Each year of college comes with its individual ups, downs, and canon events. From the rush of freshman year and all the new possibilities to the ominous unknown of post-grad life during senior year, the transition is never linear.
Similarly, each Noah Kahan album has its own sense of the highs and lows of life. His music emphasizes the importance of relationships, mental health, and the beauty of starting over.
Freshman year – Busyhead
Freshman year of college is full of new things: new friends, dorms, classes, and freedoms. This can be a time of joy, finding exactly where you fit in and taking classes in the major you love, or it can be a period of stress.
Nevertheless, freshman year brings an unavoidable sense of stress. In Kahan’s first album, Busyhead, there are titles such as “False Confidence,” “Busyhead,” “Mess,” and “Hurt Somebody.” Anyone can recognize these titles as canon feelings of freshman year.
Whether it reminds you of a time when you were overwhelmed with homework or saw the guy you like with another girl at The Tally Strip, stress is inevitable. The main theme of Busyhead is one of starting over and managing one’s mental health during the process.
The lyrics “Hide your secrets, disguise your weakness / And lose yourself inside your busyhead” from the song “Busyhead” display what it feels like to leave home. You build your community brick by brick while battling loneliness.
Sophomore year – I was / i am
Kahan’s second album, I Was / I Am, perfectly represents the sense of cognitive dissonance that happens during sophomore year. You start to move away from the “new life” feeling, develop lasting relationships, and start to actually be the person you want to be. You may be feeling more confident and secure in your college career; maybe you joined an organization you love or found a new friend group.
However, this is also a time of transitioning, when classes start to get serious, and resumes need to be built. Kahan’s track “Part of Me” encapsulates that bittersweet feeling of realizing that while you’ve grown, you’ve also left a version of yourself behind. You aren’t the wide-eyed freshman anymore; you’re becoming someone new.
Junior year – Stick Season
By junior year, the “newness” of college has officially worn off, and you enter what Kahan calls Stick Season. This album represents the transition between seasons, the period where the leaves have fallen but the snow hasn’t arrived yet.
You’re likely deep into your major, perhaps surviving a 9-to-5 internship or realizing that your time in Tallahassee is more than halfway over. The song “Growing Sideways” perfectly captures the junior year feeling of watching everyone else “move on” while you feel stuck.
It’s frantic but quiet. Stick Season is about finding peace in the chaos of being “halfway out.” You’re starting to value quality over quantity in your friendships and moving away from the Busyhead noise toward a more grounded version of yourself.
Senior year – The Great Divide
Finally, we reach the “great unknown.” As graduation in May 2027 looms for many of us, Kahan’s upcoming album, The Great Divide, serves as the perfect metaphor for senior year. It represents the literal and emotional divide between your youth and adulthood.
It’s that feeling of driving through Tallahassee and realizing every corner holds a memory, yet knowing you’re about to cross the border into the “real world.” You’re standing on the edge of a cliff, looking at the life you’ve built versus the one you’re about to start.
Whether you’re screaming “Homesick” or anticipating the new themes of The Great Divide, Kahan’s music is there. His discography proves that no matter which year you’re in, someone else has felt that “Busyhead” feeling, too.
It reminds us that even when we feel stuck in a season or scared of the divide, the next chapter is always just around the corner. We’re all just trying to navigate the view between villages.
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