Songfacts®:

• "The Last Year," the closing track on the Here In The Pitch album, is one of those songs that feels as though it was written in the dead of night when the world is quiet and the mind, inconveniently, is anything but. The "pitch" in the album's title, as Jessica Pratt has explained, refers not to the musical kind but to pitch darkness, which captures her mental state at the time.
• Here In The Pitch is Pratt's fourth album, but it took over five years to come into the world. "Over the last 10 years, I have certainly struggled with my mental health," she shared with Mojo magazine. "I spent a lot of time battling my own mind. Maybe this contributes to how long it takes me to record."
• "The Last Year" is a hand extended to Pratt's romantic partner, Matt McDermott, in thanks and recognition for his steady presence through her storms. The lyrics reflect a hopeful yet fragile resolve:
  
  I think it's gonna be fine
  I think we're gonna be together
  And the storyline goes forever
  
  These lines carry that mix of hope and doubt, of two people navigating rough waters but still clinging to the belief that love will see them through. "My husband and I have been together seven and a half years, throughout this," she told Mojo.
  
  "The song feels like, s--t's been really bad but I think we're going to be okay," Pratt added. "There's a silver lining you know? It's a complicated feeling. I'm still f---ed up, s—t's still f---ed up, but we love each other and we're going to keep trying to make sense of all this."
• Pratt's voice and guitar are the centerpiece, but subtle layers of piano from Al Carlson and drums from Alex Goldberg lend a sense of intimacy and depth. Carlson, doubling as the mixing and mastering engineer, helps shape the song into something that feels raw yet refined, like the sonic equivalent of a handwritten letter.