Hozier on Finally Making It to No. 1 With ‘Too Sweet’: ‘It’s a Very Sweet Landmark After 10 Years’ (EXCLUSIVE)
04.05.2024 - 01:31
/ variety.com
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The smell of success is… well, you know what it is: too sweet. Hozier has never been about chasing the hit, but he’s got one regardless, as the Irish singer-songwriter’s “Unheard” EP quickly generated the first No. 1 Hot 100 single of his career, in the form of “Too Sweet,” a wry ballad about mismatched lovers.
And no, difficult as it may be to believe, “Take Me to Church” did not hit the very top of the pops 10 years ago, having plateaued at No. 2. So the artist’s easy ascent to Billboard’s pinnacle after a decade of not having a song chart at that ranking at all is still puzzling those who didn’t see this coming… less so those who have been to one of Hozier’s plainly magnificent concerts any time in the last couple of years and experienced the undying devotion.
Whether it’s officially a “Hozier renaissance” or just a natural cresting of steady growth that happened a bit under the media radar, it’s very much a phenomenon. The “Unheard” EP includes four songs that were recorded for, and cut from the track list of, 2023’s “Unreal Unearth” full-length album. That was a concept album focused on representing Dante’s nine circles of hellishness, and if you’re curious which circle “Too Sweet” would have represented, read on.
In another artist’s hands, the song’s somewhat cynical, anti-romantic lyrics might be easily taken at face value, but in Hozier’s, they are definitely meant to be coming from an untrustworthy narrator, or at least one who could stand to clean up his act rather than reject sweetness. He certainly doesn’t miss the irony in the fact that it’s a tune that doesn’t really represent his own point of view that’s broken so big. The singer got on the phone
.
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.