The Gold and The Rust

“First Light”, the sixteenth and final song off of Hozier’s Unreal Unearth album, can be described as little else than life-changing upon first listen. It is hope embodied, joy, and a release of decades of pent-up emotions.

For someone, like myself, still stuck in the thick of it a song where the narrator is finally leaving the Inferno hits. Hard. Depression, anxiety, and trauma of any kind can be an all consuming beast. You can feel like you’re trapped in something that burns your blood while freezing your muscles so you cannot work your way out. He did; the narrator survived his journey and he is never going back again.

Listening to this song feels like the light at the end of the “recovery” tunnel, it’s right there. His vocals are sometimes otherworldly, paired perfectly with swelling instrumentals. Even in the very beginning, the buoyant and confident vocalizations feel like a hug. He can make it, I can make it, so can you. Just because we haven’t seen our First Light yet doesn’t mean the sun hasn’t begun to rise.

Find Hozier on Instagram, Twitter (X) , and Spotify.

3/4/24

written by h. capotoso