“I hope you threw a brick right into that stained glass.” When I heard this lyric, I was in awe of the imagery captured: someone flinging a heavy, discolored brick through a detailed, colorful stained glass window — with anger and frustration welling up in their soul. This lyric is something you can feel, and lyrics like this make songs so much more powerful and enjoyable.
Noah Kahan posted on social media on Jan. 20, 2026, that he would be releasing a new single called “The Great Divide.” Kahan released the single just ten days later and announced that a new album by the same name would follow closely behind, releasing on April 24, 2026.
“The Great Divide” is about two people who grew up together but eventually drift apart due to the emotional and mental roadblocks they face in life. Ultimately, the song is about a friendship breakup. The end of the song talks about the guilt of not realizing the emotional gap created in the relationship, and Kahan reflects on his longing for reconciliation with them.
Kahan has been known for writing songs that are deeply vulnerable, exploring the feelings of nostalgia and mental health. It is emotionally honest storytelling that acts as therapy for himself and for his audience. I believe this is why people feel so connected to Kahan’s music and other artists who sound like him. Kahan has risen in popularity in the past few years as one of the main “granola” artists in the music industry.
The “granola” aesthetic is described as a person who has an outdoorsy and down-to-earth personality. Depending on who you ask, this aesthetic can be mainly based on appearance or sound. For Kahan, he gets his “granola” vibe based on both.
If you do a simple Google search of the artist, you can see that the majority of the pictures are of him in the outdoors wearing overalls or flannels that look to be nicer, second-hand clothing or thrifted. For his album covers, most of them are of him in a dark colored outdoorsy place in the country, or an art piece that includes mountains or older structures in the background.
Focusing more on his sound, Kahan has a lot of acoustic guitar and soft bass sounds. This gives his music an earthy feel, which helps the listener truly feel and imagine the lyrics that they are listening to and helps them feel more connected to Kahan and his music.
I first experienced Kahan’s music when he released his single “Northern Attitude.” I originally listened to this song because I heard that another “granola” type artist, Hozier, was featured in the song, providing vocals and harmony, which is now known as the iconic “Hozier’s yell” that people referenced on social media.
Just a few months earlier, Kahan released his most-streamed song, “Stick Season,” and now has almost 2 billion streams. The runner-up song has (only) 600 million streams. This raises the question if most of his fame is truly from him just releasing his work on musical platforms or from viral videos using a clip of said songs, just like people did with Hozier’s yell in “Northern Attitude.”
Kahan’s most recent album, “Stick Season (Forever),” was released almost 2 years ago. His last album did not win Best Album for that year for the Grammys, but the release of the album consistently moved up the charts and brought him into the top 300 artists in the world.
The main question is, did Noah Kahan peak too early in his music career? I would say that is hardly the case. When Kahan posted that he was releasing “The Great Divide,” I witnessed people going berserk in the comments, saying that they “are already crying” and “this was so worth the wait.” This reaction shows that Kahan has indeed not peaked too early in his career, and his listeners are still ecstatic that he is still releasing music.
As I listened to “The Great Divide,” I got just a little taste of what people were talking about when they were saying that it was “worth the wait.” The lyrics flowed perfectly and poetically and they moved me. Any good artist knows how to write a song that showcases a story, and Noah Kahan does this well. I will say that Noah Kahan gained a new listener the moment this new song faded out, and I am excited to experience more of his music, old and new.