“Be (Acoustic)” is a bonus track on upcoming reissue of ‘Wasteland, Baby!’
Five years to the day since Hozier released his second album, Wasteland, Baby! the impassioned Irishman is reissuing the album with bonus tracks that display new depths to his emotions. On “Be (Acoustic),” Mr. Hozier-Byrne strips away the original’s snaky funk bass and dials back his own tumult for a gentler interpretation of the lyrics, “Be, be as you’ve always been.” It’s a different state of being, one with more hope.
The track is one of five bonus cuts on the fifth-anniversary vinyl edition of Wasteland, Baby!, which will come out as an Amazon exclusive on April 19. LP aficionados can waffle between the “sea blue” and “light blue” color variants of the vinyl as they attempt to match the shade with the aquatic azureness (azuredness?) of the seascape Hozier plunged into for the sleeve art. (And what are those books floating around that he was reading anyway? And why does he need a vanity?)
The other bonus tracks include “Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue)” and “NFWMB,” which both previously came out on the Nina Cried Power EP, an in-studio version of “Shrike” and another acoustic rendition of the album’s “Why Would You Be Loved.” That last track will come out digitally on the day of release since it’s the only other previously unreleased track on the collection.
Rolling Stone gave Wasteland, Baby! a mostly positive review (noting the looming success of “Take Me to Church” over some of the songs) but acknowledging how Hozier has changed since his 2014 debut. “Wasteland, Baby! has enough encouraging displays of maturation to feel like a transitional moment for Hozier,” it said. “At its best, the album carves out a space for the singer to work out his creative tensions as he finds new ways to make his straight folk influences more accessible without losing anything along the way.”
