It’s been an incredibly exciting couple of weeks for Noah Kahan fans, with the announcement of two Auckland shows and the release of the Netflix documentary, Out of Body. Now it’s got even better with the release of his freshest album, The Great Divide. This fourth studio album marks a return to the emotionally complex and powerful landscapes that Noah is so adept at creating, drawing listeners in yet again with both his instrumentals and lyrics. At a stunning 80 minutes, this newest record is everything fans have been waiting for.
The album opens with ‘End of August,’ and immediately launches into parallels with Stick Season. The most obvious is in the lines about ‘a ride home or an alibi’ – a draw to the identity crisis that was previously referenced on ‘Growing Sideways.’ The ‘stick season’ itself is a transitional period in Kahan’s native Vermont between the end of summer and the autumn’s peak foliage, and August occurs right before this. The song’s title is a clear Easter egg that this album will likely focus on a similar emotional pathway. It’s framed by moving piano-driven arrangements and incorporates acoustic guitar alongside drums, and is produced by the always-on-the-nose Aaron Dessner.
Fans who closely follow Noah will also know that a moment from ‘End of August’ was the first post shared on his down-low TikTok account titled @thelastofthebugs (the bugs have become an undeniable symbol of this era).
One song that’s been previewed on social media before this release is ‘Doors’, a song some fans previously referred to as ‘Jump’. Backed by up-tempo instrumentals, the song explores the idea of being in a relationship where the subject is simply waiting for their partner to become cognizant of their flaws and ‘pack all their sh*t up.’ In the space between locked doors and references to casino bets, Noah perfectly captures the feelings of an anxious attachment.
It’s followed by ‘American Cars’, featuring a thumping background that’s emotionally centred on the idea of helping someone manage their personal pain. The song debuted on NPR’s Tiny Desk and is reminiscent of artists like Taylor Swift, Sam Fender and Don Henley. It’s a return to the themes of coming home and the gratefulness of people showing up when needed, something that’s frequent across Noah’s discography. There’s an Easter egg too in the number plate that Noah references in the lyrics – it’s the same one that he removes in the music video for ‘The Great Divide.’
‘Downfall’ is a mix of soft guitar plucks and a softer, slower sound. Where ‘American Cars’ is intense and passionate, ‘Downfall’ is contemplative and consequently moves differently. Lyrically, it’s similar to ‘New Perspectives’ from Stick Season, drawing on the complex feeling of wanting someone to fail so they return to where you are. It’s a little harsh and sarcastic in that sense – instead of wishing against someone’s downfall, you’re wishing for it because at the end of the day you consider that to be a better outcome for them.
While of course we don’t know what might have been omitted or added through the process of making The Great Divide, ‘Paid Time Off’ feels like an apt inclusion after the recent release of Out of Body. It can be easily interpreted as what happens when you need time away from relationships and expectations, and the guilt that comes with prioritising your own needs. It also circles aptly on the consequences of this, especially in the phrase ‘I’m a running car, and you’re a closed garage’ – suggesting that while a relationship can feel warm and familiar in the short term, toxicity can also be present. Instrumentally, it’s simply FUN – and the best example of how the Tiny Desk concert version of it (released on April 22) is. Between the fiddles, banjos, and mandolins, it’s a sublime throwdown featuring a series of solos, highlighting the talent of not only Noah but his backing team.
Serving as both the title track and first single, ‘The Great Divide’ has long been one of the most anticipated tracks from Kahan’s career, as he’s played it at live shows as far back as 2022. Exploring themes of missed connection and missing the signs of struggle around you, its original release wasted no time plunging listeners back into Kahan’s world. The vocals are brimming with urgency and an all-consuming desire to convert emotion into action.
‘Haircut’ serves as a return to the theme of complex friendships, distinguishing itself from much of the album due to more restrained arrangements. With upbeat riffs and lively delivery by Kahan himself, it’s a fun listen despite the heaviness of the lyrics. Serving as an echo chamber for the feelings Noah has internalised, it doesn’t even matter by the end who is throwing the punches in this song – the words still feel hard-hitting and self-destructive.
‘Willing and Able’ is one of the album’s many standouts. A lot of the album centres around the idea of old friendships, and ‘Willing and Able’ focuses on the idea of reconnecting with an old friend you’ve lost touch with. The narrator stresses that he’s happy to go into the issues surrounding this friendship, trying to make amends in an obviously strained scenario. It’s one of the more toned-down songs from the record, with an emphatic drum pattern and atmospheric composition.
‘Dashboard’ has been floating around TikTok for a minute now, especially the chorus. Following the story of a person who leaves their hometown, it’s told in the third person but comes across like a devastatingly harsh self-assessment by Noah. He evaluates the person he’s become in recent years many times throughout the album, but this is one of the more emotionally shattering ones. Full of sparse guitar, it’s folk-leaning and closer to Stick Season.
