The Want to Ascend in a Nostalgic, Magical Way.
Music that makes you feel like you're floating will always be my favorite.
Hozier is an artist I recently started listening to. His most famous song, “Take Me to Church,” sits in my liked songs, sometimes playing on shuffle. I’d never heard of “What Would I” from his second album Wasteland, Baby! until last winter on TikTok.
Fandoms often collide on TikTok. In this case, it was Lord of the Rings and Hozier. A series of fan edits of Aragorn started by user @myelessar featuring this song and Aragorn. (Elessar is Aragorn’s name in Quenya, the native language of the High Elves).
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“Hozier is so lotr,” one user comments. “This sound bite just gives me butterflies and puts me in my feels in the best way,” another adds.
I’m unsure if the audio went mainstream, but I loved every video on my FYP. Since then, I’ve listened to that song on repeat. The added audio of Aragorn’s dialogue plays in my head as if that were the original. The song gives me warm fuzzy feelings. It combines the fantastical and nostalgia of Lord of the Rings and Hozier’s talent. It transports me to another dimension.
His latest, Unreal Unearth, takes us through the nine circles of hell. “I ascended at least thirty times during the listen.” “All things end made me levitate,” one user comments under this fan-made video:
Wanting to experience out-of-body experiences is human. Music helps. There are tons of TikTok videos and Spotify playlists about “ascending.” “Songs literally make me ascend into outer space” or simply “floating” is one of my favorites.
Hozier captured this want-to-feel from another world in “First Light,” a hopeful ballad. After trudging through all nine circles, we’ve made it to the other side. His vocals with the chorus are closer to a religious experience than agnostic. “God I feel like I’m floating I have chills,” one person comments.
“First Light” is on repeat for me. It will never replace “Ribs” by Lorde as my top “ascension” song. Yet, It’s hard for me to categorize songs. What makes you feel bigger than your body is deep and personal.
Songs from a book or movie franchise often fit the bill for me. “Sticks and Stones” by Jónsi of How to Train Your Dragon and the rest of the soundtrack by John Powell are marvelous. “Test Drive” is often considered iconic by the fandom.
“The melody just makes it feel like I’m flying through the air just by listening to this piece. Absolute magic of a track.” “star wars, harry potter and lotr all have great music but somehow we can all agree that this is the best film music ever,” are some of the comments. I won’t digress into this subject because it’s worthy of a separate essay.
Reflecting on what makes us feel magical and nostalgic is grounding. These abstract feelings reveal how we live on Earth. Is the grass always greener? I guess we have music to keep us accompanied.