On Oct. 14, 2022, singer Noah Kahan released the masterpiece of an album, Stick Season.
At that point, Kahan was still a smaller artist still gaining traction within the music industry. However, his popularity grew incredibly quickly as his songs “Homesick” and “Stick Season” went viral on TikTok. In 2023, he was nominated (and robbed of a win) for Best New Artist in the 2024 Grammys.
About eight months after Stick Season was released, he put out an extended version of the album, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), with seven new tracks, many of which are some of my favorite songs by Kahan.
Since then, Kahan has been sporadically releasing versions of his music that have collaborations with other artists, such as Post Malone, Hozier, and Lizzy McAlpine. While I thoroughly enjoyed “Northern Attitude (with Hozier),” I didn’t really listen to the rest of them very often—I preferred the originals.
Most recently, on Feb. 9, Kahan released yet another version of this album, Stick Season (Forever). On this version, it has all of the songs from Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), along with every one of his collaborations that Kahan has done. Along with that, Kahan adds two more collaborations—“You’re Gonna Go Far (with Brandi Carlisle)” and “Paul Revere (with Gregory Alan Isakov)”—along with one new song, “Forever.”
“Forever” was what I was most excited about when Kahan announced this new release. He has sung this song multiple times in concert, and there were little bits and pieces of it on the internet, but I had yet to hear the whole song. When Kahan announced that the song was going to be on this new version of Stick Season, I nearly blew a fuse from how excited I was.
I knew I was going to love “Forever” from the small snippet of the chorus I kept listening to while waiting for the whole song to be released. The upbeat strumming of his acoustic guitar paired with the lyrics made for a happy tune that I could never get tired of.
Kahan wrote a masterpiece of a song that highlights his definition of the word “forever.” He sings about what he will do to ensure that his relationship with his significant other will never break apart. In the chorus, Kahan sings, “I’ll build a boat for when the river gets high,” which highlights how even in hardships, Kahan will make the most out of any situation for the best possible outcome.
My favorite lyrics in the song, the ones that make my hand travel quickly to my heart and sigh heavily are, “I broke a bone that never healed in my hand / so, when I hold her close, I might loosen my grip / but I won’t ever let her go.” Kahan strategically tells us about how, though he has been hurt in the past, he won’t allow that to stop him from loving this girl any less. If anything, it shows how much trust and comfort he has in this relationship to be able to relax or “loosen his grip,” knowing that she won’t be going anywhere.
When it comes to the rest of Stick Season (Forever), I wasn’t too interested in the collabs. I have both positive and negative emotions toward his two newest ones that were released alongside the album. When speaking of “You’re Gonna Go Far (with Brandi Carlisle),” I am not much of a fan. The original version of the track is one of my favorite songs by Kahan and sends me into a whirlwind of dramatic emotions every time I listen to it. I have grown so used to this song and have loved it so much that a new voice on the track made it sound foreign. While I do think that Carlisle has a wonderful voice, I just feel like it didn’t need to be added to this song.
When talking about “Paul Revere (with Gregory Alan Isakov),” my opinion is incredibly different. I have never heard any music by Isakov, but this song, along with how many people were excited to see that he was making an appearance on Kahan’s song, have convinced me to start listening to him. I don’t know what exactly makes my feelings about this collaboration different from the former—whether that be how well Kahan and Isakov’s voices meld together or that I don’t have an emotional connection with “Paul Revere”—but this is a version of the song that I will be listening to often.
While I am happy for what Stick Season (Forever) brought us, I think it is time for Kahan to retire this album. It has been nearly a year and a half since the first version of Stick Season was released, and I, along with his fans, are more than ready for new music. “Forever” was a much-anticipated and adored song, but we are hungry for more.
