Two years after “Stick Season (Forever),” Noah Kahan’s new album, “The Great Divide,” was released April 24, arriving at the cusp of summer as the cicadas chirp and the sun is finally setting after 6 p.m.
Kahan is known for his soul-crushing lyrics hidden behind upbeat folk melodies, and “The Great Divide” hits new heights of relatability, heavy with pain, loneliness and grief. Still, moments of love, joy and nostalgia creep into the lines of some songs, reminding listeners that Kahan isn’t all about sadness (although he mostly is — really, he said it himself).
“The Great Divide” is comprised of 17 tracks. Kahan released four bonus tracks just one day after the original album in an extended version called “The Great Divide: The Last Of The Bugs,” a nod to “The View Between Villages,” the final track of his 2022 album “Stick Season.” Kahan teased many of the songs on social media in the months leading up to release and dropped two singles, “The Great Divide” and “Porch Light,” in January and March, respectively.
Track one, “End of August,” immediately sets the tone for the entire album, opening with a melodic piano instrumental that captures what nostalgia feels like: slow, sweet and just a little bit sad. This is where Kahan first mentions bugs, a recurring motif throughout the album, singing that the “bugs are just starting to die.”
Throughout the track, Kahan describes the feeling of knowing things are coming to an end: the road, the summer, life as he knows it and his time in his home state, Vermont. Still, gentle optimism comes in as the song closes, where he writes, “the feeling of being alive / For the first time, in a long time.”
“Doors” is the second track and, following months of online teasers from Kahan, arguably one of the most anticipated. Sorrowful, deeply relatable lyrics hide behind a joyful melody and upbeat drums, luring the listener into a false sense of security before unleashing some of the most emotionally charged lyrics of the album.
Kahan paints a picture of someone who fears vulnerability, worried that the person he trusts will just pick up and leave at any time. The reasoning behind his fear of emotional intimacy is revealed in the lyrics, “Have you ever stared directly at the sun / Have you ever shared some closeness, so exposed, to have it spit back by someone,” alluding to having trusted someone who, in the end, used that trust against him.
“Paid Time Off” feels like a breath of fresh air, with an upbeat melody and lyrics that, on first listen, reflect a fun summer road trip rather than a car ride of doom and despair. A couple shares a “near-perfect day,” while hints of the idea that the relationship won’t last sneak in between the strums of the banjo. While it’s clear this won’t be eternal, the song is charged with the idea that a relationship doesn’t need to last forever to be worthwhile.
“The Great Divide,” track eight, was the first of two singles released before the album and bears its title. It set the tone for what to expect ahead of April 24, underscoring a “divide” between two people, a recurring theme throughout. The divide, however, doesn’t just resonate as a physical separation but also as an emotional and mental separation between two people or a past version of oneself.
“Willing And Able” tells the story of a relationship between two people who have drifted so far apart they no longer know each other. More remarkably, though, it emphasizes the desire to know that person again, with lyrics reflecting this yearning, like “And I’ll say I love you and mean it this time / Say I’m sorry for everything else / If we found a way to the other side, I’d be willing and able.”
“Dashboard,” the eleventh track, sounds like an outsider viewing the narrator’s accomplishments in a negative light, or a critical self-analysis from an external perspective. The song takes the listener through the frustration of changing who you are, moving to a different place, leaving behind the people you’ve known and feeling like a bit of a jerk.
“Look at you go, crossing state lines with your shadow / Tryna run away, change your zip code / Turns out that you’re still an asshole,” Kahan sings. The song hits close to home for many listeners far away from home, especially resonating as an antithesis to “You’re Gonna Go Far,” a song on “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever),” which praises the person who left their hometown to pursue their dreams.
The second-to-last song on the album is “Orbiter,” the final of four bonus tracks Kahan released. It opens with his experiences at award shows and with imposter syndrome. However, the most beautiful part of the song is undoubtedly how he describes himself as an astronaut circling around “the moon,” or his object of affection. The song itself is melancholy, but the themes of love, adoration and support are what truly resonate.
After 20 gut-wrenching tracks, Kahan ends the album with “Dan,” a song about a hometown best friend that, while laced with sad anecdotes about their mutual late friend Carlo and disagreements about politics, is a story of connection that stands the test of time. It ties up the album, blending together the bittersweet sorrow and love found in a shared history.
