Stick Season: An Album

Review
By Ashlee Duncan
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“It was a term that was used by some of

the older folks in the town I grew up in to
describe this really miserable time of the
year when it’s just kind of gray and cold,
and there’s no snow yet and the beauty of
the foliage is done,”
-Noah Kahan, Genius Interview

In this new release Noah Kahan touches

on the complicated feelings of living in
Image Source: noahkahan.com your hometown and how it’s easy to feel
restless yet immobile at the same time.
During the writing process of this song Noah moved back to his childhood home in
Vermont. He talks about how this is his most vulnerable album he’s released and hopes it
can resonate with people who are also feeling stuck in one place.

Stick Season
“I love Vermont but it’s the season of the sticks and I saw your mom she forgot that I exist
and its half my fault, but I just like to play the victim.” Stick season is the second song on the
album and after listening to it only once you can see where Kahan was going with naming
the album after this song. The lyrics alone gives the impression of being stuck in one place
and adding Kahan’s beautiful way of layers his voice and having bursting moments of
instruments shows the frustration one can feel in these moments.

Come Over
“Come over” is the 5th track on the album and it shows you a heartbreaking look into what
seems like a complicated relationship. The songs very first line is “I’m in the business of
losing your interest and I turn a profit each time that we speak.” And right off the bat you
are given this heart-rending way to look at people losing touch with each other. Unlike his
other songs, Kahan’s chorus for this song is slower and gentler. It feels like you can feel this
relationship slowly drifting away.

Orange Juice
“Orange Juice” is the Eighth track of the album. This song gives the impression of the story
of addiction, or rather the recovery from addiction. “you said my heart has changed and my
soul has changed and my heart, and my heart. That my face has changed, and I haven’t
drank in six months on the dot.” Throughout this song you watch this beautiful story of
someone returning home to the people they care about most, just hoping that everything
will be okay.
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Growing Sideways
“But I ignore things, and I move sideways until I forget what I felt in the first place” The
tenth track on this album, “Growing Sideways”, talks about how it feels to never be moving
forward. Kahan largely uses a layering to his background vocals in this song that give a soft
impression of almost being drained.

The View Between Villages

“The View Between Villages “is the last track on the album and it delivers. This song feels as
though it pulls the whole album to a close. Its emotional, nuanced, and almost nostalgic; all
things this album encompasses. The rolling of the drums and entrance of the orchestra
brings a very personal and heartfelt connection the lyrics, enhancing the already emotional
response to the album.

Conclusion
This album is a beautiful love story to the bittersweet relationship between a person and
the connections surrounding them. Kahan does a good job or showing that those
relationship are not just with people but with yourself and the things that molded you into
yourself, such as your hometown. He has an amazing way of using multiple instruments to
complement each other in a very powerful and soul-stirring way.
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Citations:

 “Home.” Noah Kahan, 14 Oct. 2022, https://noahkahan.com/#/.