Hozier's 'Unknown / Nth' is utterly devastating 💔
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- Comparing your ex to Lucifer himself? Icon behaviour tbh.
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![Hozier - Unknown / Nth (Acoustic) [Live @ the Grammy Museum]](/img/n.gif)
The way he sings "do you know I could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, I still carry for you" is at once so beautiful and painful. It shocks me every time.
I think he says "bend beneath the weight"
@@mab6201 nope, I triple checked. It's break
@@korgaupisc129 oh my word, you're absolutely right. I'll triple check next time too 😂
it moved me to tears when I first heard it 🥺 so painstakingly beautiful
As someone who is now agnostic and grew up very fundamentalist Christian this song makes me think of my breakup with god. The bridge wrecks me every time because I tried so much to go further into the religion in hopes of finding the goodness and then walking so far “just to take the injury of finally knowing” it truly is gut wrenching and takes me back to an incredibly painful time in my life.
Oh my god... I never looked at it that way but now I can't unsee the song like that! Former christian here myself
It makes me think about being in church too it hurts my heart
I took this song very personally and whenever I listen to it I think about a certain someone. The part where he sings “it’s more the being unknown” to me feels like he’s singing about how this woman doesn’t know him the way he wants her to, if at all. It’s like being looked over in a crowd and never being seen by the person you most want to be seen by. It breaks my heart every time I listen to it, but it’s such a beautiful song about love. I loved your interpretation as well.
100% I came to the comments to mention this interpretation if someone else hadn’t. As much as being betrayed can be embarrassing and hurtful…so can the realization that you’ve been on the shallow side when you imagined depth. And someone betraying you as well as never bothering to deeply know you seems a double hurt certainly.
I agree with your interpretation of the idea of "the being unknown". I feel like Hozier is talking about the solitary nature of life. Coming into this life alone and leaving it alone. Having all other people (friends, family, colleagues) only see a part of you. And I think that to many the experience of love is a moment of togetherness, of being known, understood and seen. As in other songs on the EP (but also previous albums) I recognise some patterns of existentialist thoughts, themes of endings, death and, here, unknownness.
Exactly, I was about to comment the same thing. I also find this song freakishly relatable because when I was going through a difficult heartbreak, what hurt the most was the realisation that this person didn't even know me. And to me true love is nothing but truly, honestly, deeply knowing someone and being known by them.
Uhh I felt that
This song has landed as an ode to unrequited love for me. Being so enamored with someone and ultimately realizing that you’re insignificant to the person you would go to the ends of the earth for. That’s a different kind of heartbreak.
I finally found someone who finds this song the way I do. I thought I was alone in this journey, this is validating 😭💖
It's not as bad as a breakup brah
I also understood it like this. The "empty home" could imply that it's a break-up, because the home is suddenly empty... But it could also just be living alone. Which he says is not actually a problem ("You know I'm good on my own"). It's not that he cares about having a family, or fitting social norms, or being "rescued" from loneliness... It's just that the yearning for a connection with this special person is really powerful, and ultimately, what's really painful is to be denied this connection, and not even getting a chance to be "known" to this person.
7:45 i understood this a bit differently, since i’m a person who craves intimacy and connection, i get why it’s not the being alone in an empty home what hurts the most, it’s the being unknown. it’s not having that someone anymore that makes you feel like you’re actually real. with his person being unknown to him, he’s been left alone and feeling unknown himself.
I love/hate the way that I thought this song (when unreleased, the live version) was romantic " you know the distance never made a difference to me..." and when the full lyrics were released it ended up being the most heartbreaking lost-love song I can currently think of and it's just... peak Hozier
He really does love pranking us, huh?
To me the line "Funny how true colors shine in darkness and in secrecy" tries to represent how someone's true color shines in the (pun not intended) unknown, when we don't see them, when they are not trying to show us the best of them, that's when we see who they truly are. I love how hozier's music can be interpreted in so many ways
To me, the inconsistent beat at the end of the is more the speaker's heartbeat. Verse 3 says:
"You called me angel for the first time, my heart leapt from me
You smile now, I can see its pieces still stuck in your teeth.
What's left of it, I listen to it tick, every tedious beat."
Even if the speaker has accepted that this person is not worth knowing at the end of the song and has chosen to leave the relationship, their heart is still broken (or eat up in this context, I guess), and the ending feels to me like sitting with that hurt at the end of all the grief.
I really appreciate your videos. My best friend got me into Hozier, and it's been one of the best additions to my life, so it's awesome to see someone love the music and lyricism like we do
Yes, this is my interpretation as well.
Oh wait I love this so much!!!! Especially how it ties into the prior lyrics. You are so definitely onto something.
I especially like how deliberately slow the beats are. Puts the word "tedious" to work. Makes you feel it.
When I first heard this song I was deeply struck to think that being unknown might actually be much worse than being alone. It made me consider how many people I feel 'known' by. My beloved partner, a close friend, and my sister. I have wonderful children and friends but only these 3 people actually make me feel known through and through, partly because these are relationships that have lasted decades, partly because we are so closely tied together. To lose one of them would obviously be devastating for many reasons, but when I thought about the idea that they might die before me, and leave me unknown - that seemed the most devastating idea of all.
