Today, Hozier releases his long-awaited sophomore album, Wasteland, Baby!. The 14-track LP is the proper follow-up to the Irish singer-songwriter’s self-titled 2014 debut album. Hozier co-produced the album alongside Markus Dravs and Rob Kirwan. It includes “Shrike” and the Mavis Staples-assisted “Nina Cried Power” from his September 2018 Nina Cried Power EP, as well as the previously released single, “Movement.”
“I think musically it’s a logical step forward from previous records,” Hozier said in an interview with NPR. The influences are all still there—the influence I had growing up—blues music and soul music, etc."
Hozier added that the album is thematically influenced by the political climate over the past few years. “I hope it’s taken with a bit of a pinch of salt,” he said. “There is definitely a kind of wry smile to the work, but it takes place with a great shadow hanging over, I suppose the end of the world kind of hanging over the album a little bit… There’s even optimism in that, and a lot of the work is very hopeful and very warm, but it still takes place in a very desperate place.”
