 Take me to Church   Big-voiced Irish solo artist Andrew Hozier Byrne, better known as Hozier, first created a stir when he posted this track in September 2013. The song reached #1 on the Irish iTunes singles chart and #2 in the official Irish singles chart.  Lyrically the song is one large metaphor comparing a lover to religion.

"Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life."

Speaking with The Irish Times, Hozier said about matters of the heart: "I found the experience of falling in love or being in love was a death, a death of everything. You kind of watch yourself die in a wonderful way, and you experience for the briefest moment – if you see yourself for a moment through their eyes – everything you believed about yourself gone. In a death-and-rebirth sense."  Hozier attracted further attention with the release of the song's Brendan Canty directed music video, which criticizes the repression of gay people in Russia. "Growing up in Ireland, the church is always there – the hypocrisy, the political cowardice," Hozier told Billboard magazine. "The video has the same theme – an organization that undermines humanity."  Written in the wake of a breakup with his first girlfriend, this is both a love song and a contemplation of sin, drawing influence from the late atheist writer Christopher Hitchens. Hozier described it to The Guardian as, "a bit of a losing your religion song."  The line "I was born sick, but I love it. Command me to be well" was inspired by Elizabethan dramatist Fulke Greville's 1554 poem Chorus Sacerdotum, that speaks of mankind being "created sick, commanded to be sound."  Hozier explained the song's meaning to The Cut: "Sexuality, and sexual orientation - regardless of orientation - is just natural," he said. "An act of sex is one of the most human things. But an organization like the church, say, through its doctrine, would undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation - that it is sinful, or that it offends God. The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love."

Hozier added that the song is not an attack on faith. "Coming from Ireland, obviously, there's a bit of a cultural hangover from the influence of the church. You've got a lot of people walking around with a heavy weight in their hearts and a disappointment, and that s--t carries from generation to generation," he explained. "So the song is just about that - it's an assertion of self, reclaiming humanity back for something that is the most natural and worthwhile. Electing, in this case a female, to choose a love who is worth loving."  Hozier generated some heat stateside after performing the song on Saturday Night Live. Though the singer grew up in Ireland, he told Grantland that playing the American television show was "a massive, massive deal" for him. He explained: "My father introduced me to The Blues Brothers when I was very, very young. And Saturday Night Live - that’s where they started. I’m very, very aware of that."  This song was featured in a popular 2014 commercial for Beats wireless headphones. The spot shows NBA superstar LeBron James returning to his hometown of Akron, Ohio and remembering his childhood years. James had recently returned to the local NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he started his pro career. A voiceover says, "don't ever forget where you came from" while this song plays in the background, emphasizing the intractable bond between James and the city.  Ring those bells: This song is the highest-charting tune in the Hot 100's history with the word 'church' in its title. Culture Club's "Church of the Poison Mind," which peaked at #10 in 1983, was the previous best.  This was 2014's most-streamed track globally on Spotify. The song was streamed over 87 million times during the year on the service.  Hozier performed this at the Grammy Awards in 2015, where it was nominated for Song of the Year (Sam Smith won for "Stay With Me"). Toward the end of the song, he was joined by Annie Lennox, who sang with him before going into a rousing rendition of "I Put A Spell On You."  Hozier recorded his vocals in his attic at 3 a.m. one January morning in 2013. "We re-recorded bits around it, " he said, "but I boshed the vocals in for my laptop."  Hozier told the story of the song to Q magazine: "I'd been working on the lyrics for a long time," he said. "I always have ideas for songs for ages. So I sat down at the piano and hammered out something and then found a chorus and those lyrics just fell into place."  The song topped the charts in several countries, including Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. However it fell just short on many tallies, peaking at #2 in Hozier's home country of Ireland, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and US.

ARTISTFACTS FOR HOZIER  Andrew Hozier-Byrne is an Irish singer-songwriter from Bray, County Wicklow. The son of a musician, Hozier was raised on blues music. He told The Cut: "My dad was a blues musician around Dublin when I was a baby, so the only music I would listen to growing up was John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It's music that feels like home to me. Then I discovered Motown and gospel and Delta blues and jazz, so a huge amount of my influences are all African- American music."  Hozier began playing publicly in his mid-teens by performing Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf songs. He recalled toGrantland.com: "I started learning open tunings, so some of the first guitar I was good at was slide guitar, because it's quite intuitive in a way. I used to do it at talent shows and stuff like that, and I suppose in a way it was something that was very much my own, and when you're a teenager, it's nice to have something that is very much your own thing. People didn't know where I was coming from with that, and it certainly wasn't anything my peers were into."  He was a member of the Irish choral group Anúna from 2009 to 2012, and appears as a soloist on their 2012 CD Illuminationsinging "La Chanson de Mardi Gras."  "Take Me To Church's" music video, which criticized the repression of gay people in Russia, generated a lot of heat for Hozier. He recalled to Rolling Stone watching the clip's view count ticking up. "At one point it was getting like 10,000 views an hour or something," he said. "I remember it quite clearly, just going to bed and kind of freaking out."  To celebrate his debut eponymous album's release, Hozier surprised his fans by posting his cell phone number on Twitter and telling them to call him and tell him what they thought of the record. The Irish star wasn't concerned about going public with his number as he was about to change it anyway.  Hozier considers there to be a difference between making music and writing songs. "To me the words are the core, that's where the character and story is," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "I'm fascinated with what a song can be in the eyes of history, a snapshot of an era, almost like a photograph of the times the songwriter lived in. Whether that's songs from the early 20th century mentioning rations and lines for food or Justin Bieber singing 'baby, baby, baby,' you get an insight into the cultural mentality and society's values, hopes and fears."  Hozier's parents had been brought up as Catholics but it wasn't an experience they wanted to pass on to their children. Instead, the singer and his brother were raised as Quakers. "There's a simplicity," he told Q magazine about the denomination. "There is no priests, there is no service – no middle man."

My lover's got humour She's the giggle at a funeral Knows everybody's disapproval I should've worshipped her sooner If the Heavens ever did speak She is the last true mouthpiece Every Sunday's getting more bleak A fresh poison each week 'We were born sick,' you heard them say it My church offers no absolutes She tells me 'worship in the bedroom' The only heaven I'll be sent to Is when I'm alone with you I was born sick, but I love it Command me to be well Amen. Amen. Amen

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

If I'm a pagan of the good times My lover's the sunlight To keep the Goddess on my side She demands a sacrifice To drain the whole sea Get something shiny Something meaty for the main course That's a fine looking high horse What you got in the stable? We've a lot of starving faithful That looks tasty That looks plenty This is hungry work

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

No masters or kings when the ritual begins There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene Only then I am human Only then I am clean Amen. Amen. Amen

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my lifeWriter/s: BYRNE, ANDREW HOZIER Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC