☀️🖤☀️

“NFWMB” serves as the 19th and final track on Hozier’s “Wasteland, Baby! (Special Edition)” album, which was released on March 1st, 2019. This album stands out against the backdrop of Hozier’s previously released self-titled album, as it takes on a much darker and more sensual tone, with tracks like “Movement” and “Why Would You Be Loved.” As it turns out, “NFWMB” wasn’t included in the initial release of “Wasteland baby,” but was instead added as a final track to the special edition along with “Be-acoustic,” “Shrike (live at windmill studios),” “Moments silence (Common Tongue),” and “Why Would you be loved.” The title “NFWMB” stands for “Nothing Fucks With My Baby,” as stated in the chorus of the song. From the title, one might be led to assume that this song is meant to convey a protective character who stands with his lover in the face of danger, but in fact, the opposite is true.

The opening to “NFWMB” sets the stage for a world near the second coming, with the lyrics being delivered to his lover. This can be deduced from his statement that the first time he saw her, the “end was soon.” While such a statement does not inherently suggest that he means the rapture, he next states that “Bethlehem slouched” before it must have “caught a good look” at his lover. The concept of Bethlehem “slouching” is pulled directly from the poem The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats. In this poem, Yeats ends his description of the beginnings of the rapture by asking what “rough beast” may be “slouching towards Bethlehem” now that its time has come. The purpose of Hozier stating that the beast must have caught a good look at his lover is to assert her as a powerful force who draws the attention of even the most horrid monster, and brings the rapture to a standstill.

One may believe there are two possible interpretations of the next verse. The speaker instructs his lover to give her “heart and soul” to charity, but to give the rest of her–the best–as he decides, to him. On one hand, the speaker may be suggesting that the “best” of his lover is not necessarily her heart, which makes her good, or her soul, which gives her a conscience, but the most brutal and guarded parts of her that make her a force to be reckoned with. However, to believe this inference, one must also come to terms with the idea that these parts of her could be harnessed by him alone, as he states that they “belong” to him. Despite that detail, this explanation makes the most sense as the overall tone of the song is one of awe and reverence in spite of her overwhelming strength. On the other hand, it is possible that by the “rest of her,” he is simply referring to her body. That is to say, her heart and soul may be valued in other places, but her beauty and form are his own.

In the next verse, the speaker begins to describe the sensory details of his lover taking on the beasts of the second coming. He first remarks that the sound of the “rolling in the graves” is a gentle sound, which plays on the idiom “rolling in their graves,” a common phrase to mean deceased ancestors turning over in disappointment. My interpretation of this reference is to portray how this story breaks away from the traditional theme of a man being the protector for his lover, but instead sits back to watch as his woman handles herself wholly. The sound is described as gentle in this line because he is using it to portray his veneration for his lover’s capabilities, so much so that the sound of the bodies she has dropped became soothing to him. He next describes it to be like “thunder under earth,” a reverberation which is intimidating, and yet something to marvel at. He goes so far as to ask if the rumble is “exciting” her, meaning he is eager to allow her to indulge in her own ferocity.

The chorus of the song is very straightforward, immediately diving into the irrefutable statement that “nothing fucks with (his) baby,” and that nothing can “get a look in” on his baby. To “get a look in” on something is a common informal UK idiom. It is defined by the Longman Dictionary to mean “to have a chance to take part in or succeed in something.” By using this phrase, the speaker is implying that his lover is so capable in her abilities that her adversaries don’t stand a chance of triumphing over her.

The following verse is one of my personal favorites out of his discography, as it beautifully captures the raw and devotional nature of unconditional love. He first states that if he had been born as a blackthorn tree (a small, spiny tree in the rose family), he would want to be “felled” by her, and be used to “fuel the pyre of (her) enemies.” The blackthorn tree largely symbolizes protection and transformation through hardship. The historical reasoning for this symbolism is attributed mainly to its use as the material for the Irish shillelagh, a walking stick or wooden club that was often used for self-defense. The blackthorn tree also symbolizes strength through hardship due to its incredibly tough wood, which burns slowly but produces large amounts of heat. The lyrical purpose for picking himself to be represented by a blackthorn tree being used to fuel the pyre of his lover’s enemies is to illustrate the lengths that he will go to to revel in the strength of his lover and support her in any way he is able to, even if that means submitting to his own demise.

The final original verse to the song is another series of rhetorical questions directed towards his lover. He begins by asking if the world going up in flames is “warming” her. While this line might come across as judgmental or sarcastic in another context, I believe that in this line, it comes from a place of only truly caring about his lover’s enjoyment, even in the midst of the rapture. He asks another similar question, then goes on to suggest that it is a “waste” that “they’d watch the throwing of the shade.” The word choice here is interesting because it leaves the question of who “they” refers to open to interpretation. The most logical inference is that he is making a jab at those who openly judge his lover for defying the traditional expectations of how a woman should defend herself, if at all. He says, “ain’t it a waste” because he finds it much more gratifying to bask in the overwhelming strength of his lover, instead of spending his time maligning and slandering her to others, as society often does.

The final time the speaker asks “ain’t you my baby?” before the second chorus, he switches to ask “ain’t you my babe?” While this change may have been included just to keep the rhythm, it’s also possible that it was made to illustrate the profound change that occurred in how he views his lover in light of the apocalypse. By making the switch from an endearing and childlike pet name like “baby” to one that is more intimate and mature like “babe,” he is suggesting that he has reassessed her in the context of their relationship, going from viewing her as the meeker and more docile figure to understanding how self-sufficient she truly is.

by W.B. Yeats