The world was not ready for Noah Kahan. After producing and reproducing three versions of arguably the world’s best album: “Stick Season,” Kahan’s name cannot escape the media. Kahan is a rising American singer and songwriter who is known for his soul-searching music that lands in the hearts of many teenage girls such as myself but also people from all walks of life.
While Kahan has technically been producing music since his 2019 “Bushyhead” album that includes bangers like “Young Blood” and “False Confidence,” he only began gaining heavy media traction as his most popular songs from the “Stick Season” album found their form on many people’s TikTok For You Page. The first rendering of this celebrated “Stick Season” album was released in 2022 with only 14 songs. In 2023, Kahan produced a second version of the album, this time known as “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)” with an additional seven songs that, if you ask me, are essential to the album.
Finally, on Feb. 9 of this year, Kahan released the third and final adaptation of this album titled “Stick Season (Forever).” This album concludes to be the end of his journey as a Stick Seasoner, and a start to a new series of his life and music career. On the Instagram post that revealed the new album was live, Kahan wrote, “I am excited and kind of sad to be releasing ‘Forever.’” For many long-time fans like myself, it was hard hearing this was an end to the chapter of my life that for the most part was defined by his music. The album is constantly whistling through my ears every car ride and every study session. However, while the album is still public, and I will still get to listen to it, I know that Noah Kahan himself isn’t experiencing it with me anymore. Also in the post, Kahan mentions, “Forever is a long time this album cycle has felt like forever and I’ve loved every second of it I have loved living in this world I’ve never felt more comfortable in my own skin more proud of what I was representing and my songwriting and more vindicated by the response to a record that was really an extension of my soul.” These melodic words truly represent the kind of person behind the music and is largely why his fan base is so big. Kahan is known for being particularly witty but also a representation of all of our sappy sides.
The newest version of this album holds 30 precious songs, including feature songs with Brandi Charli and Gregory Alan Isakov. Also, in this Instagram post, Kahan mentions, “Gregory and Brandi have written songs that have carried me through pain, loneliness and dramatic life changes in the entirety of my career. I am so honored to have them in this final re-release.” Kahan’s songs are pieces of art, with lyrics that are so touching they help people from all walks of life cope their own struggles. Additionally, in this album, Kahan released an entirely new song: “Forever.” The chorus of this song runs as follows, “When forever was a sentence, sentence to death/ Oh, when you were a running tear, I was a drop of sweat / And the edges of your soul, I haven’t seen yet / Now I’m glad I get forever to see where you end / To see where you end.” Listeners are so enticed by the way the song can perfectly captures a goodbye, something that in the moment.
