Never feel too good in crowds
With folks around
When they're playing
The anthems of rape culture loud
Crude and proud
Creatures baying
All I've ever done is hide
From our times
When you're near me
Honey, when you kill the lights
And kiss my eyes
I feel like a person for a moment of my life

But you don't know what hell you put me through
To have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you
To feel your weight in arms I'd never use
It's the god that heroin prays to

It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
Oh to be alone with you

There are questions I can't ask
Now at last
The worst is over
See the way you hold yourself
Reel against
Your body's borders
I know that you hate this place
Not a trace
Of me would argue
Honey, we should run away
Oh someday
Our baby and her momma
And the damaged love she make

But I don't know what else that I would give
Than try to kiss the skin that crawls from you
Then feel your weight in arms I'd never use
It's the god that heroin prays to

It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
Oh to be alone with you

It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
It feels good, girl, it feels good
Oh to be alone with you


Lyrics submitted by basser, edited by randy11242, teaspill

To Be Alone Lyrics as written by Andrew Hozier Byrne Junior Kimbrough

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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To Be Alone song meanings
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9 Comments

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  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I don't think it has a damn thing to do with rape OR drugs. haven't you seen "Trainspotting"? at the very beginning, Ewan McGregor is talking about the PLEASURE of heroin, and how there's NOTHING else on Earth like it, better than the best sex ever by like a millionfold.

    Hozier begs to differ. "it's the god that heroin prays to" is a statement that being with his lover is so fulfilling and consuming that the PLEASURE of THAT is something to which even fucking heroin can't hold a candle.

    the references to "rape culture" and "crowds" and "hate this place" and etc are all an expression of deep dissatisfaction with a spiritually bankrupt society. "I feel like a person for a moment of my life" because we're all reduced to automatons and cogs in the machine, and when he's with his girl, instead, he feels HUMAN. so, this one is about pretty much exactly the same thing as "Take Me to Church" -- the redemptive power of erotic love -- but TMtC is an indictment of religion, and this is an indictment of materialism.

    "kiss the skin that crawls from you" is about peeling away the layers of masks and habits and identity markers to reveal one's true self, one's soul, to someone trusted, and the "questions I can't ask" are all the little confidences between intimates that are meaningless if not given freely.

    arizona103on August 09, 2015   Link

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