On April 24th, world famous folk singer, Noah Kahan, released his fourth studio album, The Great Divide. The album features 21 tracks in total, with four being added to the initial 17 as a surprise album extension, The Last of the Bugs. The album follows themes of fractured friendships, alienation, and mental health. The release of the album was preceded by a Netflix documentary, Noah Kahan: Out of Body, following the personal life of Kahan in recent years, the process of creating the Great Divide, and life on tour, which was released on April 13.
Following the massive break-out success of his 2022 album, Stick Season, which has been streamed more than 1.7 billion times, Kahan embarked on a multi-year, record-breaking tour. Despite the four year gap between albums, fans have been excitedly awaiting the release of the Great Divide, which now sits number one on the Billboard 200.
Where Stick Season was mostly made up of slower acoustic ballads, The Great Divide contains a few more upbeat, stomp and holler tunes such as Paid Time Off and Haircut. This has shown a stylistic shift from previous albums while still maintaining the lyrical depth and catchy melodies that keep listeners coming back for more. These songs seem to blend the more produced sound of Kahan’s earlier albums, Busyhead and I Am/I Was with the emotional rawness and folk elements of Stick Season.
I think all listeners will be able to appreciate different aspects of Kahan’s music. From the imagery of late summer in New England, evoked in songs like End of August, to the strained relationships portrayed in songs like Willing and Able; The Great Divide tells stories that feel personal but also universal. The album seems to wrestle with itself but it starts and ends with a sense of calm and acceptance. The peaceful notes of this album are well summarized by the lines to the ending track, Dan, which creates a scene of two friends finally relaxing at the end of a long year: “Where do we go when we die?/I wouldn’t mind right here, no, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
Here’s my ranking for the top ten songs of the album:
- Staying Still
- Downfall
- Deny Deny Deny
- Haircut
- Dashboard
- Headed North
- All them Horses
- Paid Time off
- American Cars
- Doors
