Gather around. Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan is leading his audience to therapy — or a walk in the woods.
Kahan’s fourth studio album, “The Great Divide,” out Friday, picks up where “Stick Season” left off with folksy, introspective hooks and catchy choruses that hit like a windows-down drive on a cool summer night.
Recorded primarily in Nashville and upstate New York and produced by Gabe Simon with Aaron Dessner, the 17-track album finds Kahan reaching
for new insights on familiar themes like family trauma, sobriety and home. The album sounds similar to its predecessor, but here, Kahan explores perspectives outside of his own. It's as if he asked himself: What if “Stick Season” had a different point of view?
It’s impossible to recapture the past, and the pressure to follow-up “Stick Season” with another successful release weighed heavily on Kahan, as he revealed in his new Netflix documentary “Noah Kahan: Out of Body,” released just ahead of the album.
The result is “The Great Divide” — not a radical departure from the 2022 record that won him a best new artist Grammy nomination, but an enjoyable listen nonetheless. Anyone hoping for a new style should look elsewhere. Though there are some new features, notably piano and some rock-pop detours that stand out in “American Cars,” a sound best described as Taylor Swift's “Love Story” meets Don Henley's “The Boys of Summer.”
“Doors,” the second track, is all the best parts of Kahan: Blistering guitars, searching lyrics, heavy subject matter. “Have you ever stared directly at the sun? / Have you ever shared some closeness, so exposed, to have it spit back by someone?”
“The Great Divide,” the title track and lead single, has an aching humanity in its lyrics and a searing juxtaposition inviting the listener to view haunting spirits, killers and illness as, well, not the worst things. “I hope you're scared of only ordinary s—-” / Like murderers and ghosts and cancer on your skin / And not your soul, and what he might do with it.”
But it’s the pre-chorus that resonates deeply. Rhythmic guitar chord changes come into the foreground, adding a layer to the quicker strumming that carries throughout the song. The effect is like a building wave.
“You know I think about you all the time,” he sings, “And my deep misunderstanding of your life.”
It's impossible to recreate “Stick Season,” but the album doesn't endeavor to rehash the past. It carries on, a kindred spirit to its predecessor, and why not? Seasons change, but they come back again.
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“The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan
Four stars out of five.
On repeat: “Doors,” “Paid Time Off,” “The Great Divide”
Skip it: “We Go Way Back”
For fans of: The Lumineers, Taylor Swift's pandemic albums, Jason Isbell