Oh gosh I absolutely feel you Rachel ❤️
i had to click on this notification as soon as i saw it, this song has had me in a CHOKEHOLD and i am very glad that i'm not the only one. the lines "do you know i could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, i still carry for you? that i'd walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowin' you" still manage to deliver a shattering emotional gut punch literally EVERY TIME i listen to that song, both lyrically but also melodically because of the swelling music and hozier's absolutely heavenly voice. up until that point, the song seems almost like "your typical" breakup song (but of course, still on the standard of a beautiful hozier song lol) where the narrator seems sad, yes, but mainly just talks about the betrayal from the other person. then he suddenly hits us with that part and makes us realise that despite the betrayal, despite the heartbreak, he is still saying all of this from a place of LOVE, not hatred or contempt, and the intensity of the song in that moment really shows HOW deep that love goes. he's feeling hurt but he doesn't seem to carry any actually bad feelings towards his lover beyond wanting to rightfully have his pain acknowledged. and even at the end where he says, "there are some people, love, who are better unknown", that's as far as it goes. no ill wishes, no "fuck you for hurting me", just a "i am walking away from this because it's not worth the pain" (btw i love the idea of the beat at the end being footsteps!! i hadn't even thought of that!!) there is an overarching aspect of gentleness and emotional maturity to the narrator's point of view, and i think THAT'S what made this song so extraordinary to me, and so different from other "breakup songs". and honestly, i wouldn't have expected anything less from hozier.
would you believe me if i told you that i came up with half of that on the spot just now? i had the feelings about the song already but i'm usually a LOT worse at putting my thoughts into words! like, you said WE are incredibly intelligent but i really seem to have the best big brain moments exclusively in the comment section of your videos so i don't think i deserve all the credit here :D i think the motivation and inspiration of getting to talk about a beautiful piece of art with someone who cares about it just as deeply as me really does it for me :) thank you as always, for this wonderful video! also i'm so glad you're feeling better!! ALSO i'm seeing hozier live tomorrow and i am INTERNALLY SCREAMING AAAAAA i'll probably get to hear this song and cry :')
Oh my god, you are just the SWEETEST! This is exactly why I do what I do! Thank you so much for such a thoughtful contribution, it was beautiful to read and I couldn't agree more with what you said. Much love ❤️ xxx
8:01 i also feel like these lyrics could be a post-breakup sentiment of how that person you loved can leave you/betray you and leave you alone. it's the narrator saying he's okay on his own, that's not what is hurting - it's the fact that _he_ is now unknown. for whatever reason. whether it's because his lover, the only person who really saw him for who he is and knew him, left - or it could be because that lover never really saw him to begin with, he just thought they did. it's also maybe why he stayed with this person so long, washing out their red flags. he was scared, not of being alone, but just of leaving the relationship and returning to that state of being unknown and unseen. and then the ending line gives a different meaning to "unknown" that points more at a darker version of it, more like finding out someone's true colours and discovering who they really are, and maybe wishing he didn't. ofc this goes hand in hand with the narrator also coming to terms with the fact that his lover (at least the rose-tinted, fantasy angel verson of them) is not known to him any more.
that's my interpretation - i think this is just the connections i made because i've always seen a crucial part of love and loving and being loved is how another person puts in the effort to make you feel seen.
Wow! This is such a detailed interpretation! This is exactly how I feel about the meaning of the song which I wasn't able to properly voice until I read this comment. As someone who has come out of a relationship recently this song really has torn me apart. It's incredible how the lyrics can be interpreted from different perspectives of betrayal and heartbreak.
This song has utterly demolished me. The bridge alone I think I could listen to on loop for hours!!! The line that hit me the hardest was “do you know I could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, I still carry for you” - how even in betrayal, he can’t help but love this person, so much that it could destroy him. I’ve written a very similar line about a very similar situation in my own poetry before, so hearing it in his was wild.
I took the chorus slightly differently to you - I think you’re right, of course, but to me the “being unknown” felt like the NARRATOR’s feeling of being unknown - of having their partner so misinterpret their love and their self and not ever really care for them as they were as a person. That’s the loneliest feeling in the world, to me, to be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t really see you. And I’ve been in that situation - I too am “good on my own,” but when I choose to let someone see me and they refuse to actually look? Heartbreaking.
This song was phenomenal. This album is going to wreck me for ages.
Listening to it more, I definitely see the narrator as feeling unknown too! I think this, like a lot of Hozier's songs, has the ability to flip it's perspective to serve the listener best and that is something so beautiful!
To me the distance, the ocean in the song, describes not just a metaphorical distance but a physical one. It really is the ultimate long distance breakup song. It's so easy to put someone on that pedestal when you don't see them every day, that when the reality hits of them in person it's not always quite what you'd expect. The betrayal is evident in the song, but I hear it differently. It's the pain of knowing that with the relationship over, no one else will know him in that unique long distance way, but also he will never have the chance to know that person in a longer in person context. It's also the acknowledgement that perhaps he's better off not knowing, but what would he have given to have that chance?
I saw someone suggest that the song is Satan pleading with God after being condemned to hell, and the betrayal he felt with his imprisonment.
Now I can’t not think of this whenever I listen to the song 👍
I love just how many ways lyrics can be seen differently to each individual, all are such wondrous ideas
I'm still recovering from a fallout of a friendship that was incredibly important to me. It's been couple years and I'm still grieving for the loss of this relationship, and this song hit me in a ways I wasn't expecting. It's my favourite one from the newly released ones, but I cannot listen to it as often as I would like to, because it's just so utterly devastating. I love how it can apply to all kinds of relationship, not only the romantic ones.
