Stick Season
Noah Kahan · Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever)
Honest heartbreak that stays in the hurt
What do these signals mean?
- Edifying: Points the heart toward God, truth, hope, or love.
- Worth Weighing: Real good and real concern together. Test it before you take it in.
- Take Caution: Leans toward what could dull or mislead. Approach carefully.
- Consider Avoiding: Celebrates what Scripture warns against. Little here builds up.
Weighed against Scripture
“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”
The psalmist's raw cry of 'How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?' mirrors the song's honest grief, though the psalm eventually turns toward trust and Kahan does not.
“Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
The Preacher's declaration that all is vanity captures the same resigned, circular quality of grief the song embodies: nothing cancels the loss, nothing quite fills the gap.
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”
The song names alcohol as a waiting strategy without romanticizing it, but Scripture consistently warns that leaning on it in pain leads further from clarity, not closer to it.
This is a breakup song set in a bleak Vermont winter, and it earns its melancholy. Kahan does something rare: he owns that he is partly at fault while still feeling the grief fully. The coping strategies he names, drinking until friends come home, smoking to outrun memory, are not celebrated so much as confessed. The closing line, 'I hope this pain's just passing through, but I doubt it,' is the emotional core. It is honest resignation, not arrival. The song does not reach toward God or hope, but it does not mock them either. It just sits in the cold.
References to weed, alcohol use, and mild self-awareness about unhealthy coping. No profanity. The language is raw but restrained.
No spiritual reaching or hostility. The song sits squarely in grief without turning toward hope or despair as a destination. It ends resigned rather than searching.
Kahan is processing a real breakup with disarming honesty, including admitting his own fault and avoidance. The intent is emotional truth-telling, not glorifying the coping mechanisms named.
When you listen to this song, does it give language to grief you have been carrying, or does it give you permission to stay there longer than is good for you?