Noah Kahan Saves Best for Last

By: Kaylen Schauf

Noah Kahan released his fourth studio album, The Great Divide, last Friday after months of building anticipation with two singles—the album's title track and "Porch Light"—and more teasers on a second TikTok account, @thelastofthebugs. The album opened with the final chirpings of bugs at the "End of August," but as fans continued to listen, they realized that some of their favorite unreleased songs were nowhere to be found. After about 24 hours of despair, Kahan posted once again, saying "I told you there was gonna be more music." The extended version, The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs, was finally ours.

Noah Kahan at Ocean's Calling Festival on Sept 27, 2025 (Photo: Dave Parsons)

Even before the addition of four deluxe tracks, Kahan's storytelling on this record blew fans away. His genius lyrics tackle the complications of messy relationship endings, the guilt of growing up and the pain of living through loneliness over a steady strum of guitar and banjo that'll make you want to hop in your car and drive until you hit empty.

One song that stands out for its gut-wrenching lyrics is "Dashboard." Kahan sings from the perspective of someone left behind with the unresolved turmoil of a relationship that the other person is running from, saying "you tell yourself lies, and disguise them as facts. It'll hurt half as much if you drive twice as fast."

Another song that resonates deeply with listeners is "Doors," which simply describes the complicated feeling of having walls up even with the people you love most with the words "it gets harder to see me the closer you try to look."

Although the overall tone of the album is pretty sad, it wouldn't truly be his without a touch of humor, like in "Headed North" when he takes the opportunity to complain about Tesla with "if I see one more Cybertruck, I swear to God, I'm gonna floor it."

While the first version of the album is already polished to near-perfection, audiences were right to beg for the release of one particular song on the extended edition that is likely the best of them all: "Staying Still." In early April, Kahan made multiple posts advertising the upcoming album with a 37 second audio clip from the song and it quickly became a fan favorite, some users even referring to it as the "ultimate crash out song." Listeners were rather alarmed when the song did not appear to be part of the album, enough so that Kahan specifically mentioned "Staying Still" in his extended edition announcement.

"Staying Still" packs a punch with strong beat drops and even stronger lyrics about forcing yourself to let go but hoping to find something that stays. The bridge hits close to home for many people as the singer's voice builds energy and emotion, saying "Nevermind, nevermind, oh forget about it. I'll be good, I'll be fine, I can laugh about it," until the final chorus hits and we get a powerful full belt moment, reminiscent of the famous "Hozier yell" from "Northern Attitude"—a track from the deluxe edition of his previous studio album.

If you've ever had to grieve the space someone left in your life or just been worn out by constant change, you may want some Kleenex nearby before streaming this fantastically sad song. The same goes for the rest of the album since Kahan recommended it for when "something's going wrong in your life and it's raining" in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

All jokes aside, The Great Divide and its deluxe edition are folk-pop masterpieces that speak to universal human experiences and connect all listeners despite their differences, proving that our divisions may not be so great after all.