The sixth song, New Perspective, talks about how much the people and the places around him have changed while he has not. The first verse -
Ooh, silence is making me nostalgic
Two sizes big your shirt in my apartment
Oh, we were kids, but that don't make this less hard
If I could fly, I doubt I'd even do it
I'd probably get high and crash or something stupid
You made Ohio feel just like Central Park
- shows how much this person feels like home to the narrator. They made their tiny and boring town feel like somewhere more colourful and fuller of live. Every remnant of that person fills his tiny town with life.
The pre-chorus -
Liberal rednecks get drunk on a dirt road
Attention deficit kids in their gym clothes
Paper bags drift wherever the wind blows
And mine’s full of receipts
- addresses how progressive the state of Vermont is despite being so rural and isolated. The reference to attention deficit kids is a nod to Kahan’s older brother, Richard, who “sometimes walks around the property with giant And1 gym shorts”. Kahan has also said in reference to the last lyric that to him, receipts serve as a record of past decisions. This is a reference to the idea of fate. Jews believe in Yawm ad-Din, the day of judgement. They also believe that one’s destiny is decided by past actions. The direction of the wind is the person’s fate, with the paper bag being the person and the receipts being past choices. Kahan said of the final lyric, "Receipts to me signify baggage and the past. Receipts being a record of decisions we’ve made and things we’ve decided are important. Receipts add weight to the bag and don’t let it float in the wind, instead keeping us stuck to the ground." The subject is likely one of these receipts.
The chorus –
Oh, this town’s for the record now
The intersection got a Target
And they’re calling it downtown
You and all of your new perspectives now
Wish I could shut it in a closet
And drag you back down
- discusses how Strafford has changed for the better since the subject left. Strafford, Vermont does not have a Target. However, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, does. The drive from Strafford to Lebanon is thirty-four minutes going through the 132 mentioned in Your Needs, My Needs. The narrator feels that as Strafford has changed, so have the people. The narrator wishes that the subject had stayed the same as they were before they left.
The second verse -
Gave me your word, and now I can’t pronounce it
No thing so sure that I can’t learn to doubt it
Now the state bird, it sings our song so out of key
- is meant to be ironic. The state bird of Vermont, the Hermit Thrush, is said to have one of the most beautiful songs in North America. It also means that no matter how beautiful the bird’s song is, in the eyes of the narrator, it could not compare to the subject’s song.
New Perspective is about change. Obviously, this whole album is about change, but this song is where that theme is most prevalent. Sometimes, even though it may not feel like it, a change is for the better. For example, people still have to drive out of state just to go to Target, but it is closer than another Target, meaning that people do not have to spend so much money on fuel for their car, or spending money on a bus ticket, or exhausting their legs from pedalling there. In the narrator’s eyes, that new Target was a change for the worse, even though they can get there quicker than before. It all comes down to perspective.
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Storytelling as an Artform in Noah Kahan's "We'll All Be Here Forever"
RandomI wrote an essay. That's nothing out of the ordinary, seeing as I published many on my old account. But this one. This one is different.
