By now, most people have heard of Noah Kahan. His latest album, Stick Season dropped October 14, 2022 and was an instant success. But his real claim to fame came with the extended deluxe album, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) which hit streaming services on June 9, 2023. It’s a perfect blend of moody melodies and heart-wrenching lyrics that make you want to cry, scream, and think about your life. Kahan writes about the human experience in a way that touches the soul of each person listening. So from a super fan, here’s my definitive ranking of every song on Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever).
21. Halloween
Best Line: “It’s not Halloween, but the ghost you dressed up as sure knows haunt.”
20. Strawberry Wine
Best Line: “If I was empty space, and you were a formless shape, we’d fit.”
19. Still
Best Line: “It only falls into place when you’re falling to pieces.”
I’ll start by saying there’s nothing inherently bad about these songs. But unlike many of the other songs on this album, these three start slow and stay slow. There are definitely times when I love them, but I have to be in the right kind of mood for these ones.
18. Paul Revere
Best Line: “And I’ll turn up the music and I’ll forget until it ends, that I’m not ready to let go yet.”
17. The View Between Villages – Extended
Best Line: “The things that I lost here, the people I knew; they got me surrounded for a mile or two.”
16. Everywhere, Everything
Best Line: “I wanna love you ‘til we’re food for the worms to eat. ‘Til our fingers decompose, I’ll keep my hand in yours.”
15. All My Love
Best Line: “Now I know your name, but not who you are. It’s all okay, there ain’t a drop of bad blood. It’s all my love, you got all my love.”
14. The View Between Villages
Best Line: “For a minute the world seems so simple. Feel the rush of my blood, I’m 17 again.”
From the strange experience of visiting your hometown again after moving away to the feeling of wanting to love someone forever to the still loving someone after your breakup, Kahan perfectly captures the human experience. These songs touch the soul of every college student moving away from home for the first time or going through a first relationship.
13. Homesick
Best Line: “I got dreams, but I can’t make myself believe them. Spend the rest of my life with what could’ve been and I will die in the house that I grew up in.”
12. No Complaints
Best Line: “And now the pain’s different. It still exists, it just escapes different and evades vision, makes the rain different, makes the news boring, and my rage distant. Yes, I’m young and livin’ dreams, in love with being noticed and afraid of being seen.”
11. Northern Attitude
Best Line: “If I get too close, and I’m not how you hoped, forgive my northern attitude, I was raised out in the cold.”
Just being nudged out of the top ten, these three songs are all about the fears and insecurities of college kids today. From the fear of not succeeding in the future and being forced to stay in your hometown forever to worrying your emotions are invalid to the insecurity that people won’t like you, these songs hit home for so many listeners.
10. Orange Juice
Best Line: “And you said my heart has changed and my soul has changed and my heart and my heart. That my life has changed, that this town had changed and you had not.”
Moving right into the top ten, Orange Juice stands alone from the rest. Kahan has admitted to having continuous struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse, leading to this heart wrenching portrayal of what it’s like to get sober. Many recovering alcoholics have found a voice in this song, earning itself a place in the top ten.
9. Come Over
Best Line: “And my house is just barely big enough for my family, but it feels like a fortress when the weather gets bad.”
8. She Calls Me Back
Best Line: “That I do not exist to die, but live to die while saving you.”
Kahan is a master at pouring out his emotions and, boy, does he deliver with these two songs. All about the love for the people he cares about, these songs pull at the heartstrings of every listener.
7. New Perspective
Best Line: “You and all of your new perspective now. Wish I could shut it in a closet and drag you back down.”
Another that stands alone from the rest, Noah Kahan is petty with this one. He has gone on record saying that this song is all about the people in your life that are able to gain a new perspective and the desire to drag those people back down so they stay in ignorance with you. Not exactly healthy, but damn is it real.
6. Call Your Mom
Best Line: “Don’t let this darkness fool you, all lights turned off can be turned on.”
All about the fear of your best friend harming themselves, Call Your Mom is an absolute tearjerker. Although heartbreaking that so many people relate to this song, its vulnerability and rawness earns it spot six.
5. Growing Sideways
Best Line: “But I ignore things, and I move sideways, ‘til I forget what I felt in the first place. At the end of the day, I know there are worse ways to stay alive.”
As someone who regularly attends therapy, this song hit me hard the first time I heard it and it continues to be one of my favorites on the album.
4. Stick Season
Best Line: “So I thought that if I piled something good on all my bad, that I could cancel out the darkness I inherited from Dad.”
This top five wouldn’t be complete without including the song that inspired it all. Being the very first single I heard from the album, this song is still one of my favorites and holds a special place in my heart.
3. Your Needs, My Needs
Best Line: “Bitter-brained, always drunk, rail-thin, Zoloft, subtle change, shorter days, dead-eyed, dead weight.”
Honestly, something about the way he sings this specific line, itches my brain in a way none of the other songs do. And for that reason alone, this song sneaks into the top three.
2. Dial Drunk
Best Line: “I dial drunk, I’ll die a drunk, I’ll die for you.”
First going viral on TikTok, this song is a lyrical masterpiece. Being one of the main reasons so many people became new fans of Kahan, this song has to be at nearly the top of the list. And I, for one, love it too.
1. You’re Gonna Go Far
And coming in at number one, my favorite song. As an eldest daughter, I cried the first time I listened to this. This song is all about how hard it is to move away from your family, knowing they need you, so you can focus on you and your future. It describes how it feels for the family being left behind, loving you and supporting you the whole time. Eldest daughters, you’ve been warned, this one will get you.
Now, if you didn’t start this article as a super fan, I certainly hope you are now. I listen to it on shuffle repeat everyday and over a year later, these songs still hit me just as hard as the first listen.