Manic Analysis- "Forever... (Is a Long Time)"

English Teacher KP

Yes! It's all so relatable! I've definitely been there 😭😭😭

Connor Weber

this is one of my favorite songs from the album, the themes of just overthinking even when you have something good just really resonate with me. so many of the lyrics are exactly how i feel even when everything seems perfect, it's so easy to let yourself get too in your head until everything feels wrong and that's really the core of this song to me

English Teacher KP

Oh wow! That is too funny about the plastic plant! Honestly, that's something that I would do 😭😭😭

English Teacher KP

My husband does the EXACT same thing 😂😂😂

English Teacher KP

Very good point! I keep listening to it to try and hear what she is saying, and it is definitely ambiguous. Either way, you're right. The sentiment is still powerful!

English Teacher KP

That's kind of the impression I got as well!

Nikki S

Very interesting when that happens! In her interview with Zane Lowe Halsey said the lyrics as “build” first. My mom is funny because she just makes up her own lyrics for songs when it’s situations like that, when you don’t know for sure what they’re saying lol.😂

What I'm thinking about after reading the comments is what difference in meaning there is between "but love built, god built provinces" and "build love, build God, build provinces..." And i think it mostly changes what we do with "build calluses, break promises". Because in the former, it's saying a province built by love and God can build calluses (really establish itself, it lasts for a long time) but then still break its promises. Like America promising freedom and not delivering it to everyone. But on the other hand, if we're building love, god, provinces and calluses, it's like we're constructing an entire universe, a religion, a home, a habit,... But still breaking promises. Either way it's a profound statement about having a great thing that doesn't work out.

Camila Dejesus

I absolutely love the ending line "Talk to your man, tell him he's got bad news coming" It's repeated in the next song, by a completely different person about Halsey. And so, for her to sing it here, it makes me feel like at this point she's so removed. She's started spiraling and convinced herself it's doomed. The relationship will never work, so she's almost telling herself in a mirror "Talk to him, tell him it's time to break up" meaning, they're never going to go anywhere. Plastic plant. All of it. That's my interpretation at least <3

English Teacher KP

I, too, have sabotaged relationships (both romantic and platonic) due to my anxiety. It is the absolute worst! I am so glad that you found someone ❤❤❤

English Teacher KP

Oh wow! I love this!

Amanda M.

I love the opening line to this song, but my favorite I think is "I could never hold a perfect thing and not demolish it"... as someone who spent years in rollercoaster relationships, I self- sabatoged my first stable and healthy relationship because I got too into my head and my anxiety said I didn't deserve it. But I found my beautiful stranger, and we're almost 2 years strong now.

Something I thought of while watching the video (but I forgot by the time I wrote my comment yesterday) is that the part “build love, build God, build provinces, build calluses, break promises” makes me think of human history. We made up the ideas of what love is supposed to be (e.g. Adam and Eve), what God is supposed to be, and what our nations are supposed to be. This could also be somewhat reflected in ourselves—our self-constructed and/or environmentally influenced beliefs about love, God, and nationality/race. Or it could be about our relationships—we fall in love, build up the ideal of the other person, pledge them our loyalty. In all three, eventually we “build calluses” and become hardened and jaded through our hard work, and then we start breaking all the ideals and promises we were making at the beginning. Then we segue into Halsey talking about how they themself follow this pattern over and over, even with good relationships.

English Teacher KP

This comment made me so happy! Yes for noticing alliteration!!!☺☺☺ Also, super cool abour Halsey being a painter!

English Teacher KP

Oh wow! Ok this makes so much sense! I could definitely tell this was about a different person! Glad I wasn't too far off!

English Teacher KP

So I Googled it, and some lyric sites say "but", some say "build". I personally can't tell from her vocal what they're saying. I do agree with you though that "build" makes more sense. I think that's what was throwing me off there!

Nikki S

You’re right about this not being about the same ex. The ex that abused and cheated on Halsey was G Eazy. She had a few other boyfriends during this time. Evan Peters, the actor. she did seem to break up with him because he didn’t support the Black Lives Matter movement (which he now denies and said it was a mistake that he liked multiple anti BLM tweets, but she liked the tweet saying “Halsey broke up with you because you’re anti BLM”). And she had a beautiful relationship with the singer Yungblud and she says she wrote her first ever love song about him, also on this album called beautiful stranger. They ended on good terms and are still friends and I just adore him. He’s an Angel lol. She says she doesn’t have a bad word to say about him, she was just ready for a family and he wasn’t ready.

Nikki S

The lyric video was wrong. The lyrics are “build love, build god, build Provences.

Nikki S

Halsey said in an extensive interview with Zane Lowe on the Manic album that the “Fifty thousand war cadets” is us, the fans. We would reach and grab the moon for Halsey. She is the small brunette as she often describes herself as, even yesterday on her new radio show she explained how she’s so tiny but looks massive on stage. She explains that the song is about her falling in love in the beginning and then when she says “just right. Just right… just.. right. Just. Right??” Where it starts off so sure about this romance lasting forever and then she starts to inevitably question the relationship and herself. then the instrumental is them overthinking and deciding that they need to break up with this person. Perhaps telling herself she’s not good enough because of her mental illness and “baggage” that a lot of us feel like we also have. And that “talk to your man. Tell em’ he’s got bad news comin.” She said Literally Means she’s going to break up with her boyfriend now. Something cute, Halsey said that she really did have a fake plant that she watered for so so long before she realized it was plastic.

Great catch on the music. Halsey mentioned I think in a tweet that the shift from major to minor was on purpose to show the progression of coming from a bad relationship into a good one then getting into their own head and sabotaging it. In an interview they said this about the “talk to your man” line: “That’s me going, ‘You better go break up with him. 'Cause this is not gonna work.’ You’re already in your head, you’re already thinking, ‘You better go talk to your boyfriend and let him know that this is starting to go south.’” As for the line “get the colors just right,” fun fact—Halsey is a painter. Also, semi unrelated, but thanks to you I notice alliteration everywhere. Whenever I write stories, I’ll throw down a few sentences then reread them and be like “oh snap” and think of you haha.

ALL OF THIS 100%

English Teacher KP

Yes to all of this! Thank you for breaking down some of the details of the instruments for me! I love how you can feel the emotions through the music!

English Teacher KP

Yeah I just Googled the lyrics, and there seems to be some controversy. Some sites say "but", and others say "build". I agree with you that "build" would make more sense in context...but then we lose the cool compound-sentence-y structure I talked about 😭😭😭

Jewlee Nelson

This is one of my favorite songs by her artistically. I love how the music changes from a major chord to a minor chord during the instrumental to really show the inner spiral of the feelings being expressed. Here is how I interpret it. The first few lines are about past behavior in past relationships (the plant and the sarcasm/tongue). The next few lines I always felt were about a new person/relationship showing promise and love. Then the instrumental hits and the speaker "gets in their head", essentially self sabotaging herself and the relationship in the process. The sound of the ripping added in just adds to that feeling so well of a person literally destroying something, almost like tearing up a painting of this person in which she's gotten the color of their eyes "just right". This is what I see in me head. By the end she is telling herself to "talk to your man, tell him he's got bad news coming" as in, she is GOING to ruin this so warn him NOW. I love the imagery this song creates in my head and the way she is able to use not just the lyrics, but the music itself to express the feelings of self doubt so well. Loved your reaction as always! Can't wait for the next one!

I always heard that last section as “build love, build God, build provinces”, which I think makes a bit more sense both grammatically and in the context of a relationship, especially when that relationship is as important to you as this one clearly was to the speaker.