The release of Noah Kahan’s latest album, “The Great Divide” on April 24, does nothing more than establish the singer as a reliable indie folk-pop artist in a music genre where artists pop up and disappear frequently.
Most fans first heard of Kahan from his 2022 album, “Stick Season,” and since then he’s released only live versions or additions to the album. “Stick Season,” characterized by vulnerable storytelling with a very guitar-focused sound, saw much success with over four million units sold or streamed and continued popularity into 2024.
“The Great Divide” fails to build on the success of “Stick Season.”
The 17 songs on the original album and 21 songs on the deluxe album, “The Great Divide: The Last Of The Bugs,” are a continuation of “Stick Season” themes and sound. Many songs from “Stick Season,” such as hits “Northern Attitude” and the title track “Stick Season” revolve around change, hard choices, relationships and health.
In “The Great Divide,” Kahan takes the same themes and continues to put a healthy, accusing or detached-reflective tone to the songs. As far as sound goes, the new songs are still a variety of drum-heavy, slow finger-picking and faster strumming.
Kahan seems to use the same formats for songs.
“End of August” from “The Great Divide” is essentially “The View Between Villages” from “Stick Season”; there’s a similar use of a slow build up, storytelling focus and mesmerizing climax. Similarly, if you want another “All My Love,” then “Porch Light” is for you with faster strumming and a memorizable chorus.
With artists such as Taylor Swift and her wildly different albums, it’s understandable that fans hold an underlying expectation for artists to reinvent themselves with every album release. Even Harry Styles, a traditionally pop music artist, recently released a techno/electronic inspired album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally.”
But sticking with what he is familiar with doesn’t seem to matter when every Noah Kahan song is enjoyable.
Kahan’s songs are both for mood and lyrics. You can scream along with “Dashboard,” and heal with “Haircut,” while also feeling out-of-body as one song seamlessly blends into the next.
His deluxe album tracks could just as easily have been included in the original since they sound the same.
Since “The Great Divide” doesn’t offer much that’s new in content or sound, the album’s success comes from reliability. With indie artists blowing up on social media with one trendy song every couple of months, Noah Kahan continues to stand out; he plays the long game.
“Stick Season” succeeded beyond temporary trendiness as many fans continue to love the album. Even without offering anything truly distinguishable from his discography, Noah Kahan’s “The Great Divide” is still likely to see similar, consistent success.
In an era of music where novelty is highly valued, one of the only new things to appreciate about “The Great Divide” is the drastic increase in the amount of explicit songs from four of 14 in “Stick Season” to 15 of 17 in “The Great Divide.”
While listening to “The Great Divide,” it may feel like Noah Kahan is attacking you. Don’t take it personally, he’s still got some things to figure out.
“The Great Divide” solidifies Noah Kahan as a serious, well-loved artist, but is unlikely to make him stand out among more dynamic artists.
Leila Montoya can be reached at mont1761@stthomas.edu.
