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The recently came-to-fame musical artist from Strafford, Vt. has taught me a lot about myself, and it doesn’t stop there. Taking into account Noah Kahan’s upcoming album, “The Great Divide,” as well as “Out of Body,” his Netflix documentary, there’s a lot for Kahan to unpack and teach us about both living and healing.
Something I’ve always found very addictive about Kahan’s music is how raw and human it is. He writes a lot about his family’s dirty laundry, addiction and depression, which are not subjects often covered in songs. Some of Kahan’s songs mean more to me personally than others, but the incredibly raw lyricism is what periodically brings me to tears.
Kahan’s Netflix documentary “Out of Body” premiered on April 13 and essentially follows the past few years of his life. From 2022 to May of 2024, Kahan and his band played 210 shows prior to ending the tour at Fenway Park in July of 2024. Following the tour, Kahan fell into a pit of depression and demotivation that prevented him from making new music.
One of the biggest takeaways from the documentary was Kahan’s openness about his struggle with body dysmorphia and disordered eating.
“I’ve always just really hated the way I looked,” Kahan said. “[It] hasn’t been something I’ve really spoken much about; it’s something I’ve struggled with my whole life.”
“I binge eat a lot of food when I’m stressed, and then I get so hateful about my body and what I look like, so then I starve myself. I feel like when I look in the mirror, I feel like I don’t see my body the way it really is. It’s something I’ve kind of silently struggled with for like the last 15 years.”
The struggles that Kahan goes through, even silently, show that we, as normal humans, are more similar to celebrities than we think. We also never know what someone is going through and what they may be quietly hiding.
Regardless of the struggles Kahan battles in his daily life, his music still has a way of teaching us how we can heal. Even though he felt suffocated in Strafford, he yearned for its simplicity when he was on tour. But, despite the burnout he experienced after touring for two years, Kahan managed to sit down and write a new album, which releases on April 24.
Many of his past songs have specific messages that are able to convey to his listeners the sensitive parts of his life. Not only do they heal parts of him, but they can heal parts of us, too. These are some of my favorite emotion-filled lyrics in which Kahan can teach his fans more about healing with each listen.
“And I’m finally aware of how sh*TTy and unfair / It was to stare ahead like everythin’ was fine,” from “The Great Divide” (2026)
Released as a single from his new album earlier this year, “The Great Divide” depicts separation and grief between two people as they’ve grown away from each other. To me, this lyric tells me that sometimes, it’s unfair for us to pretend everything is okay. While sometimes that temporary denial can be beneficial in the short term, pretending our problems aren’t real can create an expanding crack under the surface that can explode without acknowledgement.
“I’ll dream each night of some version of you,” from “Stick Season” (2022)
Healing is rarely black and white, and neither is trying to forget someone who was important to you at one point in your life. It’s possible to know that someone or something wasn’t right for you, but trying not to miss someone is a challenge in and of itself. Grief and love can coexist. You can miss someone and still know that the separation was for the better.
“So if you look back, and you hate my past / Just know I’m doing everything that I can,” from “Bad Luck” (2021)
Not everyone you meet in your life will love you, or even like you. Sometimes there are things in our past that can burden the present, but it doesn’t change how lovable you are. You won’t be able to make everyone happy, and that’s okay. Waking up every day and trying your best is more than enough.
“And now the pain’s different / It still exists, it just escapes different,” from “No Complaints” (2022)
Oftentimes, pain can take many forms, even if they’re not conscious. Similarly, trauma can bubble up in an unconscious corner of the psyche that may become present when you least expect it. In this song, Kahan is describing that his pain took a conscious form that maybe he’s not proud of, or he wishes could have been different. No matter how long pain or grief lasts, it’s still valid.
“They say they don’t know who I am anymore / Well, I just have never shown anger before,” from “Carlo’s Song” (2019)
This is the most personal lyric on this list to me. I always pushed my anger down as a kid, and rather than express it, I bottled it up and it came out in the form of tears. Here, Kahan describes growing up and not being seen as the same because he is openly showing anger. A normal amount of anger is normal for anyone, though, and this can be expressed through grief, depression or stress.
If these lyrics feel strangely personal to you, it’s because you may be longing to be understood in a better way. Kahan somehow has a way of speaking directly to his fans and listeners in a way that other artists just can’t. Now, I’ll leave you with a quote Kahan gave in the documentary: “There isn’t one event in your life that fixes anything. It’s [about] waking up every day and trying.”