MC’s Song Of The Week #16: “In The Woods Somewhere” by Hozier

Hello, I’m MusiCommentator, and for my sixteenth installment of Song Of The Week, I will be talking about Hozier’s “In The Woods Somewhere”.

Hozier released his sophomore album this year, “Wasteland, Baby!”, and with phenomenal singles like “Nina Cried Power” and “Movement”, I was excited for this album.  However, after I listened to this album, I was sad to find out that it was a sophomore slump album, as most of what I liked about him from his self-titled debut was gone and all I was left with was a heap of boring, easy-listening tracks (save for the couple of singles mentioned above).  But, in preparation for this album, I listened to his self-titled debut again, and discovered a newfound love for this underrated bonus track “In The Woods Somewhere”.

The first thing that sticks out in this track is the endlessly dark insturmentals.  The acoustic guitar helps set the backbone for the other instruments to come in, including a chunky electric guitar to add tenseness to the track and the mournful choir that comes in the instrumental breaks.  The entirety of the instrumentals were what first dragged me to this track, but Hozier’s voice and lyrics are also quite amazing.  Hozier switches from head voice to chest voice all throughout this track, which is not something he does often, but he does it quite well here.  The lyrics on this are also very dark, but very artsy and symbolic.  It tells a story of Hozier going into the woods and finding a wounded fox, but right before he’s about to put it out of its misery, he gets chased down by another beast.  Of course, this all is a lot of interpretive symbolism that keeps you coming back to the track again and again, and that is why I made it this week’s Song Of The Week.

Thank you for reading my sixteenth “Song Of The Week”!  If you liked this post, make sure to follow my website, Twitter, and Instagram, like this post, and be sure to check in soon for future content.  Also, if you have something you want to see me review, tell me in the comments.  Until then, keep on listening to good music! I know I will.