On Friday, April 24, Noah Kahan’s new album The Great Divide was released. It had 43.5 million streams in the first day, reaching his highest out of all previous albums. Not only this, he released a deluxe version, “The Last Of The Bugs” 18 hours after “The Great Divide,” with four more songs, leading to a run time of 1 hour and 37 minutes. Made with “Stick Season” producer Gabe Simon and the famous Aaron Desner, the album led the top 100 leaderboard.
“End Of August” – 10/10
Kahan starts off the album strong, with an instrumental masterpiece that is “End of August.” Listening to this song forces reentry into the feeling of experiencing the best moments in a person’s life, only to go back to normal, and how difficult this transition is. He uses the metaphor of seasonal depression hitting after the summer, and details a life stationary after a temporary high. This song is a fan-favorite and a great way to start the album with upbeat sounds before it delves into harder topics.
“Doors” – 9.5/10
Debuting #1 on the Hot 100, “Doors” is about someone opening a relationship with someone, oversharing, and then they close the door to them. They are given multiple opportunities to fix things, but they don’t want to take them; it feels like “staring directly at the sun.”
“American Cars” – 9.5/10
This song is Kahan’s personal favorite on the album. It is about someone leaving and then returning to help figure out a mess. After they reach fame and are different from everyone else, they come back to. This is a beautiful song with relatable lyrics for everyone and a great bridge.
“Downfall” – 8.5/10
“Downfall” is also composed by Aaron Desner. It tries to convey the feeling of someone leaving their hometown for something big, though feeling bittersweet, and praying for their downfall so they come back and hang out again. It is the art of never moving on.
“Lighthouse” – 9/10
“Lighthouse” came out with the deluxe; it is an ode to his Cape Elizabeth episode. It is about trying to move on, but remaining still stuck in the past. With Bon Iver on the guitar, the song has vivid storytelling of an ocean town that paints a photo in your brain, perfect to listen to in rainy weather, though it is sad.
“Paid Time Off” – 8/10
“Paid Time Off” sounds like an upbeat song, but the meaning behind the lyrics is cry-worthy, “I am a running car, and you’re a closed garage,” is one that stands out. The song is about Kahan wanting to return to his life before his fame, wanting to have a 9-5 job where he would just be working for the paid time off. A great song, differentiating from his others.
“Staying Still” – 10/10
“Staying Still” came out with the deluxe. As a fan favorite, it goes over the hardships of having to restart relationships, keep functioning and try to keep everything together, even when it’s getting hard to do. This is a great song to show the behind-the-scenes of people’s thoughts, and overall is a favorite on the album.
“The Great Divide” – 9.5/10
As the title track and the first teaser song released by Kahan, “The Great Divide” sets the scene for this album. Since its release date on January 30, 2026, this song has amassed over 115 million listens on Spotify alone. This “divide” refers to a slowly decaying relationship due to a lack of communication and hidden feelings. As he illustrates through the thought-out lyrics, this avoidance can lead to a gap that feels impossible to fix.
“Haircut” – 9/10
Haircut has been teased at shows by Kahan for over a year; the song shows the frustration of people staying behind while you go out and do things, while thinking they are better than everyone. The bridge of this song shows anger more than any other song on the album. Overall, a great crashout song for whenever anyone needs it.
“Willing and Able” – 0/10
This is easily the saddest song album, confronting the darkness or somebody’s bad side. It goes from someone who left and someone who stayed. “Oh, I wish you could know me, and I wish I could know you much more sometime,” this song hurts; nobody can listen to it anymore without crying, so it gets a 0/10.
“Dashboard” 9.4/10
One of the songs Kahan teased before the album came out. It goes through people’s past who wronged someone, but come back “changed,” even though they didn’t. They moved on and hope that their past did as well, but they are still the same. This debuted 5th globally and is definitely a favorite for most.
“23” – 9.8/10
In this song, Kahan discusses the battles of addiction that people face, especially addiction within the people that he loves most. He wishes that his loved one were clean from said addiction, but he has to separate himself due to the anger and violence that emerged.
“Porch Light” – 10/10
Released on March 13, “Porch Light” was the second teaser song for this album, following the title track, “The Great Divide.” This marked the point where Kahan stated that his fans should “be prepared for something kind of different” (via Instagram @noahkahanmusic). This song discusses the emotions that Kahan inflicts on his family through his vulnerable songs and lyrics. Although it is from his mother’s perspective, he still reached his goal of connecting with his audience’s lives and experiences
“Deny Deny Deny” – 8.7/10
“Deny Deny Deny” is the 14th track on the album, and was one of the most teased songs on the album before its release. Kahan played this song at many concerts throughout the summer of 2025, causing fans to anticipate its release. The lyrics of this song perfectly illustrate the feeling of fighting with someone in order to try to make them change, even though they never do.
“Headed North” – 7.2/10
This song discusses the rocky, precarious path to success, and how it’s not always a straight line. It uses the analogy of “true north” and how, although you might not be perfectly on course to this destination, you’re headed in the right direction. He praises the listeners for working towards something better, no matter if you’ve taken the perfect route there or not. With modern-day references to Elon Musk’s Cybertruck and high school parties, specific lines of this song have been popularized on social media platforms.
“We Go Way Back” – 10/10
Written on behalf of Kahan after his fame, feeling the excitement from being famous slowly fade, and wanting to go back to how things used to be. One of the only non-explicit songs on the album, it is overall a beautiful song about struggling and wanting to go back to the old days.
“Spoiled” – 10/10
Kahan purposefully wrote this song about his dad, saying the struggles of how he loves his dad but wants to have children and raise them differently than how he was. Composed by the famous Aaron Dessner, the song shows the growing pains of growing up and everything in between. Overall, a beautifully written song showing love to his dad, but also how he wants something different for his children.
“All Them Horses” – 10/10
As one of Kahan’s most emotional songs, “All Them Horses” compares the feelings of physical danger with those of emotional instability. Kahan sings about feeling like an imposter for singing about pain while others are dealing with horrific events, specifically the floods of Vermont in 2023. Overall, this is considered a standout track and is described as one of the saddest on the album.
“A Few of Your Own” – 9.1/10
Written as a conversation between friends around a campfire, it goes well with the last track, Dan. It has the same guitar pick as “All My Love,” but like everything else on this album, anything that sounds happy is sad. “I grew up with a feeling that what’s good must be fleeting.” A favorite track on the album and a surprise song for the deluxe.
“Orbiter” – 9.7/10
“Orbiter” is the last of the 4 songs that came out with the deluxe. Throughout this song, he references multiple moments throughout his life and career where he felt isolated from the rest of the world. Whether it was moving away from his childhood town or not winning the Grammy he was nominated for in 2024, Kahan makes the lyrics gut-wrenching for all of his listeners.
“Dan” – 8.6/10
As the final song on this album, the track title “Dan” represents the name of one of Kahan’s close childhood friends. In addition to Kahan, “Dan” is said to be the other child who appears on the album cover. The references to this friend throughout the artwork and lyrics for this album show that he holds a special place in Kahan’s heart. This song strategically ends this album in a bittersweet way, with a feeling of friendship and nostalgia.
Overall, this album is a 9.8/10. It is beautifully written, with enough songs to crash out to, cry to, scream to, and dance to. Kahan put his heart and soul into this album with help from many others to make an album everyone can really relate to.
