#icarian

carrion

finished another piece tonight :) mr hozier-byrne has a way of making me appreciate every lyric ever written. me when icarus mention

Andrew Hozier-Byrne, born in Bray, Ireland, is an indie rock/folk music artist who often draws on themes of Greek mythology, nature, and religion to express complex emotions in his lyrics. The 5th track on his 2023 album “Unreal Unearth” is no exception to this trend. “I, Carrion (Icarian)” by Hozier beautifully depicts the story of a man who believes himself to be soaring over the rest of the world due to the love of a woman, while remaining flawed because of his human attributes.

To begin, the title “I, Carrion (Icarian)” draws the listener's attention to the main motif of the song, that being the mythological story of Icarus. To explain it simply, the story of Icarus tells of a boy who attempted to escape imprisonment by flying away with wings made of feathers and wax. In order to escape fully, the boy had to avoid flying too close to the sun so that the wax wouldn’t melt, while also avoiding flying too low to the sea lest his feathers be weighed down. As the story goes, the boy flew too close to the sun and became a lesson against being prideful or over-ambitious. The word “Icarian,” as one may guess, means “of, relating to, or characteristic of Icarus.” The less apparent word in the title is that of carrion, which alternately means “dead and putrefying flesh,” or “flesh unfit for food.” The dichotomy of these two words is put in place to symbolize the speaker’s feeling of godlike elation and weightlessness despite his unfavorable physical and psychological qualities. The purpose of putting his own description as carrion before Icarian is to detail how his faults will ultimately outweigh his pride.

The first verse of the song allows the listener to imagine the speaker flying through the air, as it is an instruction to the listener to allow him to fall in the case that a heavy gust of wind hits him and throws him off track. The “squall,” as he describes it, symbolizes a conflict or interruption to his sense of tranquility, and by instructing the listener to allow the “ground” (rock bottom) to find its “brutal way” to him reveals his own avolition. After a brief instrumental break, he returns to explain that he feels lighter than he has in a long time, and is “one deep breath” from returning to the air. Oftentimes in writing, a sense of weightlessness is supposed to hint at a burden being lifted from someone, which we can infer is the case from the next few lines. He goes on to ask how, despite “burning”, he could possibly fall when he is lifted by every word his lover speaks to him. That is to say, how his own faults could affect him negatively when his lover is there for him regardless.

In the next two lines, the listener is able to get a better glance at the speaker’s sense of self importance. The speaker states that if anything could fall, it would have to be the world which “falls away from (him).” This is an important moment in the song as it shows the ways in which the speaker finds himself to be above the rest of the world, while it drifts further away the higher he goes, symbolizing his own detachment from his humanity in the light of deep love. Furthermore, in the next verse, the listener is given more insight into the woman that the speaker has been describing. He explains through a series of metaphors that despite her allowing him to feel weightless, she is “heavy as the world that (she) holds (her) hands beneath.” This line is referencing another piece of Greek mythology, specifically that of Atlas. The story of Atlas describes a titan god who was defeated in a war against Zeus and forced to eternally hold the heavens on his shoulders (though, in more common stories, he also carried the sky and the earth, hence the allusion provided in these lyrics). The purpose of describing his lover as having the same weight as the earth she carries is to illustrate the toll that her own burdens, as well as his, take on her.

In addition to Atlas, a common expression is also alluded to when describing his experience with his lover. He states that despite once wondering what his world rested on, he eventually learned that it was her “all the way down.” This is a reference to the phrase “turtles all the way down,” which suggests that in order to believe one foundational explanation, another has to be used (and so on and so forth). This phrasing is used to illuminate the depth at which this woman has not only changed, but has become the foundation for his life. The speaker also states that she may “leave it” because he is “sky-bound,” meaning he has no need for a foundation. This much suggests that the speaker is unaware that the earth which his lover holds for him also provides the atmosphere needed for him to soar at all, and if she were to leave now that he is content, he would cease to fly. However, in the proceeding lines there is a slight tone change. The speaker informs his lover that if needed, she is allowed to “lean (her) weight” to him. This is the first selfless line in the song as he attempts to reciprocate the service his lover has done for him all along. The speaker follows up this offer by informing her that if she were to take it, they would float away (because he is weightless), and he only asks that if they were to fall, she wouldn’t fall away from him. This is a key line in the song because it shows not only the consequences of resting your whole earth on one person, but the attachment that may result, even in the face of death. Essentially, instead of “if I go down, you’re going down with me,” the speaker is lamenting “If I go down, please go down with me.”

Icarian

Aka inspired by Death Grip On Someday by the immensly talanted @intrepidjourneys

"Bradley takes the dismissal for what it is and leaves with the pressure of the ocean still on his chest"

If you haven't ready the fic yet this is your big flashing sign to do so. It's one of those that is so painful and so good and bit me so hard that I had no choice but to draw it.

Close up of Bradley's face, what the flight actually looks like (vs what it feels like), lineart, sketches, and a bonus variation under the cut

“I do not have wings, love, I never will

Soarin' over a world you are carryin'

If these heights should bring my fall

Let me be your own

Icarian carrion.”

The World Fell Away (Icarus)