Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Irish star Hozier’s global hit Take Me To Church has been announced as 2014’s most streamed track of the year. This morning Spotify announced the song as their global number 1 most shared song on the service in 2014, and the biggest song in the world at this moment. It follows confirmation that Take Me To Church had already topped their global chart (with over 87 million streams to date), and further cements the young Wicklow musician as the first tangible example of a breakthrough streaming superstar. The track currently sits at 1 on the Shazam worldwide chart. At the turn of this year, the video to Take Me To Church had quickly gone viral, and now sits with over 40 million views on YouTube. It caps a hugely successful, breakthrough year for Andrew Hozier-Byrne, having picked up his first Grammy nomination this month for Song of the Year, and debuting his critically acclaimed eponymous album at number 2 in the US Billboard chart (the second biggest debut album of th...

We have just watched Hozier on BBC 2's Later with Jools Holland . His debut, eponymous album was released on 6th October 2014 through Rubyworks/Island Records. It was preceded by a new single, Take Me To Church Live Dates Wednesday 12th November – Manchester, Ritz Sunday 16th November – Glasgow, O2 ABC Saturday 31st January – London, Shepherd’s Bush Tracklisting : Take Me To Church/Angel Of Small Death And The Codeine Scene/Jackie And Wilson/Someone New/To Be Alone/From Eden/In A Week (Feat. Karen Cowley)/Sedated/work Song/Like Real People Do/It Will Come Back/Foreigner’s God/Cherry Wine http://hozier.com/ Find Tickets  Hozier (Deluxe Version) - Hozier available on iTunes Click here for more information about Hozier and the Album 

Hozier releases his debut, eponymous album on 6th October 2014 through Rubyworks/Island Records. It is preceded by a new single, Take Me To Church, on the 15th September 2014. It is only when you stumble across a songwriter whose lyrics both sound and read like poetry that you realise just what you are missing out on the rest of the time. When those lyrics are set to music that balances burning indignation with lilting tenderness, and delivered in a voice imbued with the spiritual passion and yearning of gospel and the blues, you figure you’ve chanced upon something pretty special. And so it is with Andrew Hozier-Byrne, a County Wicklow singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who goes by the name of Hozier, and whose way with words is a blessing (for us) as much as his susceptibility to romance, and romantic dreaming, sounds like a curse (for him). The vividness of his imagery speaks of a soul in thrall to, and beset by, intense and sometimes ungovernable emotions. Well, Ame...