I am in the exact same situation, so you're not alone ❤️
Reading the narrator in the song coming to terms with a betrayal that hurts this much is truly beautiful. When you're leaving a toxic relationship it always feels like you're in a journey of trying to be empathetic to the other person's feelings and actions and then the absolute anger of being hurt. But to me, the most healing part is always the acceptance, the understanding of how complex people and relationships can be, but still choosing yourself. The "being unknown" part I also interpreted as the narrator being afraid of becoming unknown to the other person, like being alone is absolutely fine, but not having them in your life and forgetting about everything you've been through somehow feels even worse. And hey, glad to hear you're feeling better!
I love this analysis, and learning about the lore behind this song!! I also feel like this song has a dual meaning in a way, because I completely agree that it's about betrayal and not knowing who your partner is until it's too late, but I feel like it's also equally about the narrator being unknown in his relationship, too. Like, in the chorus, when he says "it ain't the being alone / it ain't the empty home, baby / you know, it's more the being unknown," I always interpreted that as him talking about himself being alone and being unknown. Like, when he says "you know I'm good on my own, baby," he's saying that the distance doesn't make him feel lonely in his relationship, but feeling that his partner doesn't really know him or care to know him does.
In verse 3, as well, when he says "you called me angel for the first time, my heart leapt from me / you smile now, I can still see its pieces stuck in your teeth / and what's left of it, I listen to it tick / every tedious beat / going unknown as any angel to me," it feels to me that this is about how it feels to fall in love with someone who will say they love you but who you realize later doesn't know you at all. Her "calling [him] angel" becomes sad in retrospect, as he realizes that instead of a romantic declaration, it's a statement of how little she knows him, as he says that "every tedious beat [of his heart] going unknown as any angel to me"-therefore saying that he's no angel, and rather than being called one (which feels more like love-bombing than a true love declaration) he just wants her to love him for who he is. Still, he realizes that he's the only one listening to the beat of his heart, despite the fact that he so readily gave it to her.
I think this is a betrayal in itself, for the woman he is singing about to claim that she loves him and yet not try to truly know him. This could be just me and my own experiences reading into the song, but I do feel like it speaks to a special kind of loneliness and heartbreak that comes with being loved and not known.
Also, I feel like the inconsistent beat at the end of the song could be a sort of irregular heartbeat, symbolizing the beating of a broken or destroyed heart!
(Sorry I just wrote an essay in your comments haha)
Never apologise, essays are very welcome here haha! And that is such a fantastic point about how calling him an angel shows a total lack of knowing who he actually is. Thank you!
When he explained the /nth part of the title being like the “-insert number of times” you can be betrayed or find out you don’t know someone , it’s like the “n” placeholder is also an “unknown” number. To me that made me visualize an echo as in a sound repeated an unknown amount of times and that even one betrayal of someone you trusted can echo and taunt on for a long time and bleed into other relationships. I also think the resonance of his voice in this song feels like an echo. Just beautiful layers!
I cried when I listened to the song for the first time. Hozier is a masterclass in songwriting and your in-depth analysis only solidifies that.
So glad you're better now. Take care
stunning, as always, Honor. I think the 'nth' part of the title is so heartbreaking, since 'n' is a mathematical variable used to refer both to a particular term in a sequence, but n also being the collection of all natural numbers, and since natural numbers are infinite, 'nth' implying something uncountable. It kind of adds to the idea that this particular betrayal has been so monumentally saddening for the narrator, so it is a particular event in itself. But the act of being betrayed, small betrayals, big betrayals, betrayals by lovers and friends and family, is so frequent and cyclical that this is simply the nth time that this is happening. And it will happen again. This reminds me of what you said in the video about willful ignorance, and the washing away of scarlet flags being an almost innate human tendency.
I also think unknown could imply the un-knowing of someone? Perhaps the narrator is heartbroken that he didn't know this lover for who they were, but also because they didn't know them either. And as the two of them now drift away from each other, they engage in a process of trying to forget and move on, of trying to render each other un-known. And finally, maybe the last line is also self-directed. If the narrator is repeatedly betrayed, maybe he thinks he is better unknown, that if people ever get to know him and see him when he is honest and vulnerable, they will betray him. And he's accepted that.
Thanks again for all your thoughts
Oh my god I love this!! I totally agree with everything you've said. Such great ideas, THANK YOU!
I feel that love at its core is knowing somebody, caring enough about a person that you want to know everything there is to them. Knowing their thoughts and feelings and fears and desires. So when there is a break, you begin to lose that knowledge of one another, as you grow apart into different people. "I'm good on my own...it's more the being unknown" hit me particularly hard: I feel like I've always enjoyed my own company, I'm an introspective person, but following a breakup it's so hard to suddenly have nobody to share my thoughts with. I feel like a bit of a ghost, in that there isn't a person who knows me so deeply anymore.
I feel you 100%! ❤️
This song hit like swallowing a ton of bricks…always love hearing your thoughts 💖
When he says “on either side of my sleep” I feel like that’s what makes it hurt even more…he couldn’t DREAM of it being any better
I find Unknown to be a death of what Hozier tends to sing about. That love for your partner is a devotion beyond religion or your own life, and when that person has broken the promises they made has led you to feel abandoned by own own personal god in some sense. But the sad fact will be is that they are also flawed humans as well with their own breakages which you cannot repair, even if you no longer feel alive like you use to. The poem which hozier once read called On Love describes this feeling all too well.
This was the first song to make me cry in a very long time. I first interpreted it as how it feels like no two people will ever truly know everything about one another. As individuals we will always be unknown in some way, no matter how close you are to someone else. It is sad to feel that way but it shouldn't stop us from reaching out and trying to be known by others.
