Meaning of “Damage Gets Done” by Hozier & Brandi Carlile
“Damage Gets Done”, which was released on 18 August 2023, marks the first official collaboration between Hozier and Brandi Carlile. This track is derived from the former’s third studio album, “Unreal Unearth”, which is a product of Rubyworks Records and Columbia Records.
Brandi is about a decade older than Hozier and accordingly has a discography dating back to the year 2000, while Andrew’s didn’t commence until the early 2010s. So she’s the elder in this equation, with Hozier praising her accordingly.
It has also been pointed out that they did perform together in the past on more than one occasion, including at 2019’s Newport Folk Festival, where the pair laid down Brandi’s track “The Joke” (2017). And she and Hozier appear to have a genuine musical friendship.
CREDITS FOR “DAMAGE GETS DONE”
The only musician who is credited as both a writer and producer of this song is Romanian artist Rappy.
Those acknowledged solely as writers are:
- Tyler Mehlenbacher
- Stuart Johnson
- Daniel Krieger
- Peter Gonzales
- Hozier
And the other producers of “Damage Gets Done” are:
- Sariah Mae
- Marius Feder
- Chakra
- Pete G
- Bēkon
“And darlin’, I haven’t felt it since then
I don’t know how the feelin’ ended
But I know being reckless and young
Is not how the damage gets done”
THE LYRICS
As the Hozier fans in the audience may already know, “Unreal Unearth” was inspired by Dante’s Inferno, aka the Divine Comedy by 13th century writer Dante Alighieri. So some of the songs on the album are meant to be representative of the ‘nine circles of hell’ as presented in that text. According to Hozier, in the case of “Damage Gets Done” that would be “the circle of greed”.
More specifically, the lyrics are meant to represent how youth, i.e. teenagers, are often blamed for society’s woes as a result of that stage of life being one where we tend to be “silly and… reckless”.
What exactly that idea, i.e. blaming teenagers for society’s problems, has to do with the sin of greed isn’t clear. But Hozier has perceived such a connection and explained the background of this song accordingly.
But with that being noted, what we’re actually met with, more simply put, is one of those types of songs in which the vocalists are apparently celebrating the earlier, more carefree stages of their romance. That would be back in the days for instance where they could “sleep on somebody’s floor” yet still “wake up feeling like a millionaire”.
Or as relayed in the second verse, the thesis sentiment of this piece revolves around Hozier and Carlile ‘missing’ the era in their lives when they “did not need much”.
So in a nutshell, it’s as if they’re saying (i.e. in the outro) that the love they shared was enough to see them through, even while concurrently being faced with material lack. But it isn’t such that this is a love song per se, i.e. the vocalists biggin’ up each other. Instead what they are really speaking to, once again, is the liberating power of youth.
Going back to Hozier’s abovenoted explanation, in the chorus he and Brandi do point out that they “know being reckless and young is not how the damage gets done”. The issue though is that if a listener isn’t familiar with Hozier’s backstory, they aren’t likely to figure out that what he and Carlile are referring to in that regard is how teenagers are often unjustly blamed for the world’s ill. In other words, outside that particular line, that concept does not appear to be touched upon anywhere else in this song.
So what “Damage Gets Done” ends up reading like by the time all is said and done is once again one of those tracks where the singer is missing the carefreeness of youth and specifically in a romantic context.
