Noah Kahan - Stick Season
Noah Kahan
Stick Season
Release Date: October 14th, 2022
Label: Mercury/Republic Records
Review by Jared Stossel
Nearly four years ago, Noah Kahan began writing songs to avert the feelings of loneliness and isolation during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. An album seemed to be the last thing on his mind, particularly as he wrote songs that veered further away from the alternative-pop stylings he was becoming known for; these songs veered into folk singer-songwriter territory, while still remaining painfully candid and emotional. These writing sessions would eventually turn into Stick Season, Kahan’s most popular album thus far in his catalog, and the record that launched his career into the stratosphere. With fourteen songs that channel feelings of heartbreak, solitary confinement, and depression, Kahan has brought forth his best material, showing that sometimes all you need is a guitar and your voice to get your point across.
While minimal instrumentation is utilized, Kahan ebbs between powerful moments (“Stick Season”) and delicate glimpses into feelings of heartbreak (“Orange Juice”, “Strawberry Wine”, “Still”). The songs that make up Stick Season are simplistic in scope yet their emotional weight is heavy. Kahan is an excellent wordsmith, coining lines like “I’m in the business of losin’ your interest/And I turn a profit each time that we speak” (“Come Over”). Inspired by the time during frigid New England winters (he grew up in Vermont) where the leaves have fallen but the snow still hasn’t, each song evokes a painfully nostalgic moment in youth that we’ve all experienced. Moments where we felt that the world was against us, where nothing was working out for us, only for us to channel that energy into love and have it completely kick you in the face.
The success of Stick Season has led to it being twice re-released, the first time as Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever). The newer edition features seven bonus tracks, including an extended version of the emotional closer “The View Between Villages” and the smash hit “Dial Drunk” that has helped turn Kahan into a household name. An even longer version titled Stick Season (Forever) includes all of the above, plus a new song (“Forever”) and eight re-worked tracks from the original album that feature collaborators like Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, and Gracie Abrams.
Channeling folk music while embracing pop heartbreak, Noah Kahan has certainly made a name for himself with Stick Season, a delicate look into the mind of a twenty-something and his trials and tribulations with anxiety, depression, and every other emotion under the spectrum. It doesn’t matter if you’re from a small midwestern town, a secluded New England suburb, or an apartment in the big city - we all connect to the feelings that Kahan channels here, and it’s no wonder that he’s making such a connection with audiences throughout the world. Sometimes, we all need to be reminded that it’s okay to feel human.