Amen!
Ever since I stumbled onto this channel, every time there's been a release, I get STATIC knowing there'll be one GENIUS video analysis from you. And I have to say, this song hits very close to me after being in a long-term and long-distance relationship for five years, where yes, I was trying and looking and doing and undoing everything and anything to be seen while being taken for granted.
Is such a weird feeling to have... Hozier giving us, what I think and believe, is an incredibly raw song about the topic.
It's the loneliness, the coldness, the isolation that you can feel from it. It's a broken piece for a broken heart and, predictable, is the song I avoid the most since it just feels TOO PERSONAL to me.
I firmly believe he did justice to this and, once again, I in awe with the way you look at it and share it with us.
Thank you so much for this.
i find this song so difficult to listen to, even just hearing the lyrics in this video has me crying. hearing this for the first time the feeling of being unknown almost felt like losing someone and know longer knowing them and them no longer knowing you as you are which made this just that slightest bit more heartbreaking for me. You talked about going through the stages of greif with this narrator and i whole heartedly agree. Every part of this song breaks me and i honestly don’t know if i’ll ever be able to listen to it without crying.
I’m just out of a very difficult break up, and this song resonates so deeply to how I am feeling currently. The betrayal, the need for closure, and in the end acceptance that it can not work. Thank so much you for this video, it gave me greater insight into what Hozier was writing about. I also think the part “you were held frozen like an angel to me” is him comparing this lover to the devil trapped in ice at the center of hell.
Ironically, when I first heard this song I thought it was about pure, devoted love or unrequited love. I listened to the song on repeat for hours and just kept breaking down crying in joy during the bridge section. It reminded me of my love and devotion for my partner, despite the hardships we’ve endured together. After hearing Hozier’s explanation of the biblical and emotional implications of the song as he wrote it, it made even more emotional thinking about it. I’m likely off base, but to me, “Unknown” doesn’t feel like a break up song, or about betrayal of one’s lover or partner. Rather, “Unknown” to me speaks of one’s own self-betrayal at not recognizing the pure love they hold for someone and thereby taking it for granted. You leave yourself and your love for your partner truly “unknown” because you betrayed yourself and them by not recognizing the love you have for them, if that makes any sense.
What I love about this (and so many of his songs), is that even though it's about a romantic relationship, it can apply to so many different types of relationships. This song kills me because it reminds me of my relationship with my parents. It breaks my heart every time. "I'm good on my own, it's more the being unknown." I still carry goodness for them, but they will never truly know me because they hate who I ended up being. It sucks. It's so hurtful. This song is gut-wrenching in the best way.
The “I could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love I still carry for you” really struck me. Maybe they’re a bit of a stretch but it reminds me of Sisyphus or Atlas.
It being sisyphean is kinda a nihilistic take IMO. Like this goodness he still has is his punishment (tangential to hell maybe?). And it’s one that he keeps falling back into no matter how close he comes to escaping, either specifically about this one relationship or every toxic relationship he’s been in.
Atlas feels less plausible but if narrator is Atlas then the goodness he carries is his entire world. It’s heavy, almost unbearable (he’s always carried it so first bc the intensity of his love then later the depth of betrayal) but it’s everything, it’s the world to him.
I don’t know enough about either myth to go further, and maybe they would fall apart if I did LOL plus it’s Greek when the overarching themes are more Christian (but meh, Dante made plenty of Greek references 🤷🏽♀️)
Ooo this is so interesting! Thank you, Elizabeth!
I’m glad to hear that you recovered well.💕
I’m from Italy and when students are in secondary school (middle and high school) they must study some classic Italian authors like Dante or Manzoni.
In this song this specific verses “ You called me angel for the first time, my heart leapt from me/ You smile now, I can see its pieces still stuck in your teeth” brought me back to another Dante’s work that it’s called “Vita Nova” or “Nuova” in Italian “New Life” in English.
In the third chapter Dante meets Beatrice for the second time after 9 years. At this point of Beatirce’s life she’s 18 and already married. She smiled at Dante and it was a sort of greeting (at the time it was something not prohibited but very risky for a woman to do). After this episode Dante went home and fell asleep. He dreamt about the God “Love” that is holding Beatrice and Dante’s heart. In a few words “Love” made Beatrice eat Dante’s heart.
This type of narration in the courtly poetry/love (French and Italian) meant that the two of them have a love bond although when she’s eating his heart “Love” is turning around and he’s weeping (that could be linked to the early death of the woman).
I don’t know if this episode of “Vita Nova” could be significant to have a different interpretation of the song or at least of this verse.
I would love to hear what you think about it.
Sorry for my English.
By the way I love all your videos about Hozier.💕
Oh wow this was so interesting to read! THANK YOU for your contribution!! xx
The double edge of the final line gets me. “There are some people, love, who are better unknown.” This idea that sometimes ignorance of betrayal is bliss because you can live in the fantasy of who someone was to you. But also, this idea of feeling unworthy of love. Feeling like, should you show all of who you to someone (good, bad and ugly) you’ll be left unknown and unaccepted so maybe you’re better off. “So much of the livin’, love, is the being unknown” feels like it ties to this idea of people going through life never being loved (known) unconditionally.
This song made me sob the first time I heard it, like Jesus Christ the man never misses. Thanks for being so well spoken and passionate about unknown, I’m geeking out so hard on Dante’s inferno so this is perfect.
He truly never does!
