Wasteland, Baby!

Well, I think it's worth updating that our vacation has improved since everything I wrote last week. We really only added one new ailment or injury: I rented a bike today to go riding and while I put on a good dose of sunscreen, I forgot the one place I seem to always forget - the tops of my hands. I'll survive.

But being away has really limited my music listening and intake. I haven't had a drop of time to sit down and listen to anything new, so instead of passing on the week I'm going to go to an album I've had a while now and am really enjoying. You've probably heard it, or at least heard about it.

Maybe you were even lucky enough to live in New York last month. And maybe you were lucky enough to pass through the Rockefeller Center BDFM station one afternoon. And maybe you were also lucky enough to not have your headphones up so loud you couldn't hear anything else. And still maybe you had your head up and were looking around - you might catch a glimpse of a tall Irishman singing.

Yes, this week I'm talking about Andrew Hozier-Byrne. You know him better as Hozier, and certainly you don't live far enough under rocks to have missed his debut and it's breakthrough hit, "Take Me To Church." It was pretty huge.

Can I pause for a moment and say that I think, in some of his photos, that Hozier looks a bit like a young Steve Coogan? Is it just me? It probably is.

While Steve Coogan is a funny person, Hozier is not. What Hozier is happens to be a damn fine songwriter, steeped in the blues and soul music of generations past. The album features people like Mavis Staples (on the song "Nina Cried Power") and Booker T. Jones (you know his song "Green Onions", and he name drops people like Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, and Billie Holiday. The guy knows his stuff.

About this time I would normally talk about how this is a sophomore release, and how so many of them fail to live up to the debut. I think this album is flatly better than Hozier. There is a level of maturity to Wasetland, Baby! that only comes after working for a few more years on your craft. It only happens after you've played the same songs night after night after night, and in Hozier's case, that you've filed those fingernails a thousand times into the perfect playing shape. I've had this album since early March and I keep going back to it, even though I've bought other things since then. I think if you check it out you will, too.