Known for his viral album, Stick Season, Noah Kahan has been teasing his new album for the past year. Kahan has an average of 24.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has headlined multiple festivals, including Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville in Sept. and Railbird Music Festival in Lexington in June 2024. Kahan’s music is classified as folk, with his songs exploring struggles in life, particularly those related to mental health.
Kahan has become a fan favorite artist for most, with being relatable and sharing his struggles with mental health, and overall caring for his fans. Kahan created the Busyhead Foundation, whose goal is to reduce mental health stigma and provide resources to rural communities.
Kahan’s new album has been speculated to be named ‘The Great Divide’. Kahan has released multiple teasers for the song ‘The Great Divide’ since May 2024. This song has been played at every show for the past year. Another lead single for the album is most likely ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’, which has been played at most shows for the past 6 months. Nicknamed the prequel to ‘Dial Drunk’, this song seems to be one of his top tracks for the upcoming album.
“I started listening to him not too long ago, and I love his music now, so I’m really excited,” Lucy Kovanda (12) said.
With Kahan posting teasers about one a month for the past year via Instagram, fans have a good idea of a lot of many of the songs expected to be released on the album, including: ‘All The Horses’, ‘Doors’, ‘The Great Divide’, ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’, ‘Wreckage of You’, ‘Nothing To Report’, and ‘Orbiter’.
The Stick Season album was labeled as a “love letter to New England,” while the teasers for the new album approach themes of pain, reflection, and moving forward, all of which are relatable to most.
“I enjoy his music, so I’ll listen to it,” Ethan Lang (10) said.
Kahan has enjoyed collaborating with other artists when writing albums, with 8 collabs on the Stick Season Forever album. Though none confirmed, in Oct. 2024, Kahan released a snippet of a song named by fans as ‘Wreckage of You’, with Bon Iver’s voice being heard, likely hinting at a collaboration between them. With others such as Gracie Abrams, Lewis Capaldi, and Olivia Rodrigo being brought out to shows as good friends of Kahan’s, they may possibly be appearing on the album.
With more big news for the album, Kahan was found to be recording at Long Pond Studio in Hudson Valley, New York. Long Pond Studio is best known for Taylor Swift’s Grammy-winning album folklore. Owned by producer and composer Aaron Dessner, it is a privately owned studio with only those who are collaborating with Dessner to use.
Though no release dates have been set, Kahan announced on Oct. 2 that he had two songs to finish for the album, and would be releasing it as soon as possible. The release date is estimated by fans to be late 2025 or early 2026.
