"Hazy Shea paints a poignant picture of fading youth in “Forever 21.” The song and accompanying video invoke acute nostalgia and the feeling of introspection; we watch Hazy Shea wander down graffitied streets, buy a beer at a convenience store, and smoke a cigarette as ash flutters away in the wind. These mundane scenes may not pack much of a punch on their own, but in concert with the lyrics they capture the aimless feelings of growing up. As the title suggests, Hazy Shea ponders the passage of time and the loss of youth even at a young age: “And the years keep coming and they don’t stop coming / But fuck it, I’d rather give ‘em away.” Like living in a moment while acknowledging that it will soon fade into memory, Shea’s introspective lyrics meditate prematurely on lost youth. 

Visually, the music videos plays with muted colors akin to the washed hues of memory. However, the grey tones of the majority of the video are punctuated by neon bursts of color—we see the multicolored lights of a club’s interior, a foosball table awash in bright green fluorescence, and the blinding sign of a liquor and wine store at night. These flashes of vivid color catch our attention and mark the scenes that most represent youth throughout the video. Simultaneously, this pattern of muted color punctuated by brightness seems to mirror the way memory itself functions. We fail to appreciate or take notice of mundane, everyday moments—especially at a young age when we fixate most on the future. It is the spots of brightness and excitement that we remember when looking back on the past. However, it is the mundanity of youth that Hazy Shea seems to lament most. In a nod to Peter Pan, she sings “I don’t wanna grow up / Forever 21.” In reflecting on the way childhood and adolescence have continually slipped through her fingers, Shea implores us to cling to even the everyday moments of youth before they’re gone. "

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