On Feb. 9, up-and-coming artist Noah Kahan released his highly anticipated single “Forever,” along with two new collaborations with Brandi Carlile and George Alan Isakov.
Kahan performed “Forever” multiple times on his latest tour, yet the song was never officially released. The song’s live footage and audio clips went viral on social media, causing fans to persistently tweet, comment and message Kahan when a studio version would be released.
The singer-songwriter finally put fans out of their misery when on Dec. 12, 2023, Kahan simply tweeted, “Hi all forever is recorded.” It wasn’t until Jan. 24, that the musician gave us a release date.
“Excited and kind of sad to announce the final pieces of stick season,” Kahan posted in the official announcement. “Thank you all for living in this world with me. It’s truly been the honor of my career.”
From a sold-out US tour, including venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, to his incredibly raw lyrics, Noah Kahan has exploded in popularity across the music industry. His willingness to be vulnerable, writing and tweeting about depression and therapy, make him extremely relatable to Gen Z audiences.
Since I discovered Kahan’s music, he has grown into one of my all-time favorite artists ever. Sounding like the perfect mix of Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers and Bon Iver, his childhood in New England inspired his folk-pop sound. Kahan grabs inspiration from all aspects of his identity: his early life in rural Vermont, his struggles with mental health and his relatable relationship experiences that apply to anyone.
Fitting perfectly alongside the rest of its “Stick Season” counterparts, “Forever” is a poem describing unconditional love.
“Forever is like a beautiful thing because it means to have forever to spend together,” said Kahan in an interview with Genius. “Time was like my enemy and now it’s a gift.”
In the song’s opening lines, accompanied by his signature acoustic guitar, Kahan sings “Let’s drive for no reason, let’s see where these wheels land/ Let’s grind down the curve of this Earth.”
While love can be expensive diamond rings and boxes of chocolate, love is also the simple things. It’s the small moments like driving endlessly with no direction, just to spend more time with the people you care about.
Later he belts in the chorus, “I won’t be alone for the rest of my life/ I’ll build a boat for when the river gets high.” Through thick and thin, Kahan shares the nature of his newly found connection. Having been bruised in the past, he writes how when life gets rough and the seas are rocky, he’s not running, but working through adversity.
“To me building a boat serves as a metaphor for having a plan for your life,” Kahan explains. “This feeling of having a salvation, knowing that no matter what happens I have this person with me.”
Once again Kahan returns to the theme of material goods, or more specifically, why money and status are insignificant when standing next to love: “That I’m broke, but I’m real rich in my head/ That I broke a bone that never healed in my hand.” Despite our quirks and faults, we are all deserving and worthy of love regardless.
“I’ve struggled with depression my whole life, and you know people think ‘Omg depression that’s so sad’ and it’s like sometimes it’s not sad, it’s funny,” Kahan shares. “Sometimes there’s humor in it. Like a cynical humor that is beautiful.”
Life is hard. There’s heartbreak and loss, death, failure and disappointment. “Forever” preaches the importance of why relationships, romantic or not, are so important in life. We need people to hold our hand and wipe our tear-stained cheeks when things don’t go our way. Whether our grip loosens as time slips through our fingers or our knuckles turn white from clenching our fists too tight, we should never let go of a loving relationship.
