You ever feel like you may never get to feel the kind of love that Hozier writes about?
“Francesca” is the latest single from Hozier’s upcoming album Unreal Unearth, and it’s the kind of love song that you want to sing at the top of your lungs. The song takes inspiration from a character that appears in Dante’s Inferno, specifically the first part of the Divine Comedy. Francesca is forced to marry Giovanni Malatesta, it’s a marriage for political gain. While married, she falls in love with Giovanni’s younger brother, Paolo. Though Paolo is also married they continue their affair until Giovanni surprises them on Francesca’s bed and kill them both. Her soul is then damned to Hell where Dante and Virgil meet her and Paolo in the second circle of hell.
Talk about a story worthy of a poetic love song.
For all that was said
Of where we’d end up at the end of it
When the heart would cease
Ours never knew peace
What good would it be on the far side of things?
The song feels like a powerful anthem created as a reminder to fight for love. Hozier’s vocals are gritty and passionate, which helps deliver the desperate essence of the lyrics. The melody change in the outro sounds like a mantra that needs to etch itself in your soul. I fear I may have found the song that’s about to become my entire personality for the next 3-5 weeks.
If there’s one thing that Hozier is going to do is write lyrics that scratch the darkest parts of your heart. Specifically tattoo these lyrics on my chest:
My life was a storm, since I was born
How could I fear any hurricane?
Unreal Unearth comes out on August 18th. Pre-order HERE.
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