2 Years of Stick Season (Forever)

By Kaitie Harper & Aiden Richards 

Stick Season (Forever), released February 9, 2024, is the finalized variation of singer/songwriter Noah Kahan’s third studio album Stick Season (2022).  Stick Season (Forever) brought an additional sixteen tracks to the original fourteen-track-album, along with original songs reimagined through collaborations with several major artists like “Dial Drunk (feat. Post Malone)”, “Northern Attitude (feat. Hoizer)”, “Everywhere, Everything (feat. Gracie Abrams)”,  and many more.

Stick Season (Forever) is well known for its themes of heartbreak, mental health, and vulnerability.  Kahan writes each track with honesty, and doesn’t sugar coat the ongoing journey, progress, and aftermath of life’s hardships.  He doesn’t hold back from addressing the feelings we often bury, no matter how hard it might be.  With the release of Stick Season (Forever), Kahan makes the music feel like a physical place or state of mind the listener can go to.  From start to finish, every listen feels like a personal journey through all sixteen tracks, covering the whole spectrum of life.  The album takes you through the transition from downfalls: falling apart and patching yourself back up; as well as carrying emotional weight and damage to personal growth with learning how to let it go and hold onto what is important.  This idea is really prominent in songs like “You’re Gonna Go Far”, “The View Between Villages”, and “Paul Revere” which all convey the feeling of being stuck between two places, the process of learning what is best for you; that even though you have emotional ties to something or someone, sometimes leaving it behind and letting go is the only way to heal.

The impact of the album as a whole highlights a specific season of life, hence the metaphor of “stick season”.  It explores that individuals go through emotional seasons, defined by life’s highs and lows. Stick Season (Forever) describes both the devastating and beautiful parts of life, from loss, and depression, to love, friendship, and the things that help us pull through.  “Forever” is a happy, and positive track opposed to the rest of the album, it describes being carefree, happy, and someone making life something worth living.  Stick Season (Forever) is not just an album, it is an exploration of every corner of life, the messy parts, and healing.

Sonically, Stick Season (Forever) is built on contrast.  At the center of the album, it is full of folk, acoustic guitars, and plainspoken melodies.  On the other hand, it is dressed up with modern pop and alt-rock textures.  That is what makes this album so unique, the production balances warmth with intimate verses that feel like late night therapy sessions.  Contrasted by explosive choruses that are perfectly structured for screaming at the top of your lungs.  Kahan’s vocal delivery is the center point of the album, but it is the way he sings that make up the most difference.  He sings like he is on the edge of breaking which gives the lyrics and songs a stronger emotional impact.

One defining trait of the album is its emotional  maximalism and how songs can start soft and restrained before exploding into therapeutic and cathartic verses. The raw, imperfect vocals that really prioritize the emotion and feeling over perfection and standards, the lyrics that are heavily centered around mental health and generational trauma.  And choruses designed for getting all your emotions out rather than bottling up all your fears and anxieties that come with life.  Then there is the locational and regional specificity that he really focuses on in the album.  He on occasion references New England, landscapes, seasons and emotional isolation that matches the cold weather.

Stick Season (Forever) marked a pivotal moment in Kahan’s career.  It was the moment he was catapulted out of the indie-folk lane into something more mainstream without squashing his identity.   The expanded release amplified his reach and image with hit songs from the album like “Dial Drunk” became absolutely inevitable to hear. Especially after choosing Post Malone to collaborate on the track which really broadened his exposure.  While other tracks such as “Northern Attitude” with Hozier  became widely popular due to its emotional depth and perspective rather than charts and big names. Career wise the push to mainstream was massive. This particular era of Kahan’s music really helped lift Stick Season (Kahan,2022) to No.1 on the Billboard 200, two years after its release.  It proved his music could scale up to anything, while staying grounded in emotion and honesty. This album was more than a deluxe version, it became the foundation to his long-term rise and career.