate how we can. Pumpkins sit on our front porches, and cinnamon brooms and nutmeg-scented candles decorate the inside of our homes. Some of us celebrate days cooler than 80 degrees with simmer pots, while others sweat it out in their coziest sweaters. Pecan pies are baked, pumpkin spice lattes and chai teas are sipped, and comforting movies play in an endless loop. In all of this, Floridians put in their best effort to manifest a cool, comfortable fall that might parody the rest of the country’s autumnal bliss – so how do we best set the mood for it?

Hozier’s music, of course.

Just as Mariah Carey is the musical patron saint of Christmas, Hozier is the overseer of proper vibes in the Fall. The funky little bog man is the embodiment of earnest, soulful music that lights a flame in your chest to keep you warm through the colder months. Sure, his lyrics might be beautifully morbid in the same way a raven croaks out learned words or crows bring their friends shiny objects, but once the meaning graces your ears, you’ll never be able to stop listening to him. Full of reverence, pining, and passion for the women he loves, Hozier’s discography doesn’t have a single skip.

For now, he’s only got a couple albums out despite going multi-platinum in several countries (six times in his native country of Ireland) for his debut studio album, but the anticipation for new music is half the fun. Here are five of my favorite underrated Hozier songs to listen to when it dips under 80 degrees, and why the lyrics make me lose my mind:

It Will Come Back:

Don’t let me in with no intention to keep me

Jesus Christ, don’t be kind to me

Honey don’t feed me

I will come back

It can’t be unlearned

I’ve known the warmth of your doorways

Through the cold, I’ll find my way back to you

Oh, please, give me mercy no more

That’s a kindness you can’t afford

I warn you baby, each night, as sure as you’re born

You’ll hear me howling outside your door

Oh, to love someone so much your loyalty is compared to a wild animal who’s caught a familiar scent. This tale of mournful warning comes from a place of hurt and heartbreak, meant for those who have been told they’re too much or too intense in relationships. While a potential partner might show interest or offer something that feels like love, Hozier views it as a hammer to a glass window; one act of kindness can spread like spiderweb cracks in his heart and leave him throwing himself headlong into attachment for them. This song is a plea for isolation in the name of avoiding hurt that is sure to come, no matter how desperate he might be to experience kindness; he’s not strong enough to deny love himself. He begs the woman he’s interested in to show restraint.

This piece of soulful music drives me insane. The lyrics are painfully raw, like Hozier is shoving his vulnerable heart in the hands of his listeners and allowing us the choice to be honored or horrified in the act. The music itself is just as aching – wailing guitars and thumping drums mimic a predatory animal on the hunt for prey. It’s also one of the darker songs on his debut studio album, alongside Run and In the Woods Somewhere, each of which he compares himself to a monster yearning for any kind of love willing to be shown to him.

It Will Come Back is beautiful, undeniably meant for grittier days when you’re content to brood and sit in your feelings. It’s cathartic, too. I highly recommend it.

In a Week (feat. Karen Crowley):

We lay here for years or for hours

Your hand in my hand

So still and discreet

So long we become the flowers

We’d feed well the land and worry the sheep

And they’d find us in a week, when the cattle show fear

After the insects have made their claim, after the foxes have known our taste

I’d be home with you, I’d be home with you

In this soft proclamation of devotion, a pair of lovestruck partners find domestic peace in simply sprawling out together in the grass. They’re content to let time pass without concern for the world around them. In this song, death and decay is no match for romantic bliss; both daunting topics bring growth and new life, something these lovers are more than happy to take part in as long as they can be together. Together, they embrace death under the pretense that they’re going home to one another, marvel at the softness of passing with someone they love, and observe the event with tender amusement as through watching it happen through an open window.

What is love if not wishing to spend the rest of your time on earth with someone? Slow and melodic, In a Week feels like the equivalent of a wandering stroll at dawn, when mist still hangs heavy in the air and the rest of the world is still struggling to wake. It’s one of the lesser-streamed songs on his debut studio album, according to Spotify, and it’s the third-longest song. Perhaps that’s because everything about this song takes its time – from its gentle harmonies to its emotional buildup. In the hustle-and-bustle of day-to-day life, slowing down for just a few moments is a nice way to manifest some autumnal comfort.

If it’s hard for you to get your day started, In a Week is great to listen to while brushing your teeth or sipping your coffee, and all the more so if there’s someone you think about when love songs play on the radio.