‘23’ follows a similarly devastating route – and the transition into ‘Porch Light’ after is possibly up there with the best transitions the album has to offer. It offers the perspective of watching someone you love struggle with addiction and being stuck in the idea of ‘I want this person back, but not that version of them.’ Everyone experiences hardship in some fashion throughout their lives, and in this universally relatable moment, Noah’s songwriting is some of his strongest as he draws listeners in.
The final pre-album release was ‘Porch Light,’ a track that leaned heavily on the weight of how fame can affect someone’s mental health. It’s a point further explored in Out of Body, during which Noah explains how exposing his family’s struggles on Stick Season affected their personal dynamics. Porch Light contains moving banjo-driven instrumentals and country inflections, a slight step (one that feels natural) away from his indie-pop roots. Opening line ‘I would ask you how you’ve been, it’s all over the internet’ also serves as a callback to All My Love from Stick Season, which starts with ‘How have things been? / Well, love now that you mention it.’ Throughout The Great Divide, references to Stick Season’s lyrical choices appear, and this is just one example, emphasising that these albums are set in adjacent worlds.
‘Deny Deny Deny’ is like a lot of Kahan tracks off previous albums – primarily ‘Homesick’ and ‘Your Needs, My Needs.’ The visceral anger and grit that permeates every second of this song is felt from the opening note, deviating from many of the album’s other tracks in that there’s no noticeable buildup – it starts intense and continues that way. During the chorus, which centres around ‘getting your house paid off so the feds can’t touch it’ and ‘you can scream at me when I come home drunk’, Noah strikes a complicated balance between heartfelt and frustrated. It appears to be the same relationship here as ‘Haircut’ and ‘Willing and Able.’
In an album that’s deliberately emotionally complex, the opening of ‘Headed North’ provides an unexpected moment of comic relief. After a few seconds of soft, melancholy guitar, Noah promptly exclaims ‘oh sh*t!’ before launching into the song. An interview mentioned that it was recorded at night in Noah’s hometown in Vermont and it has that distinctive feel for sure – like you’re sitting around a fireplace, strumming and chatting with sparks flying. Noah sings wistfully about his home state and antics with his friends, noting that they ‘finally caught the guys who blew up those two police cars.’ It seems like the person Noah is singing to has moved away, a common thread throughout the album and another thread linking to his song ‘You’re Gonna Go Far.’ Featuring a lowkey ambience, it’s the most stripped back track on The Great Divide, and much of its beauty is the direct result of that feeling.
Do not fear, there are some romantic style songs on The Great Divide, and ‘We Go Way Back’ is the first moment of that. Noah and his wife Brenna are very protective of their privacy, which is beautiful and undoubtedly required but listeners get to experience a little of their world on ‘We Go Way Back.’ Noah explores the comfort that he receives from her, which cannot be replicated anywhere else, and it’s certainly a tear-jerker. Although Noah’s career comes with sacrifices, his sense of home is present in a person. With its intimate nature, the song would be perfect acoustically, as its primary features are reverberations and soft harmonies. ‘Spoiled’ follows, unsurprisingly, considering the themes of the previous track, and Noah has future generations on his mind. Against a synth backing, his hopes for future children are explored. It’s Noah at his most self-aware and darkly humorous as he weighs up the burdens and privileges that come with his success while refusing to romanticise the existence of either.
As the end of the album draws gradually closer, the emotional weight continues to sit on the listener, and ‘All of Them Horses’ is another apt example of this, as it once again crosses into relatable territory. Against a gently plucked guitar opening, nostalgia, survivor’s guilt and emotional distance make their way, cautiously, to the forefront. It’s one of the album’s slowest tracks, which is the perfect accompaniment to its themes. One of the standout moments from this song is the fact that Noah creates an incredibly rich image of Vermont’s landscape in the lyrics, from the horses to ‘the double-yellow murdered deer.’ One of Noah’s most defined talents is that he is able to develop stories in a way that you can see entirely in your mind, and throughout The Great Divide, you really feel immersed in the places and people that he loves.
‘Dan’ is the album’s final track, and perhaps the most heartbreaking on the entire album. Despite this, ‘Dan’ has a comforting tone that provides an air of wistfulness, despite the song’s subject matter. It’s not clear who ‘Dan’ is, but the song is full of references to difficult experiences shared, including one to ‘Carlo’ (who is the inspiration behind an earlier song’s title). Ultimately, by the song’s conclusion, the two involved can look past their adversities.
It’s a touching end to an album that’s an emotionally challenging listen, as we walk alongside Noah, unpacking his experiences, emotions, and the world of The Great Divide. While it’s not been a massive shift genre-wise from Stick Season, it’s a stunning follow-up to an album that generated Noah’s rise to superstardom. Now the only thing to do is do what Noah himself would: barricade ourselves in a room with the album and a lot of Taco Bell. See you there?
The Great Divide: The Last of The Bugs Deluxe Version is available now, with 4 extra tracks.
