‘July’ by Hozier - Lyrics & Meaning

Aptly teased during the month that inspired it, ‘July’ arrived a few weeks later on August 16th as part of Hozier's Unaired EP alongside ‘Nobody's Soldier’ and ‘That You Are’.

Penned during the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘July’ finds Hozier personifying the month, and gazing longingly at the prospect of being able to freely go outside again and enjoy the summer. In an interview ahead of the song's release, the Irish singer-songwriter revealed ‘July’ was written as the sibling to his Allison Russell collaboration, ‘Wildflower and Barley’, which was released on his previous EP, Unheard.

Following on from the stormy, dystopian angst of ‘Nobody's Solider’, ‘July’ carries an almost jarringly airy, light ambience. It opens with a twinkling, playful piano and staccato strings, before the sashaying bass enters the fray alongside Hozier's atmospheric vocals. Particularly during the introduction, the delicacy of the composition conjures up images of elegant, gentile summer gardens in bloom in Ireland.

“Winter wore me out like I was Prada

Threw up on me when the night was through

You can keep a dream in your mind

Only to find it's the hope that was killing you”

Hozier begins by underlining how stressed and jaded he is by winter, before personifying the comparative joy and serenity of the summer. He looks optimistically ahead at the the impending contentment that will come in July 2020, the month the Irish government assured the public the COVID-19 restrictions would be lifted (although this was ultimately pushed back). Hozier hints that his fantasy about being able to leave his house and make the most of the summer may not be realised in July, by suggesting that “it's the hope that was killing you”.

“But you arrived like sunlight in the gloom

And burned off the haze when the year was still new”

Hozier addresses ‘July’ as though it is a lover, describing the month as bringing with it a newfound sense of optimism and light in the midst of the misery and grogginess of winter.

He mentions how this hope came “when the year was still new”, referencing the fact that the promise of the lifted restrictions was being made ahead of the summer. The Irish government started pinpointing July as the key month as early as May.

“Keeping me going how you show up

Like July, July

And July is still coming

It's made real by the things that you do

July, July

And July is still coming

Just knowing that's getting me through”

Hozier again emphasises that it's the idealised hope and promise of July that is keeping him going, rather than the reality. He croons that “it's made real by the things that you do”, underlining how this future freedom is alleviating his present-day misery.

“And you can go to work, until your disaster, babe

Build your temple to sound and stone

Put in all of that time, only to find

By the end that your god has flown”

Hozier touches on the unhealthy relationship with work that is sometimes promoted in the Western world, with the ‘Too Sweet’ hitmaker portraying how employees put in hours constructing their temple to the false gods of “work” or “their career”.

During COVID-19, a lot of businesses were forced to closed their doors and numerous people lost their jobs, highlighting how fragile and uncaring these ‘temples’ that dictated so much of their lives truly were. Hozier viscerally describes that, after all their hard work, many eventually found, “By the end that your god has flown”.

“Or all alone he sank like a stone

Took root where he fell and started to grow”

Here, Hozier seemingly implies that, although these career disruptions were devastating at first, it gave some people the opportunity to rest and recuperate.

He evocatively describes how, despite falling despondently to the floor, this then became ‘fertile’ ground for new ideas and a refresh, as they used the time off to blossom. This links with ‘July’s sister-song, ‘Wildflower and Barley’ with Allison Russell.

In an interview during Lollapalooza, Hozier delved into the inspiration behind the song, “‘July’ is something I wrote years and years ago...it feels like another lifetime ago, it was during the pandemic, so a lot of the work on the record, there's some stuff that was sort of like nodding to this sense of isolation, this sense of awayness...”

He went on to highlight, “July is a song about looking forward to July, which was the time when the Irish government said the lockdown period would end. So July was always this promised month. It didn't happen. At the time, I just thought it's nice to credit the times we're living in, and I'm going to write this song about this thing, this perpetual looking forward to something...It was a sister song of another song I recorded with a dear friend, Allison Russell, ’Wildflower and Barley’, which is again about...watching summer happen from the inside of your house”.

“Winter wore me out like I was Prada

Threw up on me when the night was through

You can keep a dream in your mind

Only to find it's the hope that was killing you

-

But you arrived like sunlight in the gloom

And burned off the haze when the year was still new

-

Keeping me going how you show up

Like July, July

And July is still coming

It's made real by the things that you do

July, July

And July is still coming

Just knowing that's getting me through

-

And you can go to work, until your disaster, babe

Build your temple to sound and stone

Put in all of that time, only to find

By the end that your god has flown

-

Or all alone he sank like a stone

Took root where he fell and started to grow

-

Blooming beyond us like the promise of July, July

And July is still coming

It's made real by the things that you do

And July, July

And July is still coming

Just knowing that's getting me through

July, July

And July is still coming

It's made real by the things that you do

And July, July

And July is still coming

Just knowing that's getting me through

-

July, July

And July is still coming

It's made real by the things you do

And July, July

And July is still coming

Just knowing that's getting me through”

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