Luke Combs’ ‘Forever After All’ Is a Study in Contrasts [Listen]
A list of Luke Combs' best songs would be a list of lists, including "Forever After All," his latest single. The love ballad finds him contrasting things that are long-lasting, but finite (a good truck, guitar strings, young love) with his love for the woman in his life.
It's easy to take for granted Combs' sincerity as he sings about love. Few things in country music are as genuine as the North Carolina singer listing all the ways he loves his wife. There's a humility to his approach to their relationship that stops just short of him referring to her as "The Queen" or "Ms. Nicole," as Garth Brooks does Trisha Yearwood.
Still, you could be forgiven for, in time, confusing this newest single with his two previous radio releases ("Lovin' on You" and "Better Together"), each of which rely on lists for song structure. "Forever After All" offers more production than the latter and is more sensitive than the former, so each finds a unique lane on the way to No. 1.
Last summer's overwhelming response on TikTok and other social media platforms to this Drew Parker and Robert Williford co-write was impossible to ignore when it came time to select another from What You See Is What You Get.
Did You Know?: Combs admits this song was inspired by his wife, Nicole.
Luke Combs' "Forever After All" Lyrics:
A cold beer's got 12 ounces / A good truck's got maybe three hundred thousand / You only get so much until it's gone / Duracells in a Maglite / A needle drop on a 45 / Are the kinda things that only last so long / When the new wears off, and they get to getting old / Sooner or later, time's gonna take its toll.
Chorus:
They say nothing lasts forever / But they ain't seen us together / Or the way the moonlight dances in your eyes / Just a t-shirt in the kitchen / With no make-up and a million / Other things that I could look at my whole life / A love like that makes a man have second thoughts / Maybe some things last forever after all.
FM station on the outskirts / Blue jeans after years of shift work / All fading out like I always knew they would / The strings on this guitar / The first love lost on a young heart / Those things are gonna break after the getting's good / 'Cause the new wears off, and they get to getting old / Yeah, sooner or later, time's gonna take its toll.
Repeat Chorus
They say nothing lasts forever / But they ain't seen us together / Or the way the moonlight dances in your eyes / And I know there'll be that moment / The good Lord calls one of us home and / One won't have the other by their side / But heaven knows that that won't last too long / Maybe some things last forever after all.