“Through Me (The Flood)” by Hozier
Hozier’s third studio album, “Unreal Unearth”, is slated to come out during the second half of 2023. In the meantime, on March 17th of this year, he released a three-song EP via Rubyworks Records titled “Eat Your Young”, which is reportedly meant to serve as a teaser of that forthcoming LP.
One of the tracks found on the extended play is “Through Me (The Flood)”.
As with the other tracks on the EP such as “Eat Your Young“, “Unknown / Nth” and “All things End“, Hozier, the sole writer of this piece, described this song as being loosely inspired by particular references in “Dante’s Inferno”, the most-notable portion of the 14th century Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). FYI: Divine Comedy is a classic piece of literature that has been regularly referenced in various forms of popular entertainment throughout the years.
Besides that, the singer also cited another, even older text, Metamorphoses by Ovid – a Roman poet who was around during the days of Jesus – as having an influence on these lyrics.
Meanwhile, this track was produced by another European musician in Jeff Gitelman (aka Gitty), whose most-notable behind-the-scenes’ contributions have actually been to the American R&B/hip-hop community. And to note, Hozier himself is from Ireland.
THE LYRICS OF THROUGH ME (THE FLOOD)
As pointed out before, Hozier’s lyrics tend to be pretty deep – for lack of a better way of putting it. For example, as highlighted above, the wording of this particular track has been influenced by a couple of renowned poets from what may be considered ancient history. And based on what Hozier has said about this track, it appears as if Ovid’s Metamorphoses in particular heavily influenced the lyrics.
Usually, we are able to dig underneath all of the poeticism and figurative lingo to discern what Hozier is getting at. But in this particular case, doing so is proving more challenging.
With artists such as these, the thesis sentiments of their songs tend to be pretty common ones. But the way they go about relaying well-worn ideas is in a way that forces listeners to think instead of being forthrightly introduced to the conclusion.
So most of the lyrics of this piece are not readily understandable. But the parts that are easiest to discern seem to indicate that the primary addressee may be the vocalist’s significant other.
“Anytime I’d struggled on
Against the course out on my own
Every time I’d burn through the world, I’d see
That the world, it burns through me
But when I (I), I’d let go (I’d let go)
My struggling form (My struggling form)
My willing soul (I’d see)
Every time (Each time)
Would flow through the world, I’d see
That the world (The world)
It flows through me (It flows through me)
That the world, it flows through me”
During the first half of the song, or let’s say the pre-chorus in particular, Hozier does seem to express love for the person he is singing to. But as for what he means in the chorus in terms of ‘the world flowing through’ himself, again, that particular expression was inspired by a particularly fantastical part of Metamorphoses.
The second half of “Through Me”, however, is more discernible to some degree. And in that half, it seems as if Hozier is, in part, expressing fear towards the prospect of losing the addressee. So we can soundly conclude by saying that this is akin to a love song.
But what makes it different from the norm, besides for the painfully-metaphorical lyrics, is the fact that a good portion of it, i.e. the chorus itself, is exclusively centered on the vocalist, having nothing to do with the addressee nor apparently his feelings for this person.
And as far as what Hozier is saying about himself, it seems that, in his own special way (as inspired by Ovid), he’s trying to relate to “the world” at large, i.e. adopting one of those types macrocosmic, ultimately impossible-to-actually-explain philosophies like his being encapsulating the entirety of the universe, or what have you.