Jackie and Wilson:

Lord, it’d be great to find a place we could escape sometime

Me and my Isis growing black irises in the sunshine

Every version of me dead and buried in the yard outside

We’d sit back and watch the world go by, happy to lie back and watch it burn and rust

We tried the world, good God it wasn’t for us

She’s gonna save me, call me “baby”

Run her hands through my hair

She’ll know me crazy, soothe me daily, better yet she wouldn’t care

We’ll steal her Lexus, be detectives, ride ‘round picking up clues

We’ll name our children Jackie and Wilson, raise ‘em on rhythm and blues

Ah, the passionate optimism that the right person can bring into your life. Jackie and Wilson tells a tale of self-forgiveness and mutual healing through earnest love. It’s about accepting who you used to be – good, bad, and everything in between – and coming to terms with the realization that growth, while not always linear, is meant to push you forward. Hozier writes of not only accepting this belief, but throwing himself headlong into it right beside his lover. What better way to grow and learn than to do so with someone you love? It’s a bright joy, full of excitement while still being unwilling to bend to those who might see him held back.

I love this song not only for its bluesy rock and happy melody, but also for its ability to play anywhere, anytime. While this whole album radiates “Fall” energy, I’ve been known to play Jackie and Wilson during Christmas and the Fourth of July and everywhere in between. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to dance in the kitchen and drive with the windows down. It sits in your chest the way bubbling laughter might – high and flighty. Sure, it’s got the same tint of sadness to it the same way all of Hozier’s songs do, but the point is that you can choose to focus on the good parts if you want to. It’s a song meant for people who don’t have the easiest time, but still manage to find the good in things as they move through life.

If you want a good pick-me-up song full of gravelly rock and soothing vocals to bob your head to while running errands or studying for class, Jackie and Wilson is meant just for you. Give it a listen!

Talk:

I’d be the voice that urged Orpheus when her body was found

I’d be the choiceless hope in grief that drove him underground

I’d be the dreadful need in the devotee that made him turn around

And I’d be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice

Imagine being loved by me

If Talk could be summarized in a single term, it would be “reverent yearning.” The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is perhaps one of the most romantic tragedies in Greek mythology: A husband and wife madly in love with one another, torn apart by a venomous snake bite that sent Eurydice to the underworld. Orpheus, stricken with grief, traveled to the underworld to beseech the gods to give his wife to him through song. It was the first time the gods were swayed by a mortal and allowed him to have his wife back under one condition: while leading her back to the world of the living, Orpheus was not allowed to turn around. It was a test of faith for them both – Orpheus had to trust Eurydice, and Eurydice had to follow him without question. The pair made it all the way to the entrance of the mortal world before Orpheus turned around with his wife’s name on his lips. The question of ‘why’ he did is accepted, by many, as a poetic question to contemplate.

Hozier takes his chance to contemplate it in Talk, describing the love the pair had as something so beautiful and intense that Orpheus and Eurydice could take whatever they could get – something he shares with them. This song is beautiful in the way that Eurydice is often depicted, ghostly and cold despite the love she so clearly holds. The strumming guitar and bass that introduce the song carry you steadily through it, just as Orpheus leads his wife home. It’s poetry cleverly disguised as one of the best songs you’ll ever listen to. Out of all Hozier’s discography, this one is in my top three.

If you want a song to set the mood as a thunderstorm rolls through or wish to feel yourself like the main character in a dramatic period piece, this song is the one to do it to.

As it Was:

Before the otherness came and I knew its name

The drug, the dark, the light, the shame

Eyes at the heights of my baby

And this hope at the fight of my baby

And the lights were as bright as my baby

But your love was unmoved

And the sights were as stark as my baby

And the cold cut as sharp as my baby

And the nights were as dark as my baby

Half as beautiful, too

Stern, loyal, brilliant: The woman Hozier describes in As it Was is steadfast in her fealty, through trouble and ease alike. Aside from Talk, it’s the shortest song on the album titled Wasteland, Baby!, yet fully packed with adoration for the woman who’s been his anchor. It doesn’t seem to be the coddling type of affection, either; Hozier describes her as “unmoving” and “sharp,” refusing to budge in her love – even when that love might be difficult for him to accept. In return, he praises her as though she is the one who offers him salvation, who brings him hope amidst the “otherness” he’s so steeped in, and who continually guides him home.

In line with the religious descriptions Hozier is known so well for, As it Was almost carries the same dark melody as an old hymn might. Its lyricism, while deeply poetic, is easy to understand. The complexity of the instrumentation for the song is similar, with a simple acoustic guitar and violin accompaniment. This particular song’s lyrics consistently have my mind stuck in a haze – who doesn’t want to be described as twice as beautiful as a dark, starry night?

As it Was is a fantastic song to study or work to, especially for people who get easily distracted by loud or elaborate music. Even if you don’t, you ought to listen to it. You won’t regret it.