Oh, To Be Loved Like a Hozier Song

By Leah 

Edited by Harith Syafiee

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always associated romantic moments in my life with a Hozier song. There’s just something so ethereal about the way that he sings and describes his love. The way that Hozier’s voice hugs the words that he sings, embracing them and putting these words in a romantic light. Hozier could take a boring old office chair and somehow metaphorically change it into something beautiful. One of my absolute favourite songs is called “Work Song,” from his namesake album. 

The moment my first boyfriend confessed that he liked me, “Work Song” played in my head as I looked back at that moment. There I was, naive as any lovestruck 17-year-old would be, sitting in my bedroom at 8 pm talking to my (soon-to-be) boyfriend on FaceTime (Covid sucked). And as I sit at the same exact desk, I write about the song that played at that moment in time :)

And then again when my university crush and I had our first conversation, I could hear the song as I walked back to my dorm room. As I reminisce about our discussions on life, university, and our backstories, I think about his soft smile and shy laugh, and I remember Hozier’s words. I think about his desire to be around me and the instrumental plays on.

“Work Song” is a love song. It encapsulates the strength of one’s attraction for their lover in almost destructive ways. Destructive in the way that a person is able to love without the fear of dying or that it would somehow break two lovers’ bond. 

In a way, I relate it to how in Islam we believe that death is not the end. Death is merely the beginning of forever. My favourite saying is “fid Dunya wal Akhirah.” In this world and the next. This can be seen in the line “No grave can hold my body down, I’ll crawl home to her.” Wow. What a line. Imagine that? To be so committed to somebody to the point where your love is promised, even in death. 

Hozier describes his lover as the only type of sweetness he could ever desire, as seen in the line “I’d never want once from the cherry tree, 'cause my baby’s sweet as can be.” Hozier would also bring back the theme of the sweetness of the cherry tree in his song “Cherry Wine” (from the same album), in which he states that “the blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.” Safe to say Hozier really likes cherries.

So, it can be said that “Work Song” is a declaration of Hozier’s love. In the mere three minutes and forty-nine seconds, Hozier has managed to describe his lover in a beautiful and unfiltered way. Oh, to be loved like a Hozier song, eh?