Experience the nontroversy here…
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[4.29]
Scott Mildenhall: When you call his name it’s like a little prayer, he’s down on his knees, he’s gonna take you there. In the midnight hour he can feel your power, and all four “coaches” have spun their chairs around! He’ll probably go with The Man From The Script.
[5]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Well-enough executed seriousface music, consisting almost entirely of details and atmosphere that it’s a shock when a chorus shows up in all its earnest glory. You might as well prepare for Hozier to softscowl his way into a living room soon, somewhere, everywhere.
[5]
Alfred Soto: His tone reminds me of Julian Cope, his approach of every asshole who confuses worship with fealty. Is that why he’s so damn loud?
[3]
Brad Shoup: So, the bad: his phrasing is hesitant, he’s holding a metaphor garage sale, the track kind of sounds like Fleet Foxes. But there’s a whiff of that Czesław Niemen-style candlelit camp: debased choral vocals and piano serenades. It’s overstuffed and wonderfully silly, and possibly the half-assed endpoint the beautiful/sinful crowd deserves.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: Overly dramatic, but I guess Hozier needs every bit of forced grandeur to try to sell this metaphor.
[4]
Anthony Easton: I like the line about “worshiping like a dog in the shrine of your life” because it reminds me of these great examples of Dutch paintings by Emille de Witte, around the time of their iconoclasm/Protestant renewal, where little dogs would be pissing on the pillars of the church. There are other things about this that reminds me of this — the church choir, the idea of masters and kings, his voice, all that amen work near the end — but I return to the dogs and the church and the pissing. Because the track is earthy, there is no real false equivalence between what happens in church and what happens in heaven. There is no screaming of the Lord’s name, no angels and little room for saints, just a dog and a pillar and an empty church, sort of like Auden: “Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot/Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse/Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.” Except that this is awfully tidy.
[5]
Crystal Leww: The buzz around this song’s music video is much more interesting than the song, and the music video buzz wasn’t that interesting to begin with. The song is just a thick-voiced man comparing love to religion. Nope. Next.
[3]