Review: Hozier Deepens His Folk-Soul Sound on ‘Wasteland, Baby!’

The Irish singer-songwriter gets political and collaborates with Mavis Staples on his first album in five years

In 2013, Hozier broke through with “Take Me To Church,” a somber folk song that became an unlikely Top 40 smash, catapulting the twentysomething Irish singer-songwriter into momentary pop stardom. But after releasing his debut album in 2014, he’s waited five years before putting out a follow up.

Turns out, that was a wise move. Wasteland, Baby! is relatively free of the too-high expectations that tend to plague young artist’s anticipated second albums. In addition to the soul-searching title track, songs like “Nina Cried Power and “Shrike” show new depth. The former, an ode to musical truth-telling with a fitting appearance from Mavis Staples is a welcome pop-protest left-turn that finds Hozier conjuring the power of his record collection as a means of symbolic resistance. The latter, a Celtic-lilted torch-song, features his sharpest lyricism to date: “I couldn’t utter my love when it counted,” he sings, “Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now.”