I first heard this song at his concert a month ago, and I didn't have any context for it, but I was struck so deeply by it. I have a habit of just listening and experiencing Hozier's music until I've heard his songs so much that I finally learn all of the lyrics, so I rarely actively seek them out even though I definitely should because of how much literary gold there is there. But due to this, when I heard this song, I related to it in a slightly different manner.
This song felt like the tale of someone who poured themselves out to everyone and anyone who would listen, but ultimately had nobody who truly knew them. Someone who so blatantly expresses themselves, and yet people only have this one perception of them which couldn't be further from the truth. And it's in this disquietude of nobody making an effort to know you where you become accustomed to the loneliness that accompanies it. The problem is not that they are alone, because they're good on their own, they know how to make loneliness morph into something that suits them. The problem is that they will one day die unknown. They will fade away, and the written obituaries couldn't be more inaccurate to who they were as a person. Because nobody made the effort to know them wholly and irrevocably. And these deaths I talk about aren't always literal, they are more akin to losses. The loss of self, primarily. To me, 'Unknown/Nth' represents the thousands way a person can become lost in their own attempts to make themselves known.
I'm so glad I found your channel because your videos feel exactly like my favorite part of college--sitting around a table with a bunch of other imperfect humans, talking about a piece of art and all the meanings we pulled from it and getting to hear everyone's perspectives and theories and opinions, talking into tighter and tighter spirals until it feels like we've at once crystalized a thing into a single shard and exploded it out into infinite tessellations. Also, your dog appears in the corner at :22 seconds and that was pretty great too.
This has got to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever read in my comments. I'm speechless. This has truly warmed my heart. Thank you ❤️
(I'm not religious but my upbringing shows itself here a little).
There is such depth of terror to know the unknown is here. The courage to pour love into the unknown is a power that opens the mind. It is not certain whether the mind will be opened via damaging or healing, pain or pleasure. Since the experience is based in the unknown, one must follow a purified intuition through the experience to understand what the sensations mean, whether the pain is damaging or healing in nature, whether the pleasure is sick or wholesome. God-consciousness guides us through these experiences when He calls us to them, but to be so foolish as to throw yourself into the unknown without regard for the temple of your body for no reason but boredom or discontent, God may not save us from the fate we have chosen.
Hozier wrote this song, I believe, with a similar sentiment to "Wasteland, Baby!" In its essence - to utter the thrilling passion of being enmeshed in a world imbibed with chaotic, rhythmic possibility. The potent heartbreak completely fails to discourage the human spirit, if only because despite it all, we face another day. This is how it feels to love anything with which there is little ease of familiarity, where volatility is threatened. I can relate to this experience of passion because society is further being reformed to numb us to our core, and I fight against it with burning passionate need to love and feel alive, as we all must do if we are not to succumb to meaninglessness.
Thank you for giving me a place to write my thoughts, I hope you are inspired by them, even if only to disagree ♡
I always took it as how hard it is to finally show yourself to someone and think they truly know you. And then when they leave, you’re unknown. That intimacy, those places in yourself you rarely give access to, the person who knew is gone.
“And there are some people love who are better unknown.” I originally always understood it as maybe it would have been better to have never known them to spare yourself the pain. But then recently I started to hear it is as him wishing she never knew HIM. Like he could have stayed in his quiet secret day to day without letting anyone get close. OR-and this one hurts-he feels like HE wasn’t worth knowing.
I realize that there are a lot of connotations of love lost and betrayal in this song, but to me the concept of "being unknown" is even more crushing. It's not the absence of love itself that's the worst part, but that the feeling of being fully seen and understood has been obliterated; that in losing the lover, the speaker's identity has also vanished. That disconnect from the source of understanding and acceptance and goodness (which, of course, is extremely Luciferian, as Lucifer was cast down from heaven and God).
That's the part that gets me, the idea that by not being loved you are living life completely unseen. Or maybe I'm just calling myself out here.🙃😅
Thank you for this! I really enjoyed it. And yess please make a video with all of your pets!!
My first thought when I heard the beat at the end was that it was a heartbeat because of how you can feel your own heart beating during very stressful moments. But I think the footsteps could be a cool transition into the next song, so who knows...
oh, also another thing that i didn't want to cram into my other comment bc it's already half a novel - i think the way that he repeatedly compares his lover to an angel throughout the song is really interesting. because at first it seems like a really positive thing, an angel is something really beautiful and holy, seeing someone as an angel shows a kind of reverence. but then, once you think about it more in the context of the song, you start to realise that while the image of an angel is beautiful, radiant, holy etc. at first glance (also someone who could seemingly do no wrong!), it's really nothing more beyond that. an angel is just a concept, an unmoving, idealised statue of apparent perfection ("in my mind [...] where you were held frozen like an angel to me"), but it's not _real._ the narrator implicitly acknowledges that he held an idealised image of his lover in his mind, and that the real person behind it turned out to be someone completely different.
I have been a fan of Hozier since I was 16 from Uganda. The stumbling beat toward the end is a musical representation of deception/treachery. Such that even the steadiness associated with rhythm is betrayed... My thoughts.
Glad you are feeling better!
Thank you! ❤️
I listened to this song on repeat and wept and wept. It speaks to something that no other song has captured, as something who was fairly recently betrayed in the worst possible ways by the only person I've ever loved and trusted. It managed to capture the truth of deep pain of being truly alone and how there can somehow still be beauty in the memories of the best experiences in your life and the pureness of your feelings despite the ugliness of what they have done. The questionning if any of it was ever real, of that it's even possible to truly be that close to someone might be the hardest part. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
You put that so beautifully! ❤️
One of my go to songs when I need a good cry.
