Hozier has never quite managed to get out from under the shadow of his own hit single.

Irish singer-songwriter, full name Andrew Hozier-Byrne, released “Take Me To Church” – an earnest, gospel-inflected blues pop song – at the tail end of 2013. By the following year, after being bolstered by a viral video censuring Russian homophobia, the song was a phenomenon.

The most streamed single of 2014, it has been played on Spotify upwards of a billion times. But it didn’t take long for the now-29-year-old to creep towards over-exposure. The tipping point, you could argue, was when he performed “Take Me to Church” at a Victoria’s Secret show at the end of that year. “That was totally out of my comfort zone,” he told The Independent last year.

But in the dusty fields of Glastonbury five years later, he is back in his comfort zone. His second album, this year’s Wasteland, Baby, hasn’t had anything like the impact of his first – perhaps half a decade was a little too long to wait, in a pop-culture landscape that tends towards amnesia – but it was a step-up in many respects, a mature collection of low-key folk.

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(Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: Festival-goers enjoy the evening light during day one of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2019 in Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury is the largest greenfield festival in the world, and is attended by around 175,000 people. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 A reveller attends the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, on June 26, 2019. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: A festival goer enjoys the evening atmosphere during day one of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2019 in Glastonbury, England. The festival, founded by farmer Michael Eavis in 1970, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. Tickets for the festival sold out in just 36 minutes as it returns following a fallow year. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 A reveller has a beard filled with glitter at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, on June 26, 2019. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 A reveller arrives for Glastonbury Festival at Worthy farm in Somerset, Britain June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls HENRY NICHOLLS REUTERS Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: Festival-goer Jo" is seen as the gates are opened during day one of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2019 in Glastonbury, England. The festival, founded by farmer Michael Eavis in 1970, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. Tickets for the festival sold out in just 36 minutes as it returns following a fallow year. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Leon Neal Getty Images Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 A festival goer poses for phototographs at the start of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. (Photo by Grant Pollard/Invision/AP) Grant Pollard Grant Pollard/Invision/AP Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 Two performers on stilts interact with revellers at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy farm in Somerset, Britain June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls HENRY NICHOLLS REUTERS Best pictures from Glastonbury 2019 Two revellers react in the Park area at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy farm in Somerset, Britain June 26, 2019. 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Those who are only hanging around to hear that song have to be patient. They are first offered some less well-known numbers – the stomping, syncopated “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene”, which translates excellently live, and “Almost (Sweet Music)”, which is spirited and rhythmically ambitious but a little directionless, more a jam session than a song. “I couldn’t utter my love when it counted,” he sings on “Shrike”. “Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now.” He's wrong.

Things take a turn for the political during “Nina Cried Power”: on the screen behind him, which has thus far (rather unwisely, given the intense heat) displayed licking flames, footage of the refugee crisis is interspersed with protests and marches: Pride, civil rights, repeal the 8th. As he runs a hand through his hair, his voice soulful and insistent, he changes the lyrics to reflect the potent set of last night's headliner: “Stormzy cries power”.