The other day, I was scrolling thru Instagram and I saw a random video of Hozier explaining the meaning behind the hit song Too Sweet. I’m familiar with the song because I’ve heard it around the app. The way he gave a description of the voice in the song was brilliant because I know such a type of person.
That video led me to google the song lyrics and won’t you know, it’s a poem! I don’t know what the Hozier hype is about but I guess this would be why?
This song is far more depressing than it lets on.
In that explanation video, Hozier noted that the song is in the voice of someone who overindulges and hates discipline too much that he is put off by someone who’s got their life too put together — that is his explanation.
What is an overindulger?
An overindulger is a person who has an addictive personality. They have a hard time telling themselves No. They are slaves to their impulses. The lyrics paint a picture of this mindset:
It can’t be said I’m an early bird
It’s ten o’clock before I say a word
Baby, I can never tell
How do you sleep so well?
This is someone who stays up late not out of necessity, but simply because they can. Asking “How do you sleep so well?” implies this person has disordered sleep, likely from not keeping regular hours or going to bed at wildly different times each night. It’s the kind of person who knows their sleep schedule is messed up but does nothing about it.
You keep telling me to live right
To go to bed before the daylight
But then you wake up for the sunrise
You know you don’t gotta pretend, baby, now and then
Here, the other person (presumably a romantic partner) tells them to get their act together and live “right” by going to bed earlier. And the narrator agrees their partner is correct. But the third line critiques the very notion of what it means to “live right” — for the narrator, waking up early doesn’t qualify.
Here, we’re introduced to the central contrast: the responsible partner chasing discipline versus the narrator who shrugs it off with their own ideas about how to truly live.
Don’t you just wanna wake up, dark as a lake?
Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?
If you’re drunk on life, babe, I think it’s great
But while in this world
Waking up “dark as a lake” and “smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze” paints a picture of the narrator’s philosophy — waking up after a night of reckless indulgence, likely involving alcohol or drugs. There’s a sense that the narrator knows this behavior is wrong but can’t stop themselves from craving and chasing that “drunk on life” feeling.
The third line, however, reaffirms that the other person’s virtues are better. But in the end…
I think I’ll take my whiskey neat
My coffee black and my bed at three
You’re too sweet for me
You’re too sweet for me
…he still prefers his neat whiskey, black coffee, and staying up til 3 — vices undiluted. This is someone drawn to intense, “pure” experiences right down to the bone. It suggests an addictive personality constantly chasing the next high, whether from substances or just a general attitude towards life without restraint. It is coming from someone who is so thoroughly convinced of his own failure that he doesn’t even bother to try anymore.
This isn’t about disliking their partner, but about recognizing their own inability to make the choice to be with them. It’s like saying “You will find out and you will not stay anyway because you will never understand it. I no longer believe in what you believe in. I don’t see myself living the life you have. In my world, happiness is chasing the next shiny thing and honestly I hope you understand the appeal of it but I don’t think you should even attempt to.”
The way he sang it is even sadder. He doesn’t crawl into a corner and slink away in the shame. The tone is simply not sad. The narrator actually thinks he’s fine. He’s like a dude who is hit in the head with something from the air but tries to smile it off and acts like it didn’t hurt that bad. This dude is able to rationalize his situation and he thinks that makes it alright.
I aim low, I aim true and the ground’s where I go
I work late where I’m free from the phone
And the job gets done
But you worry some, I know
“I aim low” — because that way, I won’t be disappointed. I know the effort won’t amount to anything, anyway. I work “when I’m free from the phone”, signifying that to him, his responsibilities are only secondary to his pleasure.
But who wants to live forever, babe?
You treat your mouth as if it’s Heaven’s gate
The rest of you like you’re the TSA
I wish that I could go along, babe, don’t get me wrong
You know, you’re bright as the morning, as soft as the rain
Pretty as a vine, as sweet as a grape
If you can sit in a barrel, maybe I’ll wait
Until that day
And despite the partner’s concerns, the narrator asks “who wants to live forever?” — certainly not someone who has given up on life. He then proceeds to praise the partner for her qualities. She is an ideal. He places her on a pedestal — the ideal that he knows he cannot have and won’t be his.
She compares her beauty to a grape but the only grape he can have is the one aged in a barrel — alcohol, again another tip to the addiction/overindulgence theme.
