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Riley's obsession with Hozier has gone off the deep end.
Let's "talk" about love
Let's "talk" about love
By Riley Barta
By Riley Barta
Hozier is an Irish singer and songwriter who has released three studio albums: Unreal Unearth (2023), Wasteland Baby (2019), and Hozier (2014). The song "Talk" is the ninth track in the Wasteland Baby album. Through the lens of an unreliable narrator, Hozier explores the theme of rationality being lost to love.
The first stanza begins with a story from Greek mythology: “I’d be the voice that urged Orpheus / When her body was found.” This describes the story of Orpheus traveling to the underworld to save his wife, Eurydice. Orpheus was a musician so talented that even animals and trees moved to his songs. He had traveled with the Argonauts, and he was able to outsing sirens. Upon his arrival home, he married Eurydice, who later died prematurely. Orpheus, struck by grief, ventured into the underworld to beg Hades to return his wife. Hades agreed to return Eurydice under the condition that Orpheus could not turn back to look at her as they went back to the world of the living. According to The Georgics- Book IV, a book written by Virgil (a Roman poet) that has the best-known account of the myth, “He halted, and on the very verge of light, unmindful, alas, and vanquished in purpose, on Eurydice, now regained looked back!” As soon as Orpheus looked back, Eurydice vanished. This too is spoken about in the first stanza of Hozier’s song: “I’d be the dreadful need in the devotee/ That made him turn around.” The usage of this myth immediately sets a stage concerning the themes of love and despair.
Greek vase depicting Hercules conquering Cerberus. Shown and displayed by the Perseus Digital Library.
A major theme in Orpheus and Eurydice’s tale is love causing people to be irrational. Orpheus was able to both enter and leave the underworld in the name of love. For context, there have only been three (possibly four) heroes to escape the underworld: Heracles, Theseus, possibly Odysseus and, of course, Orpheus. Most of the heroes had journeyed to the underworld to fulfill a prophecy or show a feat of strength. For example, Heracles went to defeat Cerberus. According to HISTORY, "For his final challenge, Hercules traveled to Hades to kidnap Cerberus." Love made Orpheus complete the same task that previously only a demigod could accomplish. However, the same love that drives him to the impossible causes him to look back at Eurydice just before they can leave. In the first eight lines of “Talk”, Hozier has already set up the main message of the song. Love causes people to act irrationally. In the first stanza, this message is strongly described. This style of songwriting is not unusual for Hozier. He typically sets up a strong message immediately, which then softens throughout the rest of the song.
The second stanza begins with, “I’d be the last shred of truth / in the lost myth of true love.” This leads the way to discovering more about the narrator. Already, the narrator had described itself as a force driving lovers into reckless situations, but the second stanza describes the narrator even further. They relay lyrics of grandeur and power, leading most of the audience to assume that they are some sort of deity. Meanwhile, Hozier has described the narrator as using “lofty notions of true love…and the chorus just admits to, like, them only using this language to distract…” The narrator is unreliable. In one stanza, they act as the driving force behind the ocean (“That’s found in the last witness / Before the wave hits”) and, in the chorus, they want nothing but the audience's attention. They play this back-and-forth game throughout the entire song. This is because the narrator is a personification of love. They are powerful, but they also act like many different beings at once. The personification of love is irrational itself.
The main theme of Hozier’s song “Talk” is that love is irrational. This is proved through his usage of the story between Orpheus and Eurydice and is proven further by the unreliable nature of the narrator. Love makes couples go to the underworld for each other, but it also makes them act recklessly and without patience.
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