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Apr 4th 2020!⃝So I have a very different reading of this song than most people. I don't think that Afterlife is literally referring to the actual afterlife. I instead read this as a man who is a relationship he feels he's not good enough for.
"but girl this can't be right." Girl? What girl? He didn't mention girl before. What can't be right? "this peace on Earth's not right." Okay. So clearly we're still on earth. Not heaven.
"So why did this come to be? Arrived too early" Most people say that this means that he died young, but I see it as he's not grown enough as a person to have the kind of relationship that he has with this person.
"I don't belong here, we gotta move on dear..." Dear? There's the girl again. Who refers to God as dear? It's something that people really only say to women they love.
"loved ones back home all crying cuz they're already missing me." Someone you're mad in love with will take all the life from you. Suddenly you stop going to your friends' and family's houses. They haven't seen you in a long time and they miss you.
"Give me a chance to be that person I want to be." Again, being mad in love will make you be someone you're not and suddenly you do everything with them on your mind and factor them into it. Perhaps this is referring that he wants to be his own person again and not factor this girl back into it.
"I pray by the grace of God that there's somebody listening." When you're mad in love, and away from your friends and can't get over your partner, you do truly feel alone. You do pray to god that somebody is listening to your cries and desires to feel happy again. He says "oh lord I try so hard but you gotta let go of me..." I don't take this to mean that God wont let him go, I think he's using Lord as an interjection. Like, "oh lord I hate broccoli!" You aren't actually talking to god, it's just something you outloud as an interjection.
Near the end of the Album, they have the song, A Little Piece of Heaven. If you've heard the lyrics to that song, you'll know that there's nothing heavenly about it. I think that Afterlife is actually that he sees his relationship as when he's with his "little piece of heaven." This 'perfect relationship' is his Afterlife of peace and light. Even though she makes him feel so good and is everything that a relationship should be, he still has friends he loves and he wants to grow more and live his own way before he comes back because he knows he'll never be able to let her go. "And I hope you'd might, take me back inside when the time is right."
