Album Review: “The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan

By now, I probably don’t need to introduce you to Noah Kahan. Seemingly out of nowhere, Kahan found himself at the apex of viral and chart success, all thanks to the single “Stick Season” and the album with the same name. Given the sudden come-up, it was easy to forget that it was his third studio effort. Kahan was wise to capitalize on the album’s popularity, striking while the iron was still hot. He followed it up with multiple deluxe and extended editions of the album, a live album, and several collaborations, including Zach Bryan, Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves and Hozier. However, the seemingly overnight success was not surprising to many longtime fans. Noah Kahan’s songwriting captures the melancholy and introspection associated with the transitional period between seasons in small-town Vermont, from which he hails. Kahan embeds these feelings and reflections into pop-folk songs exploring topics of loneliness, mental health, relationships and self-reflection. Noah has been open about his own struggles with mental health and depression, which makes his work even more profound, his exuberance more comforting and his subdual more aching. Perhaps this is why “The Great Divide” was so widely anticipated. Thankfully, “TGD” finds Noah flexing his trademark fluttery-raspy voice and songwriting chops even further. Plus, with the able hands of Aaron Dessner and Gabe Simon on the songwriting and production end, this album feels like a more cohesive and realized experience.

“End of August” is a beautiful, piano-heavy song that’s wrapped in a sea of harmonies and ambient synths reminiscent of some Coldplay songs. This track features lyrics signaling heightened emotions surrounding beautiful moments just before they’re about to disappear (“all the neighbors are votin’ for someone who wins every time / and I thought gettin’ older meant knowin’ it’s too late to try”). In contrast, “Doors” goes the anthemic route, with its stuttering, muted guitar strums leading into flourishes of shouty vocals. This song is about being aware of the difficulty of opening up to love and the guilt that is associated with being vulnerable (“‘cause I’m the trouble ahead, and I scream in my sleep / you’re puttin’ money on red, I’m a sure bet at a losin’ streak”). “American Cars” is propulsive and sounds sweet, except the lyrics are anything but (“and I hate to drag you back here, but I think he’s really lost it / he’s been sittin’ on the porch, oh, ranting like a prophet”). The lyrics refer to a father figure struggling to keep it together under addiction. Noah Kahan famously wrote in his song “Growing Sideways” that he’s “still angry at [his] parents for what their parents did to them,” so exploring tortured life at home is not a new topic in his discography. “Downfall” is intentionally petty and resentful to someone who has left him, and he wants to be hurt (“I’m hoping that the view ain’t nice, that the streetlights bleed into your bedroom / that you open up to someone kind, and they hold it all against you”). That feeling of resentment trickles into the lead single “The Great Divide,” a standout track on the album complete with a particularly affecting chorus (“I hope you settle down, I hope you marry rich / I hope you’re scared of only ordinary s**t / like murderers and ghosts and cancer on your skin”). It is a curious sentiment expressed with cleverness. “Dashboard” is another highlight; Noah calls out a person who tries to restart their life with a clean slate, but at heart is still a bad person (“you always went lookin’ for an easy way out / leave the pain you can’t solve with the folks you let down / like the world just restarts, like the clock just resets”). It is a scathing commentary. Another lyrical highlight of the album is the song “Headed North,” (“I’ve been takin’ your advice, and tryin’ to scream less at the tourists / and I’ve been workin’ on my timin’ when I ask too much of you”) and it probably has the funniest lyric on the album (“but if I see one more Cybertruck, I swear to God, I’m gonna floor it”).

My main gripe with this album is that it is overly long, and some songs start to feel redundant in their themes and washed-out production. Somewhere amid 17 tracks clocking in at over 75 minutes, there is a tight 11 or 12 track album which would have been a tight, gripping listening experience from front to back. “We Go Way Back,” “Willing and Able” and “Spoiled” pale in comparison to the other songs here. It is understandable that Kahan, much like many other pop artists, is following the strategy of overstuffing their records to win the game of streaming by numbers. Sometimes less is more, and I would have loved some songs to have been left on the cutting room floor, not because they are bad songs, but because they are underwhelming. However, this does not diminish the fact that for the most part, “The Great Divide” is an expertly curated work that highlights Noah’s strong penmanship and shows that his success is no fluke. May he keep delivering good music for many years to come!