Life moves by fast, and in the haste, a lot gets left behind. Relationships, people and memories all get caught up in change. How do you reckon with the loss?
With the beating heartbeat of guitar and drums, in Noah Kahan’s new album, “The Great Divide,” released in April and available on several music platforms, the singer and songwriter delivers an astounding performance where messages come to life within the strength of his music and passion behind his voice, but also slightly fade in the length and formulaic nature of the work.
The titular song, “The Great Divide,” describes a moment in time when Mr. Kahan felt a gap with his family, himself and many other people in his life. He comes to terms with the experience through expressing what he wished he could say to all of them and what he wished he could have done differently in the past.
He reflects with the lyrics, “You know I think about you all the time and my deep misunderstanding of your life.”
Both the first and last songs of the album touch on the fleeting aspect of life with the lines “Everything you see out there will die” and “Where do we go, when we die?” But both songs end almost optimistically with “And it’s ours now ’cause it’s ours now,” referring to his hometown, and “Before the moment tries to disappear, don’t the sky look pretty from up here?”
Being so apologetic to people in his life and staying optimistic despite a fleeting world, he seems to be choosing to heal old wounds and come out stronger at the end of a rough patch: an extremely powerful message, especially coupled with his messaging on mental health. As he has shared with Time magazine, Mr. Kahan struggles with mental health and has even founded his own nonprofit, The Busyhead Project.
Yet it felt like some of that narrative is lost in the sheer length of the album that runs over an hour long. Almost every song follows the quiet-to-loud arc with repetition at the emotional peak, as many songs do. But in combination with the similar sounds of acoustic guitar, drums and other folk-like instruments such as the banjo or mandolin, differences in lyric or meaning are not enough to differentiate the songs.
Even though there was immense pressure to follow up his previous sensation “Stick Season,” Mr. Kahan produced a raw album that differed in style and perspective that was truly his own, and despite the ups and downs of the songs, ultimately ends with appreciation of the passing world. The length and dedication to the album is impressive, and perhaps for many, the meaning of each and every song will pull through.