*Trigger warning: addiction, mental illness*

The places we grow up in have the power to affect our lives forever. Noah Kahan’s folk album “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)” describes the bittersweetness of being stuck in your hometown and what can happen when you finally leave it. 

Kahan released his third studio album “Stick Season” on Oct. 14, 2022. Kahan wrote the album during the COVID-19 lockdown while living in his childhood home in Vermont. The album is a tribute to the small Vermont town he grew up in and how it has shaped him into the person he is today. 

The term “stick season” refers to the period of transition between fall and winter in New England when the leaves have fallen but the snow has yet to come. The theme of transition recurs throughout “Stick Season” as Kahan reflects on his struggles with addiction, mental illness and feeling homesick for a town he has lived in all his life. 

Nearly eight 8 months later, the deluxe album “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)” was released on June 9, 2023, featuring seven new songs. “We’ll All Be Here Forever” feels like closure for the original “Stick Season” album. You can tell Kahan no longer has bitterness toward his hometown and the people who could leave it. Instead, Kahan encapsulates how to let go of that resentment and find peace in staying.

“Let’s go back to New England, or the Midwest, or wherever we’re from and romanticize our hometowns.” Kahan tweeted to his fans on the release date of his deluxe album. “Let’s shed our shame and our guilt and our pain and return to ourselves for a little while. Let’s all be here forever.”

In “Your Needs, My Needs,” Kahan describes a relationship in which the other person left him. He describes putting the other person’s needs before his own and accepting that the relationship is over. The bridge is chilling, as he shouts, “Your life, your dreams/Your mind, your needs/My needs.” 

“Dial Drunk” was one of the most anticipated songs from the deluxe, as it gained popularity on TikTok. In the song, Kahan describes being in jail for an alcohol-related incident. He admits his faults, saying, “I ain’t proud of all the punches that I’ve thrown/In the name of someone I no longer know.” When he tries to call the subject of the song, they reject the call. “Even the cops thought you were wrong for hanging up/I’ll dial drunk, I’ll die a drunk, I’ll die for you.”

In “Paul Revere,” the theme of Kahan wanting to leave his hometown is apparent. He talks about how his hometown has changed for the worse and how he has grown to resent it. 

He describes how he is going to finally leave someday: “One day, I’m gonna cut it clear/Ride like Paul Revere.” However, in the outro of the song, he reminds himself he will always be stuck in this town, whether physically or mentally: “If I could leave I would’ve already left.”

“No Complaints” is one of the many examples where Kahan opens up about his mental illness. He describes the numbness that can come with antidepressants: “And now the pain’s different/It still exists, it just escapes different.” He is fighting with himself in the song, wondering why he is still complaining if he is finally happy: “I filled the hole in my head with prescription medication/Then forgot how to cry/Who am I to complain?”

In “Call Your Mom,” Kahan communicates with his loved one who is suffering with mental illness. He tells them that there is still hope: “Don’t let this darkness fool you/All lights turned off can be turned on.” Kahan expresses that he has been through the same struggles, so he knows how it feels. He offers a helping hand, saying, “I’ll drive all night/I’ll call your mom.”

Although the contents of “We’ll All Be Here Forever” can be heavy, Kahan offers a glimmer of hope in the penultimate song “You’re Gonna Go Far.” In the song, Kahan is speaking to someone who gets to leave his hometown: “It makes me smile to know when things get hard/You’ll be far from here.” 

Although he may be jealous they get to leave, he assures them that it is okay and the town will still be there for them when they are willing to return. “The birds will still sing/Your folks will still fight/The boards will still creak/The leaves will still die.” 

In the outro of the song, Kahan tells the subject that they are going to go far, and “If you wanna go far/Then you gotta go far.” Leaving a place that has been familiar to you for your whole life can be hard, but when you finally do it, it can change your life for the better. It is comforting to know that it will always be waiting for you when you want to return.

The final track of “We’ll All Be Here Forever” is the extended version of “The View Between Villages” from the original album. Kahan brings us along as he drives through his hometown and reflects on the places that have shaped him: “The things that I lost here, the people I knew/They got me surrounded for a mile or two.” 

Kahan has a moment of clarity as he looks back on his life and accepts that life is constantly changing. It is the perfect conclusion as it encapsulates everything the album is about: how a place can break and shape you all at once. 

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