The way I understood this song is that it is about the end of a relationship and how this translates to ceasing to know a person and how this is far worse than being alone. Hozier sings of a love that remains in him and his willingness to carry this love and even compromise for it ("If there were scarlet flags, they washed out in the mind of mе") in order to keep the relationship than be severed from and forgotten by the person who means so much to him.
I jump on these videos so damn fast. 🖤🖤
You support means SO MUCH! Big love xx
First time I heard it I cried and then proceeded to listen to it for an hour whilst crying and screaming it along, not knowing why so much. I was in my own home, there were to people downstairs, but the song kind of came over my and make me release a recent pain. I thank it so much
I think the beat at the end of the song is his heartbeat because of the line he wrote referring to his heart “and what’s left of it, I listen to it tick every tedious beat”
The whole Scarlet Flags segment really struck me. As someone who just got out of an emotionally abusive situation, that habit of trying to believe the best in something even in the midst of such glaring signs resonates deeply
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all of these amazing videos! I'm relatively new to your channel, but I can't stop watching your content. You are absolutely brilliant and I so appreciate that you share your thoughts and analyses! :)
Also, I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but I've been thinking a lot about these lyrics:
"Where a blinding light shone on you every night
And either side of my sleep
Where you were held frozen like an angel to me"
It reminds me of the verse in "Cherry Wine" that goes:
"Her fight and fury's fiery
Oh, but she loves
Like sleep to the freezing"
I believe Hozier said at some point that this verse of "Cherry Wine" is in reference to the concept that sleep is deadly for those in danger of freezing, although the idea of sleep is appealing because it seems a comfort against the torment of being so cold. And, much like the other metaphors in that song, I think it's meant to be representative of the fact that his lover's attention, when given, is so intoxicating, but that their relationship is so volatile and she is often so cruel that she will eventually "kill" him... I just wonder how that may connect to "Unknown / Nth", if at all.
Maybe they're not related, but seeing as these two songs kind of share a theme (they're both songs about betrayal or abuse/neglect in relationships), I thought the parallel in the sleeping/freezing imagery might have something to it. Perhaps I am reading to deeply into this lol
Oh I LOVE this! Thank you!! ❤️
It d always hard for me to understand Hozier's songs as english is not my native language but each time i find something new or read through his lyrics im falling in love with it again. And watching videos like that really helps
For me this song is sung to me from friends and family members I left. The hidden questions why and how they tried. The part that click the most with me is the " there are people, love who are better unknown" that's what I feel about myself that I'm better unknown.
I love one of the lines in this song. One of my favorites of all time now just because it makes me think of someone I used to know. “You called me angel for the first time, my heart leapt from me.” Beautiful
I love your Hozier videos!!!
Excellent analysis
This song is fantastic 👌
His story telling is beyond great!
This song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. And honestly bless your soul for diving into Dante's inferno, because I had no idea how to get started and learn more about it and you explain it so well. Also the footsteps actually make so much sense!
So glad to have you back! ❤❤❤
You did beautiful work. Thank You.
Thank YOU! xx
this song basically sums up my first relationship and it’s so strange to listen to, like looking at a scar and seeing every stage of healing it took to get there-right from the injury itself.
Anyway, I always thought the whole “it’s more the being unknown” was about the healing process and how at a certain point the only thing left to grieve is the individual way this person understood and loved you.
I absolutely love your Hozier videos
Thank you thank you! x
I love how the lyric video matches him saying she was frozen as an angel to him and of course, the iconic comparison to Lucifer lol. It really reflects that but it also reflects his emotional state. When the narrator starts to get angrier, the wind starts blowing like a blizzard over the ice. Then at the end, the snow melts. The frost's changes throughout the video is him going through the stages of grief for the relationship, like you said.
I think the end beat could be interpreted as either his heart still beating in her teeth, that he still is scarred and maimed by this betrayal even if he's come to a more resolved emotional state, or it could be walking away from the situation and the footsteps echoing in the empty house.
Also, I'm glad you're feeling better! And I would absolutely love a video about the pets 😊
Oh I LOVE this!
At first, I thought this song was about Beatrice because of the whole "you were like an angle to me" but then i payed more attention to they lyrics i realized it was about Betrayal, so the ninth circle of hell. The lyrics "Id walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowing you" injured me emotionally.
Okay, so when this first released, i was wondering what "shalala" meant. First result was "commonly used in love songs". I looked at my computer screen perplexed think "no? I Iisten to love songs all the time- wait. 'shalalala me oh my, look at the boy too shy' yep, checks out"
I’ve been waiting for this one
I interpreted the line about true colors shining in darkness being about how its easy to showcase the best parts of yourself when times are good, but its during the hardest and darkest times that you really see the truth of someone's character. And of course, the secrecy aspect you mentioned. The question of who are you really, when no one else is around? Who are you in private, in secret? Because thats your truest self.
Also when it comes to "being unknown". The phrase "to be known is to be loved" always hit really deep for me, so I connected this lyric to it. If he feels unknown to his partner, if they never really knew him, if he never really knew them either, was the love ever real? Realizing it might have been for an illusion rather than the truth of a person is, to me, the hearbreak he's going through.
