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Album review: Noah Kahan’s ‘The Great Divide’ showcases the artist’s staying power
The Vermont-grown singer-songwriter teeters on the edge of an internal divide: who he was before his meteoric rise and where he goes from here.
“The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan, via Mercury Records.
The season of the sticks has come and gone. Enter: Sad spring and summer.
Vermont-grown singer-songwriter Noah Kahan found his voice in the 2022 breakthrough album “Stick Season,” but his fourth studio album, “The Great Divide,” officially releasing Friday via Mercury Records, dives deeper and showcases the artist’s staying power.
Noah Kahan:
The album opens with an inviting piano, soon followed by the 29-year-old’s soft vocals easing listeners into “End of August.” Between the delicate build of the instrumentals and the intricate storytelling of the lyrics, Kahan carries readers along for the journey in such an intimate way that they’re practically in the passenger seat next to him.
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The 17-track album aims to flow from one song to the next, weaving together the artist’s own balancing act of common man and celebrity. Much like where he grew up in the Upper Valley, a region of small towns straddling the border of Vermont and New Hampshire, Kahan teeters on the edge of an internal divide: who he was before his meteoric rise and where he goes from here.
As a New Hampshire native who grew up less than an hour away from Kahan, I can relate to many of the local mentions, particularly the experience of driving on Interstate 89 — a location referenced in songs such as “Mess,” from his first studio album.
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“Rubbed my eyes on 89 / Double yellow murdered deer,” he sings in the new song “All Them Horses.” The darkness and isolation on stretches of I-89 certainly resonate for this reviewer and will likely strike a chord for anyone who can relate to experiencing loneliness in a rural area, particularly with a “busyhead.”
“The Great Divide” release also comes on the heels of a new documentary,“Noah Kahan: Out of Body,” streaming now on Netflix. The 94-minute film offers a vulnerable view of the two-time Grammy-nominated multi-platinum artist, as he grapples with global acclaim and what comes next.
Kahan opens up about struggles with body dysmorphia and disordered eating, pivotal moments of his childhood and related family dynamics, the impact of fame on his relationships and self-preservation, and how he attempts to stay grounded through it all.
In “Out of Body,” similar to his bluntly honest posts on social media, Kahan makes it clear that he’s his own harshest critic, even if such feelings are often shared via dark humor.
“What if the album just sucks so bad lol would be sad for me but lowkey funny considering the build up,” the singer posted on X last month, for example.
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At one point in the documentary, the day before a show at Madison Square Garden, Kahan sits in front of the New York City skyline with his brother Simon, who asks, “Do you ever worry that this is the peak, or you will peak at some point?”
This serves as an overarching question for Kahan, who responds, “All the time. That’s all I think about really.”
After all, he went from having his name misspelled on a marquee at Brighton Music Hall to headlining sold-out shows at Fenway Park.
“The Great Divide,” produced by “Stick Season” collaborator Gabe Simon and Grammy-winning producer Aaron Dessner, shows that Kahan can both meet the moment and stay true to his roots.
As jarring as this next chapter is, Kahan shows growth and depth in his introspective lyricism and strength in his ability to make music that seamlessly transitions from studio to live show.
“These songs are custom-built for a live show,” Kahan shares in the album biography. “They’re anthemic and there’s moments of musicality that I don’t think ‘Stick Season’ had. There’s a lot of downtempo eerie stuff on this record, but also a lot of big uptempo songs. Finding a way to tell the story through the performance is going to be really exciting.”
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For this reviewer, “Doors” is the type of song I would sing alone in my car after a long, hard day, with instrumentals that build as I take a long inhale before belting the second verse along with Kahan: “Have you ever stared directly at the sun?”
Other songs such as “Headed North” and “Paid Time Off” are the type of small-town nostalgia songs I picture singing with a small group of friends around a bonfire — or even a crowd of 38,000 at Fenway. Universally relatable lyrics like “… if I see one more cyber truck, I swear to God I’m gonna floor it” and “Pack of cigarettes and a round of golf, make a livin’ workin’ for the paid time off” sound tailor-made to be experienced communally.
As far as most devastating lyrics go, the final track “Dan” is perhaps the most poignant.
It’s hard not to shed a tear at the verse Kahan is most proud of: “Loon calls pierce through the violent sky / Think I stood right here back when Carlo died / Said I hated the way I made it all about me / And every day from back then is like a bad old dream.”
With that in mind, fans may consider scheduling a therapy session or two, as Kahan has already deemed the coming months “sad bug summer,” promising “i do not care about the weather you will be sad this summer.”
‘The Great Divide’ track list:
- “End of August”
- “Doors”
- “American Cars”
- “Downfall”
- “Paid Time Off”
- “The Great Divide”
- “Haircut”
- “Willing and Able”
- “Dashboard”
- “23”
- “Porch Light”
- “Deny Deny Deny”
- “Headed North”
- “We Go Way Back”
- “Spoiled”
- “All Them Horses”
- “Dan”
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