Album Guide · April 24, 2026
Noah Kahan · Mercury Records
77:20 standard / ~1hr 30min extended · Produced by Gabe Simon, Aaron Dessner, Noah Kahan
About the Album
"From a long silence forms a divide, a great expanse demanding attention. I stare across it. I see old friends, my father, my mother, my siblings, my younger self, the great state of Vermont."
#1 debut in the US and UK. #1 in Australia and New Zealand. Best first-week sales for a rock album in over a decade.
Singles
Music video premiered during the 2026 Grammy Awards broadcast, in a Mastercard-sponsored commercial break.
Sung from his mother's perspective.
Released to radio.
Written In
Nashville, TN
Next to a piano - his second home base.
Guilford, Vermont
Next to a pond. Aaron Dessner brought him here.
Upstate New York
A legendary studio - widely believed to be Dessner's Long Pond Studio in the Hudson Valley.
Only, Tennessee
A farm with a fire tower - connecting directly to his late friend Carlo, memorialized in 'Dan.'
Tracklist - Standard Edition (17 tracks)
The album begins where Stick Season left off - with the bugs.
Opens with bug-chirp sounds blending into piano. "Ending of August, the bugs are just starting to die" - direct continuation of Stick Season's "The View Between Villages."
📍 Vermont - references I-89, New York plates at the county line, brothers Richie and Austen, copper mines.
Third single, released May 1, 2026. Upbeat tempo. About showing people exits he can't let them through.
Performed live at Tiny Desk before the album dropped. A narrator pleads with Kahan to come home from touring.
feat. Nina de Vitry - fiddle, cello
Sung from the perspective of family praying for his return. Justin Vernon's banjo deliberately echoes traditional Vermont folk.
feat. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) - banjo, background vocals
Performed live at Tiny Desk. About touring exhaustion and time owed to people left behind.
Lead single, January 30, 2026. Music video premiered during the 2026 Grammy Awards. About a childhood friendship fractured at a gas station.
feat. Amy Allen - co-writer, background vocals
Lyrical standout. Faster-paced. "You walked into a haunted house and got angry at the ghosts / We were fine without you, baby, long after you're gone."
Stripped-back. Reminiscent of his Cape Elizabeth EP. Strings arranged by Rob Moose.
feat. Rob Moose - string arrangement, Justin Vernon - background vocals
Produced primarily by Dessner. Continues the album's heavy driving motif - Paste counted 15 uses of "drive" across the record.
"Not based on a story of my life, but based on a lot of friendships I have with people who have family members who are struggling with addiction." - Noah Kahan, Apple Music.
Second single, March 13, 2026. Sung from his mother's perspective. Reportedly an act of reparation after a joking comment hurt her feelings.
Up-tempo, rock-leaning. One of the album's rare aggressive tracks. Will translate loud live.
Voice notes at beginning and end give an intimate, in-studio feel. '60s pop-leaning guitar style - a deliberate sonic departure.
feat. Justin Vernon - guitar
Believed to be written for Kahan's wife, Brenna. "Heaven is a drink in the backyard." Stripped-back.
Continues the heading-north theme. Justin Vernon backing vocals.
feat. Justin Vernon - background vocals
Critical favorite - called "the best song Kahan has ever written" by In Between Drafts. About the 2023 Vermont floods while Kahan was on tour. Survivor's guilt.
Album closer. Contains a callback to Busyhead - likely a reference to "Carlo's Song." Closing line: "Don't the sky look pretty up here?" The political-divide subtext: refusing to name the divide is itself a form of love.
Two friends watching wasps drown in a Miller Lite, waiting for sunrise. The album closes with bugs - bookending "End of August." Full circle.
📍 The fire tower in Only, Tennessee - where part of the album was written - connects to his late friend Carlo.
The Last of the Bugs - Bonus Tracks
The four bonus tracks are interwoven through the album rather than appended. The standard edition omits tracks 5, 7, 19, and 20.
Bonus track - The Last of the Bugs edition. Interwoven at slot 5.
The strongest direct lyrical connection to the Boston/Fenway shows.
Teased on @thelastofthebugs the same day the tracklist dropped - fans thought Kahan was trolling by leaving it off. Then he added it to the deluxe.
📍 Boston - references "Storrowing" (moving vans stuck under Storrow Drive bridges), the Harvard track team on the Charles River, and Logan Airport.
Bonus track - The Last of the Bugs edition.
Bonus track - The Last of the Bugs edition.
The Bug Thread
The album opens with bugs dying ("End of August") and closes with wasps drowning ("Dan"). The phrase "the last of the bugs" - first heard in Stick Season's "The View Between Villages" - became the secret name of the rollout, the deluxe edition, and the easter egg hidden across this site.
Track every bug reference →Key Collaborators
Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
Background vocals, banjo, electric guitar
Tracks 4, 15, 17
Aaron Dessner (The National)
Guitar, piano, drums, synthesizer, banjo - co-producer
Multiple tracks
Gabe Simon
Primary producer - longtime Kahan collaborator since Stick Season
Most tracks
Amy Allen
Co-writer, background vocals
Track 8 - The Great Divide
Rob Moose
String arrangement
Track 10 - Willing and Able
Nina de Vitry
Fiddle, cello, violin, mandolin
Track 3 - American Cars
Carrie K
Drums on most tracks, production coordination
Multiple tracks
Benjamin Lanz
Trombone
Track 1 - End of August
Eddy Dunlap
Pedal steel guitar
Multiple tracks
Rollout Timeline
A mysterious TikTok account - @thelastofthebugs - appears with a clip captioned: "you weren't supposed to find this... only the last of the bugs ever do."
Album officially announced.
Lead single "The Great Divide" released.
Music video premieres during the Grammy Awards broadcast.
"Porch Light" released as second single.
Documentary "Noah Kahan: Out of Body" premieres at SXSW on Netflix.
Pioneer Works preview show in Brooklyn - first public album performance.
The Great Divide released on all platforms.
Surprise: extended edition "The Last of the Bugs" drops with 4 bonus tracks, less than 24 hours after the standard album.
"Doors" released as third single.
Tour opens - Orlando, FL.
Vinyl Variants
American Rust
Headlights in the Dark (black-and-yellow limited edition)
Documentary
Noah Kahan: Out of Body
Netflix · Directed by Nick Sweeney
Premiered SXSW, March 16, 2026 · Won the 24 Beats Per Second Audience Award
Tracks Kahan's life between Stick Season and The Great Divide.