P.S. I adore your Hozier analyses!! there are so many times that I know something he's said is exquisitely poetic but I don't fully understand the meaning. You connect the dots and bring so much clarity and make me appreciate his art soooo much more ^_^ plus your attention to detail blows me away, and your interpretations really help guide me in figuring out my own interpretations too
I agree so much with how the ending feels like footsteps, specifically in snow imo! It sounds like when you plant your foot so deep in snow that the snow cannot get more conpact than it already is. I believe it will transition us into the 16th song "First Light" very well
Ooo yes!!
thank u for ur insights and for being a fellow hozier stan
So happy I found your channel! Found it a couple of days ago and am now slowly moving my way though your older videos, you are the sweetest and your mind is filled with so much cool stuff! ❤
Oh bless you! Glad to have you here ❤️
For me the final beats remember me heartbeats
I fear that I could drown in this songs and never come out
REAL
I don't know if I know how to put it into words but the song carries this sort of uncertain and frightened feeling with it. Like, the feelings of devastation and betrayal are there and can be felt, but there's this underlying sense of fear that never goes away. I truly wish I had the words for it but the best way I can think to explain it is if you woke up to find that the person you care for the most has become a stranger to you. You have no idea what their intentions are anymore, and everything about them, including whatever they may have felt for you, is a mystery. Its just this sense of unease that comes with no longer knowing where you stand with someone. Its like simultaneously realizing that you can be hurt in a way you never thought possible and that someone close to you could be the one to do it.
Idk almost this fear of heartbreak and paranoia over whose going to be the one to do it.
Oh I absolutely get you! Couldn’t agree more and you explained it perfectly!
I love your videos, listening to you is soo relaxing! I cant wait to listen to the album, all the songs so far released are incredible. As per with Hozier. Good to hear your feeling better🧡🧡💜💜🖤🖤💛💛
Thank you, darl! 🥰
Hey Honor! Glad you're feeling better! Amazing video as always!
The first time I listened to this song I almost had to lie down on the floor cause the bridge hit me so deep. I was devastated by the end of it.
Really looking forward for his album and, of course, your song analysis.
Thank you thank you! ❤️ truly can't wait for this album!
I was waiting for this video! This song felt very grounded and relatable to me and I think it affected me the most emotionally out of all of them so far. I really love the imagery of the pieces of the narrator's heart stuck in her teeth. It reminds me of the album cover design with the mouth in the soil, smiling with bits of dirt stuck in between their teeth. Glad your feeling better and love the video as always!
Haha my mind immediately jumped to Andrew and his love for bogs/earth/dirt/graves 😂 maybe this is a song about love story gone wrong between the guy and the dirt 💔 I wonder what he did though?? 🤔🤔
The way I gasped when I saw this upload. Always love your analyses of his songs! Glad you're feeling better as well.
Thank you! ❤️
I love watching smart people talk, I enjoy your videos a lot 😊. Also super out of topic your eye make up here is hypnotizing!, I'm going to try to recreate it 😜.
Aw thank you so much lovely! ❤️ (And P.S., my trick for the eye makeup is I use the top of an eyelash curler to get the right curve x)
I've been eagerly waiting for this video to come out! YASS HONOR!
At first I admit I didn't like this song as much as Francesca, for example, but with the passing of days I've slowly come to really dig it. This whole album is gonna be utterly devastating (as you said), it's going to break us. When it finally comes out I'll be thrilled to hear your thoughts, as well.
Oh boy, I'm going to have to do so much mental preparation for this album haha!
I've been reading through the comments and haven't seen anyone mention this, though it's possible I just missed it (related sidenote: I'm so happy that your videos are getting a level of engagement that makes it difficult to read all the comments in one sitting ❤):
In the second verse, he talks about true colours shining in darkness and in secrecy, but *if* there were scarlet flags, they were washed out in his mind. That if really stands out to me.
The past tense "I thought you were like an angel to me" implies that he doesn't see her that way anymore. The phrase "funny how true colours shine in darkness and in secrecy" is bitter and jaded, the words of someone who feels betrayed. And yet he still doesn't say for sure that there were red flags, only *if*.
My interpretation isn't that he was willfully ignorant or making excuses for her. I think he looked at her with so much intensity/love/passion (a blinding light) that everything about her genuinely looked like a perfect snapshot of an angel. He couldn't have seen any hint of her true colours because there was no darkness or secrecy for them to shine in.
I think his regret has less to do with what her true colours even are/were, tbh, and more to do with the fact that he blinded himself to them at all. He made himself vulnerable to someone he didn't truly know and got his heart bitten for it but still carries so much goodness for her. I think the broken heart came from a misalignment of expectations rather than an active betrayal.
Another interpretation is that the way he looked at her with so much intensity caused her to hide her true colours. Anyone who feels like they're being held up on a pedestal or under a spotlight will try to put their best face forward and only drop the act once the scrutiny is over. I'm not so sure about this one, though, because the song is written from his perspective and mostly talks about his own interpretation being skewed.
I was originally going to just write this comment about how beautiful I think verse 2 is, but I ended up focusing on those specific interpretations. Tbh there are so many ways to read it and I could keep going 😅
I adore this song so much ❤ I've seen him perform it twice already and can confirm that it's even more devastating live 😭
Also..."Funny how true colours shine in darkness and secrecy. If there were scarlet flags, they washed out in the mind of me" are some of my favourite Hozier lyrics ever ❤ I've also seen someone comment elsewhere that scarlet as a colour has very strong biblical connotations which is very Hozier!
can we never stop talking about his works? also I love the way you talk about his works soooo much 🖤
As long as I am still breathing, the conversation will never stop!
amazing analysis, its so cool to get your perspective of his new music, I dont know if im more excited about his new album, or your analysis of it S2
Yesss I was hoping you'd make a video about this one! I think this one might be my favorite of the unreal unearth songs that've come out so far. The guitar, the vocals, the lyrics; everything is just 🤌
Couldn't agree more, Braden!
