One of the most powerful lyricists of our time is often considered by most people to be a one-hit wonder. Even in spaces where he’s known for more than his most popular song, some of his fans seem to have a reductive and misguided perception of what his music is really about. 

As most people were, I was first introduced to Hozier through his 2013 hit debut single, “Take Me to Church.” I am not kidding when I say this song completely changed my life and my worldview, especially as a deeply repressed and sheltered queer tween. And it changed his life, too: a devotional love song laden with religious imagery, the breathtaking ballad lifted the then-23-year-old struggling musician into notoriety. Andrew Hozier-Byrne recorded the song’s demo vocals in his parents’ attic, and those same vocals are the ones that peaked across global charts and earned him critical acclaim. 

The music video for the song was also special: while the lyrics portray a female lover, the black-and-white visuals follow two gay men in a romantic relationship, and the persecution they face from a violent lynch mob. Much like the raw vocals of the song, its accompanying video was reportedly made on a small budget of €1,500, and the storyline was suggested by Hozier himself, who, critical of the Church’s historical institutional harm, wanted to bring attention to the plights faced by LGBTQ+ Russians. “The song is about loving somebody, and the video is about people who would undermine what it is to love somebody. I’d been following what was going on in Russia, where far-Right groups were doing these organised attacks, filming them and putting them on social media,” he told The Standard’s David Smyth, adding, “It’s important to remember that it can happen anywhere. It’s very easy for a society to fall into hatefulness, to scapegoat people, especially when times get tough.”   

Since “Take Me To Church,” Hozier has had three albums: Hozier, his self-titled debut; his 2019 sophomore album Wasteland, Baby!, which builds on the imagery of “the death of all things / that are seen and unseen;” and Unreal Unearth, which was released in 2023 and follows the narrator through trials reminiscent of the Nine Circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. And while “Take Me to Church” is by far his most well-known track (aside from the recent unexpected hit about a dysfunctional couple, “Too Sweet,” widely misunderstood to be a love song), the Irish singer boasts of a collection of layered and outspoken, socially conscious music. While I could wax poetic about his entire discography, it is a disservice to his craft and lyricism not to acknowledge these politically overt songs, some of which I want to highlight below.