Music Review: Daughtry "Life After You"

Daughtry

Life After You

Album: Leave This Town

Year: 2009

         Chris Daughtry regrets breaking up with his girlfriend in the sensitive “Life After You.”

                An earnest guitar begins the single, setting an apologetic tone. In the first verse, he’s been driving back to the home he had shared with his girlfriend. He’s only about fifteen minutes away before he experiences car trouble. Frustrated, he stands out his car and cries.  He wants to have the chance to apologize to her. He took her for granted. It seems like he won’t ever get back to her and tell her how he feels. (“Ten miles from town and I just broke down/Spittin' out smoke on the side of the road/I'm out here alone just tryin' to get home/To tell you I was wrong but you already know/Believe me I won't stop at nothin'/To see you so I've started runnin'.”)

                In the chorus, he’s realized he wants to spend his life with her.  He’s been out drinking out with his friends, joking and watching the ballgame, but it’s not the same. He keeps thinking of the way she supported him when he couldn’t find a job or comforted him after his favorite uncle passed away.  Without her, he’s empty.  (“All that I'm after is a life full of laughter/As long as I'm laughing with you/I'm thinkin' that all that still matters is love ever after/After the life we've been through/'Cause I know there's no life after you.”)

                 In the second verse, he remembers the night he broke up with her. He’s ashamed of how he acted towards her, blaming for her for things that were out of her control.  In anger, he told her that they wouldn’t ever get married and he would be better off by himself.  He knows now he was wrong not to believe in her. He needs her in his life. (“Last time we talked, the night that I walked/Burns like an iron in the back of my mind/I must've been high to say you and I/Weren't meant to be and just wasting my time/Oh, why did I ever doubt you?/
You know I would die here without you.”)

               The chorus is sung again.

               In the bridge, he’s only been thinking of her for the past year.  He admits he made a hasty, immature decision.  Their relationship was better than he knew. She has to know he’s still in love with her. (“You and I, right or wrong, there's no other one/After this time I spent alone/It's hard to believe that a man with sight could be so blind/Thinkin' 'bout the better times, must've been outta my mind/So I'm runnin' back to tell you/ All that I'm after is a life full of laughter/Without you God knows what I'd do.”)

            The chorus is sung again to end the single.

         With heartfelt, passionate vocals, Daughtry yearns for a second chance. He’s a changed man and looking for redemption.  However, the dejection in his voice in the chorus makes it clear he doesn’t believe he’ll win her back.  The subdued guitar throughout only emphasizes his pessimistic outlook. It’s not until the bridge when the drum provides a push that Daughtry gets forceful.

         “Life After You” revels in its own misery instead of fighting for what it wants.