Remember once I told you about
How before I heard it from your mouth
My name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound?
And the soul, if that's what you'd call it
Uneasy ally of the body, it felt nameless as a river
Undiscovered underground
[Pre-Chorus]
And the first time that you kissed me
I drank dry the River Lethe
The Liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same
But you spoke some quick new music
That went so far to soothe this soul
As it was and ever shall be, unearth without a name
[Chorus]
Some part of me must have died
The first time that you called me "baby"
And some part of me came alive
The first time that you called me "baby"
[Verse 2]
These days, I think I owe my life
To flowers that were left here by my mother
Ain't that like them, giftin' life to you again
This life lived mostly underground
Unknowin' either sight nor sound
Till reachin' up for sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem
Sensing only now it's dyin'
Drying out, then drowning blindly
Bloomin' forth its every colour
In the moments it has left
To share the space with simple living things
Infinitely suffering, but fighting off like all creation
The absence of itself, anyway
[Chorus]
Some part of me must have died
Each time that you called me "baby"
But some part of me stayed alive
Each time that you called, each time that you called
[Bridge]
Come here
Ooh-la-la, ooh-la-la
Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around
Ooh-la-la, come here, ooh-la-la
Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around
[Verse 3]
The last time it was heard out loud
The perfect genius of our hands and mouths were shocked
To resignation as the arguing declined
When I was young, I used to guess
Are there limits to any emptiness?
When was the last time?
Come here to me, when was the last time?
About
On July 28th, Hozier sent out an autographed letter to a fan previewing the lyrics of the song, revealing it was track 3.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
It felt like a nice place to come out of the heaviness of the previous track. It represents limbo. This cycle of birth and death, of being lifted by an experience and then that experience ending and it feeling like your world collapsing in on you, and then going again. Alex Ryan, my buddy who is also my bass player, sent me this bassline one day and it was really colorful and light and playful to work with. I really enjoyed writing the lyrics, they’re not too structured. It’s almost like talk-singing and I hadn’t really explored that much before this album, so I wanted to try it out.
— Via Apple Music
- 3.First Time
- 4.Francesca
- 8.Who We Are
- 9.Son of Nyx
- 10.All Things End
- 12.Butchered Tongue
- 13.Anything But
- 15.Unknown / Nth
- 16.First Light
