Almost (Sweet Music)
Hozier
"Almost (Sweet Music)" by Hozier is a sunlit, jazz-soaked love song that doubles as a love letter to music itself. Departing from the swampy gospel-blues of his early work, the track glides on a breezy, finger-snapping groove — warm acoustic guitar, brushed rhythms, and an effortless, almost crooning lilt. Hozier's voice, usually a smoldering instrument, here sounds buoyant and grinning, leaning into the song's playful intimacy. The emotional landscape is contented devotion: the comfort of a love so steady it scores your ordinary mornings. The lyrics are a delightful tapestry of jazz and standards references — nods to Chet Baker, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and "Stormy Weather" woven into the verses — so the beloved and the music become inseparable, each conjuring the other. It's a clever, literate construction that rewards repeat listens as you catch each buried allusion. Appearing on his 2019 album, it shows Hozier's range beyond brooding anthems into something light-footed and joyful. This is morning-coffee and lazy-Sunday music, a track for slow-dancing in a kitchen or for anyone whose memories are filed by the songs attached to them. Its charm is the seamless merging of two romances — for a person and for a record collection — into a single, smiling melody that feels like waking up beside both.
medium
2010s
warm, breezy, intimate
Ireland
Folk, Jazz. Jazz-Folk Pop. Contented, Joyful. Floats on a steady wave of buoyant devotion, merging romantic love and love of music into a single, smiling warmth that never dips. energy 4. medium. danceability 5. valence 9. vocals: buoyant, crooning, warm, grinning, light-footed. production: acoustic guitar, brushed drums, finger-snapping, jazz-inflected, airy. texture: warm, breezy, intimate. acousticness 7. era: 2010s. Ireland. Slow-dancing in a kitchen on a lazy Sunday morning, or savoring the way music and memory weave inseparably together.