“The Great Divide” Is Noah Kahan’s Return To The music Scene

Noah Kahan has released his highly anticipated title track to his upcoming album ‘The Great Divide,’ which will be released in April later this year. This song was written about two years ago, as some cities on his last tour heard this song in its initial stage. Kahan employs his signature style of raw vocals alongside the track's emphasis on guitar runs, heightening the feelings he works to express through his lyrics. 

‘The Great Divide’ is a deeper look into the struggles of religious experiences and the weight of life that doesn’t allow Kahan to notice a friend's struggles. With lyrics like “You know I think about you all the time / And my deep misunderstanding of your life,” he reflects on maybe some of the wrong choices he has made in their friendship and wishes that he could’ve had a clearer understanding of the situations others around him were going through. 

He hints at the religious aspect of this song, writing “I hope you're scarеd of only ordinary sh*t / And not your soul and what He might do with it”. Kahan is sharing with his friend that he hopes he doesn’t dwell on the aspects of his life he may not be able to control, but that he can just live an ordinary life. 

Continuing this story of reaching out for a friend, Kahan writes, “You inched yourself across the great divide / While we drove aimlessly along the Twin State line.” This instance of the great divide references a falling out of a friendship, while there is a literal depiction of people going their separate ways. He continues on by pleading for his friend to understand that now he has changed, singing “And I'm finally aware of how shitty and unfair / It was to stare ahead like everything was fine”.

One of the many incredible pieces of Kahan’s music is his intricate storytelling. In the lyrics of “Did you wish that I could know / That you'd fade to some place / I wasn't brave enough to go?” He describes an idea of a darker mental state that continues to place Kahan in the hot seat of wishing he had taken his understanding differently, and asks the question of whether this person needs me.