Someone New

It's about loving people in an individual but abstract sense. It's not about sex ("don't take this the wrong way") or infidelity -- the speaker is clearly happily involved with someone already. That's half of why one only falls in love a little bit with strangers, there is no desire for physical or even deep emotional intimacy. This song is talking about that moment you get interfacing with people who are genuinely different from you, where they say or do something that just points out how different they are from you. Different values and priorities, different virtues and vices. Those differences, those perfections of things you yourself Aren't, and you yourself Don't Value are what's producing love. It's an affection, a pleasant reeling, from the surprises in how different people are from each other. The depth and diversity of the race making one fall in love, just a little bit, over and over with each individual. It also references the standard human trait of seeing the ill in people, blaming people for their vices and failings, in an attempt to distract ourselves from the difficulties of life. But it says that if we didn't do that, if we looked instead for what's good in people, we'd be better off. We should be falling in love, not condemning people for not being our personal ideals of perfection. That's all.

This song reminds me of myself! I'm muslim and being homosexual is wrong in my religion. But I always find myself falling for a girl(I'm a girl too). And by now I've had crushes on so many girls. So "there is no right way" makes sense, cause I feel I'm doing a wrong thing by loving the same gender and if I want to be with a girl there isn't a right way.

hope you understood what I meant cause my english is terrible.

Great song and singer btw :)

I think its written from an artists point of view. They take inspiration from strangers. "Only blue or black days Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose" The blue or black days represent sadness and death/mourning respectively, and the artist sees the tragedies that others face and use them as inspiration for a song or work of art. He falls in love with a snippet of a strangers life, and uses that love to create. "Would things be easier If there was a right way, honey there is no right way" This verse is the artist explaining his inspiration, taken from the misery and tragedy of others, by saying that there is no right way to be inspired.

In my opinion, its either about someone who finds solace in strangers, so he or she experiments with strangers. Or maybe its by someone who has been left hanging by their love and hence, he or she is afraid of any kind of attachment. So to fulfill the void they just resort to one night stands or stuff like that.

Judging by the video, and combined with what I was guessing of the lyrics before I saw the video: I think its talking about someone who was in love with a person but it had to end (for whatever reason), and now to get over them they try to date new people just a little bit every day to get over them. In the video she seems to be mixing between hooking up with strangers, and imagining she is part of other happy couples/friends who are being intimate publicly, before finally getting back home to her apartment where she has memories of doing similar things with her ex (but it keeps cutting back to reality where he is long gone)- hence finally explaining why she was either hooking up or imagining hooking up with so many strangers earlier in the day/video.

I don't think this song is about literally loving somone new. I actually think this song is about his experience being in a relationship with someone and coming to fall in love with every part of that person. In the line, "Go take this the wrong way/You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you" he's saying ironically that he means the song as as a compliment about how fun it is falling in love with the person and expresses that with every step closer to each other they came to know each other better. But then once they knew each other their relationship was "Only blue or black days" connoting the skies and saying some days were blue-skied and happy but others were troubled black days with storm clouds, using the word "only" to specify there were no times the relationship was neutral or passionless. Then he reveals the way he views the lover as a different person with each personality trait in the line "electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose" He understands that there are different ways to fall in love and that this is a strange and difficult way to do it but he says "honey there ain't no right way" to make it clear he's happy to fall in love this way and to feel satisfied. Because with each "someone new" he falls in love with daily, he is discovering a new trait of the lover that he is happy to accept and love too. This person becomes the "distractions" of life that lift the "weight" of "scraping through" life. He then points out that for some people, one love isn't enough and they imagine the "dark caress of someone else" but that because his lover is so varied, he doesn't need to seek the "thrill" of being with someone else. Then later he says he wakes "at the first cringe of morning" and his "heart's already sinned" because he thinks of his love the moment he wakes up. Also, the love "beneath" the surface of his "heart" is so pure and sweet he's afraid of the harm to come if his heart breaks, addressing the audience by saying "you would pray for him" to be able to keep loving and stay happy. Finally, "love with every stranger, the stranger the better" is an expression of how he's excited to know and love every new and crazy detail about this person's life. And he's metaphorically loving every "stranger" he meets by coming to know and love this person. Therefore, I believe it's not a song about cheating or sleeping around but about the excitement and joy of a new relationship.