Your comment about the beats at the end of the song that's similar to footsteps, exactlyyyyy. I also thought that in the same time as the persona's leaving their beloved, it's also the start of their journey towards ascending, hence, First Light I think.
I'm very glad you're making these analysis videos because sometimes I can't fully comprehend his lyrics especially when I just get carried away by the vibes of a song
Aw well I’m glad to be of assistance!
my lord, this really just hit home more than it ever did before. This somehow has paralleled the last 3 months of my life perfectly. It came to me exactly when I needed it to. He really is incredible. Thank you for this analysis.
Glad to have found this channel! Appreciate your insightful analysis and all of the other comments/interpretations.
I wanted to add some thoughts about "I'd have walked across the floor of any sea". While I agree that this is likely focused on miraculous acts that the speaker would do for their lover, that lyric reminded me of the line in T.S. Eliot's The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas"
I can see parallels between the speaker in Unknown and Prufrock, particularly because T.S. Eliot is making an allusion to Hamlet with that line. In Act 2 Scene 2, Hamlet tells Polonius "if, like a crab, you could go backward", essentially telling Polonius that if he could manipulate time, he would have his youth again. And for Prufrock, that would mean being able to be the bold, confident person he dreams of, rather than the "politic, cautious, and meticulous" person he is. The theme of regret is strong, with that desire to go back in time and, in the case of the speaker in the final chorus of this song , leave their lover unknown.
Although this concept album is focused on Inferno, given his last album was Wasteland, Baby!, I wouldn't be surprised to see some T.S. Elliot influences hidden in the lines. (Plus, Eliot has tons of references to Inferno in his work, including the epitaph to Prufrock, which is spoken by Guido in the 8th circle of Hell).
Thanks for a great video - looking forward to seeing more as new songs drop!
Wow! This was so interesting, thank you so much! I've definitely got to look some more into T.S. Eliot's work. Glad to have you here ❤️
I find myself absentmindedly saying “sha la la” at random times this song is a part of my soul
OMG no because same! 😂
Unrelated of course but I love your eye makeup in this video! It’s really flattering :)
Oh thank you! 🥰
Your’e intelligent beyond belief. Thank you for your insights from Aust. 😊
You're too kind ❤️ thank you x
Ayyyy That’s my birthday toooo~
Also thank you for taking the time to exhume these. ❤️
I adore pouring over his work.
Yayyyy bday twins!! ❤️ thank you for being here x
Not sure if this has already been said, but I think the choice of scarlet instead of red, in addition to sounding more poetic, is a nod to the Scarlet Letter. Adultery, the ultimate betrayal of a lover.
Absolutely love your breakdown of this beautiful song.
Truuuuuuue omg
The "lake of fire" is a common image in christian circles as well, if not explicitly included in Inferno
I just had to go through a really.. I suppose a way to say it is "underwhelming" breakup because this person whom I'd known for many years and had just begun dating within the last year or so decided to ghost me instead of finding resolution to our problem, and finding this video was posted close to the time that we last spoke is haunting to say the least. I have long associated this song with them because of their callous treatment of our relationship, and I think I'm finally ready to let them go and move on. Fantastic commentary of this song, thank you
God this song is SO beautiful and I absolutely adore it!!
I did want to mention something about the production; it almost sounds sort of... eerily empty and large? What with the guitar being the main instrument for the most part, and behind it playing a consistent humming sound. I could be digging at nothing here but to me this sort of portrays a mind, previously warm and riddled with good memories, now uncertain. If none of it was truly honest, the narrator has now been left with nothing to know about their past lover, but at the same time it's just as suffocating as it is bare.
Take my words with the biggest grain of salt you can find, all I am here for is to enjoy Hozier's music and cry my eyes out to his words. I dont think I'll be remotely okay when Unreal Unearth releases in roughly 10 hours for me now 😭
everyone has found comfort in the pain of this brutal track. Its just so heartwrenchingly beautiful. So what i intrepreted the lyrics as was a long distance relationship dynamic where you feel a lot of love and affection towards the other but there is nothing you can do. maybe the other loves you just as much as you do but you will never find out. so right now your just in a place where you think your making all the efforts even if its platonic. from the first line..."you know the distance never made a difference to me" like your still willing to care for the person even when you know your gonna get hurt. you just wish to revel in the moment of happiness and acceptance. the line "do you know I could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, I still carry for you?" literally takes the breath out from my lungs everytime. your just trynna say that im okay being alone with the company of my fake scenarios of us just you just gotta know what i would do to be close. and just how far r you willing to go to take the injury of knowing that person ...only you know the answer of that question.
My birthday is also September 29th!! Happy belated birthday to you! Just wanted to say thank you for your in-depth Unreal Unearth videos. I've had such trouble trying to understand these lyrics and your videos are a great help! ❤
Yay birthday twin! Happy belated birthday to you too!! And you are so welcome, glad to have you here 🥰 xx
I think this is my favorite on the album. Can't wait to see him in September!!💚Thank you for your great content💖
Oh my god, have the best time! I'm still waiting and hoping he'll announce an Australian tour 🤞
the fact that this song is so beautiful and it took me so long to figure out that it was a breakup song, and it actually made it so much more beautiful, made it much more painful.
the way I had this song on loop for two days straight after it came out