Noah Kahan Made the Most Heartfelt Album of 2022
2022 was a stellar year for music, from instant classics like Steve Lacey’s Gemini Rights album, to Joji’s surprise hit Glimpse of Us (let’s not mention the Smithereens album as a whole though…), to SZA’s comeback with SOS, and Kendrick Lamar’s long-awaited return with Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. I think with all of these hits, it was easy to overlook a lot of the lesser-known artists that released really good projects this year. I want to highlight my personal favorite of the year, Noah Kahan (pronounced con).
Kahan released his third studio album, Stick Season, in October of 2022. The journey of the album started back in 2020 when Kahan posted a snippet of a song he’d just written late one night on his TikTok. He felt that he probably should delete it because it was different from the type of music he was known for, and it was a very personal song to Vermont that he thought might not resonate with most people. But he fought the urge and went to sleep. Practically overnight, it gained tens of thousands of likes. It eventually blew up to hundreds of thousands, and a lot of his fans, old and new, demanded it be released officially. So he finally released it officially in the summer of 2022 and titled it Stick Season, a colloquial Vermont term for the transition period between fall and winter. He ended up titling the new album after the song as well because it fit the themes of the album as a whole, and he saw this time in his life as a transitional period of its own.
Stick Season is a folk-rock album, which is a new direction for the artist because his first two albums are more pop/rock and have a much different feeling. He grew up inspired by folk singers with narrative storytelling styles in their music, like Gregory Alan Isakov (who is also good if you haven’t listened to him). For his newest album, he felt like returning to those roots because he returned physically to his hometown of Strafford, Vermont, during the pandemic. A lot of the music was written in the living room of his mom's house. This album is all about the connections he feels between his hometown and the love/hate relationship he has with it. It hits many notes of heartbreak, as well as feelings of isolation and the difficulties of growing up and finding yourself. This album is made for anyone that grew up in a small town, and I think that’s a cool angle to make an album from, with this kind of sound.
He expresses these feelings in interesting lyrical ways, too. For example, in the lead single, Stick Season, he uses the story of a fictional breakup to express the feelings he has towards his home in a great expression of sorrow, yet sung with an interesting folksy energy that pulls it together perfectly. The amount of raw emotion packed into a lot of the tracks is very tangible, and it tears out the heartstrings only to put them back feeling refreshed afterward, like a hard system reboot. This album is the most heartfelt and most relatable album I’ve heard in a long time, and it makes me very happy. In his own words, “When [he] was growing up and [he] listened to a person sing about something that [he] was feeling…[he] felt like no one in the world had ever felt that before and hearing someone say it was the most gratifying thing in the world. [His] greatest goal is to do that for other people, to kind of provide that lifeline for someone else.”
Every time I relisten to this album, there is a different song stuck in my head, and there isn’t one bad one on the 14-track album, which is a really tough thing to pull off. Just ask Joji, who only had nine tracks on his third studio album Smithereens this year (I know I said I wouldn’t mention it, but I lied). Despite the shorter tracklist, Joji still managed to include a lot of filler on an overall sloppy album that felt more like an EP to tide us over until his next album. In contrast, each song on Stick Season has its own thing to love about it, and I love the variance in tone as well. For example, some songs have comedic/sarcastic elements, like New Perspective and Homesick, that genuinely make me laugh, while others feel very honest and blatant, like The View Between Villages. I have to highlight The View Between Villages because that song is such a great sendoff to the album and encapsulates the album as a whole really well. My favorite songs are hard to choose and have been changing since I found the album, but if I had to choose, it would be between, Come Over, the titular track Stick Season, She Calls Me Back, Growing Sideways, and Homesick are all great.
Kahan’s voice is amazing, and I think he fits the folk genre so well. He reminds me of Bon Iver in songs like Anyway. His lyrics and tone also sometimes remind me of the explicit self-honesty of Keaton Henson in songs like Howling. Kahan does this thing with his voice that I love, and I’m not sure of the term for it. I guess the best way to describe it is a form of yodeling, where he wavers his voice. It's probably one of my favorite aspects of his music, despite not popping up all that often. It is most evident in the song Come Over.
His older albums had messages somewhat similar to Stick Season, but they were conveyed very differently, with a drastic difference in tone. I think glimmers of this album’s specific flavor can be found sprinkled throughout his discography in songs like Howling, and Maine. I think the choice to hone in on that flavor to match the message of this album was a great one, and I believe Kahan intends to delve deeper into that kind of folksy sound in the future. I do think, however, that despite their difference in sound, you should check out his older projects. Especially his EP Cape Elizabeth, which is the most similar to Stick Season and originated from the same quarantine-period that Stick Season did. Every song on there is good, but I especially like Maine. He does livestream on Instagram every so often, where he gives updates on music and sneak peeks at what music is to come. From those, he has confirmed a deluxe album is in the works for Stick Season. He said he is worried about rushing the process of making a deluxe version of this album because the reception of Stick Season as a whole was so much bigger than he imagined, so he is taking it slow. But from the snippets of songs I’ve heard on his streams, I believe he will do it justice.
I believe this is one of the best albums of the year (if not the best), and you should at least give it a try. This album is made for people like residents of Yakima, and it’s really well produced in order to make you feel the emotions of Kahan, from sorrow to love to anger. Now, if you listen to this album and end up liking it as much as I do, Kahan is doing a Stick Season Tour through the summer of 2023, and he is doing two shows in Washington; One in Seattle and one in Spokane (which I am going to). Tickets are technically sold out, but a handful of tickets are up for resale on certain websites. He is touring with Joy Oladakun, and she has a good voice as well! But hey, even if you don’t have money for a concert, jam out in the comfort of your home. Ultimately, that’s where this album came from.