I've always connected with this song in the sense that it reminds me of how it can feel to be single and still not entirely comfortable with love. So you briefly fall in love with strangers you see or people you meet - for small moments you share with them/looks/quirks/actions to cope with the loss of love in your life.

To me, its about a person who is fresh out of a relationship that (obviously) didn't end well; 'Don't take this the wrong way, You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you'

The line - 'Only blue or black days - could either be about having a hard time and everything is a bit sad/dark, OR, based on some of Hozier's other songs which reference abuse, maybe the person has just got out of an abusive relationship and is or was black and blue from being bruised by physical abuse.

'Would things be easier if there was a right way? Honey, there is no right way.' - remember when I was fresh out of a tough relationship thinking to myself kinda desperately 'i wish someone could tell me what to do to get over this and move on' so that is what I connect with that lyric.

'And so I fall in love just a little, oh a little bit every day with someone new' - its a safe way of reconnecting with the idea of love again, passing a stranger and imagining a future together. Or thinking about an aspect of a friend/acquaintance that you like and creating a little mini fantasy of living with them or being in love and having romantic moments and feelings of connection that you desire and/or miss. You get a mini crush on someone because of the story you've made up in your head, and you feel a mini burst of love in a perfect, pain free, emotionally fulfilling setup.

'There's an art to life's distractions, To somehow escape the burning weight, the art of scraping through' - escapism, the art of daydreaming.

'Some like to imagine, The dark caress of someone else, I guess any thrill will do' - maybe sexually fantasising about someone, or possibly the person is witnessing another person who is in a relationship but is clearly checking other people out or flirting with other people. If its that, maybe witnessing this reaffirms to the person why they are single and why they choose to just stick to fantasising about people and just loving people's little actions and quirks. (Also potential implication that the person has been cheated on and maybe thats why they are single. The 'i guess any thrill will do' could be interpreted as judging/bitter/feelings of contempt at people who cheat)

'I wake at the first cringe of morning, And my heart's already sinned.' - maybe the person wakes up and their first thought is of their ex partner, as often happens when freshly heartbroken. 'How pure, how sweet a love, Aretha, that you would pray for him.' - reference to Aretha Franklin's 'I Say A Little Prayer' song which also begins stating that her lover is the first person she wakes up and thinks about and that she thinks about her lover all day and that she'll love them forever. 'How pure, how sweet' could be interpreted as wanting that kind of love themselves and idolising Aretha's dedication to her lover, OR it could be a little sarcastic/bitter as you can sometimes feel after a breakup, which is how I interpret it. 'my hearts already sinned' like they've betrayed themselves for waking up and not being able to help immediately thinking of their ex.

And so again, repetition of 'I fall in love just a little, oh a little bit every day with someone new' so the person continues to fantasise about love to cope with their heartbreak and continue on.

I'm kind of confused about what this song is saying. It sounds very happy-going when he sings the chorus "I fall in love everyday with someone new" but when he says "There is no right way." I'm not sure what he means. Also the verses confuse me.

I think in the 2nd verse he is saying life's distractions are good cause they can temporarily stop us from worrying all the time. We all have our own distractions & for him, it's falling in love with a new girl everyday? Maybe hooking up?

In the first verse, it seems like he's saying we see the good in strangers and somehow think everyone else is better off than us. But then that doesn't really connect to the chorus, so I'm just overall confused about the meaning.

This song is so beautiful.

all art is open to interpretation, so here's how i interpreted the song due to my situation:

i love falling in love. i am infatuated by someone new almost every other week. i let myself roll around in lust just to the point of almost falling in love, but then something happens. i see a new individual that ignites a different/strange passion. temptation is something i cannot ignore, i'm weak to it really. i love the opposite sex, to the point where everyone of them are masterpieces i must examine.

i don't go around breaking hearts since i let them know, right from the beginning, that i love falling in love and i'll be leaving soon.