Noah Kahan has been teasing new music throughout his We’ll All Be Here Forever tour, which kicked off over the summer. Fans responded in a roar of applause when he began the first bars of his unreleased single “The Great Divide” at The Gorge in Washington State and even sang along with another unreleased song, “Pain is Cold Water,” at his Fenway Park stop.
The folk singer gained popularity after his 2023 album Stick Season went viral on TikTok. The titular song gave many a new phrase to describe the dreary feeling of November, when the trees become skeletons, and the world feels like it’s falling into limbo, just waiting for the holidays to arrive so we can forget about our depression.
Fans love how Kahan reflects on his childhood in a small town in Vermont and relates to the themes of nostalgia and homesickness contrasted with the desire to chase big dreams. The songs, particularly “The View Between Villages” and “Homesick,” speak specifically to the pull many young adults feel to explore the world but the fear of leaving their hometown and community behind.
In 2024, he released an extended version of Stick Season titled We’ll All Be Here Forever. Leaning even harder into nostalgia and the fear of leaving home, the extension added tracks “You’re Gonna Go Far” and “Paul Revere,” which once again expressed a feeling so many people in their 20s experience.
Kahan knows how to tease his fans. After nearly two years of pushing extended versions of his hit third album, including several collabs with renowned artists like Hozier and Post Malone, he’s now releasing snippets of his latest work on TikTok.
“I already know this song is going to break me,” one fan commented on an acapella sneak peek of “The Great Divide” Kahan released in September. It appears his next album will go deeper into themes of religious trauma, mental health, and the complex emotions he feels surrounding his small-town roots.
So far, Kahan has revealed parts of “The Great Divide,” “Pain is Cold Water,” “Wreckage of You,” “Spoiled,” “Shape of My Shadow,” “2010,” “Emily,” “I Belong To You,” and “Best Friend.”
