| Hozier – Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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When I read the words ‘kin, boyful, abuse and terrible youth’ this sounds to me like a song about family related sexual abuse during childhood. I never heard a song about this theme before written by a man, it must take a lot of courage and Hozier is that kind of courageous artist. I’m not a native English speaker and I just grasp some meaning, but I’m touched by the compassion and understanding in this poem. From the beginning love is included in ‘toying somewhere between love and abuse’. ‘Small death’ might refer to sex and orgasm, but also to the lost childhood or what kids loose during their childhood after abuse. The song also suggests how kids and adults deal with these events and memories, often ‘frozen’ in their bodies and emotions, often ‘surviving’ in a kind of sedated state, losing their ability to give or receive the abundance of life while ‘walking the concrete’. Codeine is a painkiller, an opioid drug, maybe referring both to the abuser and the abused wanting to kill their pain. The rhythm of this song is also a bit sedating, going on and on, and that’s not because Hozier only knows how to count to 8. He makes brilliant beat changes in others songs but in this song he chooses not to. At the same time this rhythm becomes a heartbeat, makes you wanna dance, wanna live. The 'whows' and 'whoes' in the backings towards the end are very comforting and consoling to me, and then finally at the end, you just dance into this word ‘alive’. It often takes a life time for survivors to shake their wings, free themselves from the frozen concrete and become fully living creatures, ‘alive’. And we get this lifework here beautifully condensed in 3.39 minutes, freely shared on the internet. It takes a great poet, a great musician, a great man to do so, and if this is what the song’s about: respect. Even if it isn’t, it’s a great song anyway, makes me wanna dance, makes me wanna live. Thank you. |
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