As an out-of-state college student from a small farm town in New England, I feel like the perfect example of Noah Kahan’s target audience. So, when he came out with The Great Divide on April 24th, I made sure to listen as soon as it was released, and I was not disappointed (and I haven’t been for any of his other releases so far). Noah Kahan’s newest album captures the odd feeling of being split – or should I say, divided – between my two different “homes” in California and Connecticut.Â
The album’s themes of strained relationships, distance, identity struggles, and nostalgia mirror a lot of the emotions that came along with leaving home for the first time. Specifically, “End of August” totally reflected the bittersweet feeling I felt seeing all of my closest friends leave for college to begin their new chapters away from each other. “Dashboard” also felt personally relatable to me as someone who traveled far to go to college. The lyric “I’m a college kid with my windows down” from “Orbiter” has also been trending across social media for fellow students to post to.Â
Although Noah Kahan might be considered to be more mainstream than he was a few years ago, he definitely still feels special to people from New England, especially those who grew up in smaller, rural towns. After listening to the newest album, both of my roommates joked that they really enjoyed the music but didn’t find it as personally relatable as I likely would.
Noah Kahan has a unique way of making people feel truly seen, and he knows just how to capture the special feeling of growing up on the east coast. My personal favorites are “Dan,” “Dashboard,” “Willing and Able,” “Haircut,” “Staying Still,” and “American Cars.” To me, the title The Great Divide means multiple things: the split between home and school, my childhood and the new “adulthood” I am entering, and the feeling of hometown nostalgia and the desire to be independent.
For me, Kahan’s newest album reflects the ideas of growing into a new identity and changing while growing up. Being in college has made me realize that there’s a whole world away from where I grew up, but it also increases my fondness and appreciation for home.Â