Songfacts®:

• "Unknown / Nth" emerges from the depths of Hozier's Unreal Unearth. Crafted amid the tumultuous confines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the album became Hozier's artistic vessel for untangling the madness of those two strange years. Hozier took inspiration from Dante Alighieri's Inferno, which he'd began reading at the time.
  
  The 14th century epic poem is part of a larger work called the Divine Comedy, which consists of three parts: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). Hozier framed the album around Dante's concept of the nine circles of Hell in Inferno.
• In this bone-chilling anthem, Hozier taps into the icy depths of the 9th Circle of Hell, a realm reserved for those who wove a web of treachery. Drawing inspiration from Dante's infernal landscape, Hozier weaves a tale of longing, deceit, and the haunting sensation of being a stranger in love. The heartache cuts deep as Hozier seethes over his love interest's betrayal.
  
  "The song throws away the old premise of angelhood," said Hozier. "None of us are angels. We are all going to break someone else's heart or hurt another person. Musically, there was a minimalist approach. In that cold empty place, something else happened."
• The haunting echoes of "sha-la-la" reverberate through the air, carrying a deceptive sense of joy and freedom. Yet within their charm lies a lack of remorse for the treacherous act committed. These seemingly innocent syllables, often associated with cheery tunes, become a weapon of irony, a stark contrast to Hozier's anguish.
  
  It ain't the being alone
  Sha-la-la
  It ain't the empty home, baby
  Sha-la-la
  You know I'm good on my own
  Sha-la-la
  Sha-la-la, baby, you know, it's more the being unknown
  So much of the livin', love, is the being unknown
  
  The relentless "sha-la-la" punctuates Hozier's points, mocking and interrupting, as if to emphasize the bitter irony of the betrayer's callousness.
• The song title is absent from the lyrics themselves. Hozier said the "Nth" part is "an expression of an unknown but large number." It serves as a reflection of the countless instances in which this very girl has let him down.
  
  "The song reflects on having your heartbroken by someone you trusted," said Hozier. "You think you learned, and it happens again."
• Hozier wrote and produced the song himself. His engineer, Sean Cook, helped with the production.
• "Unknown / Nth" paints a picture of sorrow stemming from Hozier losing someone he once knew intimately. "It's devastating," he told the Independent. "I was channeling that feeling of coming out the far side of such admiration and such worship, and that feeling of being let down and having your expectations dashed."
  
  "We betray ourselves in the act of opening up to somebody and believing so much," Hozier added. "Our eyes betray us, our hearts betray us, our minds betray us. And that's the Nth' reference: we open ourselves up to something, only to betray ourselves."