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With His No. 1 Smash ‘Too Sweet,’ Hozier Went From Literary-Minded Album Artist to Pop Idol
Hozier's 'Too Sweet' became his first No. 1 pop hit, and first hit single in 10 years. His producer and label team tell how it happened.
And then “Too Sweet” seemed to have been more or less picked off the discards pile, arriving on a March EP (“Unheard”) that collected a handful of songs considered for but not used on Hozier’s 2023 album (“Unreal Unearth”). One TikTok meme focused on “identifying what your two drink choices are — your fun drink and your morning beverage,” taking off from the lyrics, “I think I’ll take my whiskey neat / My coffee black and my bed at three.” Another, Whitney says, had to do with “male thirst traps… handsome but innocent, nerdy-looking guys being seen in a different light than usual.” Although no one would ever accuse Hozier himself of being nerdy-looking, the song does have him playing a more roguish, if not caddish, character that stands apart from the Dante-quoting, high-minded nature of most of his other material. … Hozier is a rock poet, but that process of sampling is forever attached to my production style because even when I’m just writing a song, I can’t help but think about things from that perspective of, what happens if we reverse this, chop it up, screw it or do something to it?”
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