Descending into Unreal/Unearth: An Album Review

by Ainsley Dittamore

It begins at the end; Unreal/Unearth starts with an unsettling, ethereal melody that feels like a descent into a dark and gloomy cave filled with echoey guitar, powerful drums, and haunting lyrics.

This tremorous feeling of movement continues throughout the next 15 songs, but as you continue down through the aural journey, Hozier offers up a few bright, exuberant songs that serve as holes in the roof of the cave, pouring sunlight into the darkness of the album.

Unreal/Unearth is a journey from one phase of life to the next, subtly woven with poetic lyrics of love, life, death, and traveling. 

In many ways, this album is darker and more solemn than its siblings. Both of Hozier’s prior albums, Hozier and Wasteland, Baby! are much lighter, and feel less like fire and earth than they do water and air, but they also weren’t written in the throes of the pandemic. 

Lyrically, it is astounding. In a promotional Rolling Stone interview, Hozier explained that the album was inspired by the masterful poem Dante’s Inferno, which chronicles the protagonist's exploration of hell and his interactions with those dwelling in its various levels of atonement.

Unreal/unearth is just that; a journey through hell.  

Hozier’s inspiration from Inferno is clearly heard in the song Francesca, the name of the woman Dante meets in the Circle of Lust in Hell. She is essentially being punished for falling in love, and Hozier’s song is an empathetic view of her situation, portraying Francesca as unrepentant about her choice simply because she does not regret it.  

Additionally, the song Eat Your Young draws from the Circle of Greed, and the cycle of blame that is placed by every older generation onto the youngest. Hozier masterfully creates these parallels, simultaneously drawing from classic literature and his personal experiences to create a universally relatable narrative. 

Though inspired by Dante’s Inferno, the album also has rich references to Greek mythology—allusions to the wax-winged Icarus, the former king of the gods Kronos, the goddess of the night Nyx, and the amnesia-inducing river Lethe of the underworld are just some of the nods to Greek myth found in this album.

There is also a good deal of Gaelic, Hozier’s native tongue, woven in, which adds dimension to the art, giving it new purpose and lyrical depth while keeping Hozier connected to the piece and to himself. 

The awesome thing about Hozier’s lyrics is that they are so poetic, so complex, and yet so specific, that you can ascribe many things to them. The album tailors itself to you.

Going through a breakup? Listen to “First Time” and “I, Carrion”. Lost someone you love? Listen to “Abstract (Psychopomp)”. Mad at the overall state of the world? “Eat Your Young” has got your back. Want to feel connected to the place you once called home? “Butchered Tongue” should be your go-to. 

Sonically, it is harder to appreciate. Hozier’s worst is still better than most others, and some songs I will absolutely have on repeat, but as a whole, it lacks the breathless, energetic vibes of its older siblings. It doesn’t move me as much as they do.

It could be that I’m not in the target audience, which seems to be very self-aware people who are in touch with themselves. It could be that I’m not well versed enough in world history to appreciate the points and references that he makes. It could simply be that some tracks feel out of place and others overproduced. Maybe I’m just not in the right state of mind to appreciate it. 

But, at the end of the album, when I came out of the cave on the other side, I felt peaceful, and had a renewed appreciation for life.

Although the album is not the same as its predecessors, that does not demean it. With the end of the album comes a rebirth for the subject and maybe even the listener. There is a relief, but also weariness (although that could be from listening to all 16 tracks in one go). 

Unreal/Unearth is a complex album that sounds good on the surface, but when you truly listen to it, you will begin to understand the incredible artwork that it is.