Hozier, “Take Me to Church”

Via our Hairpin pals at Neon Gold, here’s a massive, brilliant song by a new Irish singer-songwriter called Hozier. “Take Me to Church” was released in the fall, and is so hook-heavy and powerfully broad, dark and bluesy that it should by rights be all over the place in 2014. The video, directly referencing the growth of anti-LGBT violence in Russia, brings this song’s metaphor (Take me to church, I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies/ I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife/ Offer me that deathless death/ Good god, let me give you my life) into alignment with Frank Ocean’s “Bad Religion,” and it’s beautiful.