Overall Album Rating: 10/10
Welcome to Part 2 of our track-by-track ranking of Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs, where we’ll rate the second half of the album. For the first 10 songs on the album, check out “PART 1: The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs — 21 Songs, No Skips.” After spending the last article arguing with ourselves over ratings and discovering that even the “lower-ranked” songs on this album are incredible, we’re finally diving into the last 11 songs. From emotional gut punches to sweet moments, these tracks gave us plenty more to analyze, obsess over, and occasionally cry about.
** = Bonus Track
11. “Dashboard” — 10/10
“And you tell yourself lies, and disguise them as facts / It’ll hurt half as much if you drive twice as fast”
“Dashboard” is about someone who mistakes running away for growth, changing zip codes and reinventing themselves on the surface without ever doing the actual interior work. It sits interestingly alongside “Haircut” on this album, since both songs look at leaving with a kind of frustration. Fans who came to this album from Stick Season may even notice a striking contrast with “You’re Gonna Go Far,” a song that frames leaving as something hopeful and worth celebrating. Together, all of these songs show how leaving can mean completely different things depending on who’s doing it and why. Once again, the song starts steady and acoustic before the electric guitar gradually builds and the chorus lifts from sing-talking into full singing in a way that you feel as much as you hear. It’s one of those songs that just gets bigger and bigger until it takes over completely.
12. “23” — 8/10
“’Cause if I never see you again / You could be anything I want / Twenty-three, clean in the engine heat / Teaching me how the thing runs”
In “23,” Kahan tells a story centered on a strained relationship with a family member, likely a sibling, struggling with addiction, and the longing to return to a version of them that no longer exists. The song explores the idea that if you never see someone again, they can become anything you want in your memory, almost like a Schrödinger’s cat situation where they exist as both who they were and who they are now. It’s a stripped-back, minimalist folk ballad, with a steady instrumental that keeps the focus on his vocals and the story, with small moments like the high note on “anything” at 3:50 ascending us to paradise. While it’s an amazing song (especially in meaning), it doesn’t quite reach a 10/10 compared to some of the more sonically heavy, faster songs on the album.
13. “Porch Light” — 10/10
“And I’ll pray for you, be in pain for you / I’ll leave the porch light on / Heartbroken, each morning when it’s me that turns it off”
Released as the second and final single before the album dropped, “Porch Light” was one of the most anticipated songs on The Great Divide, with fans waiting for it since Kahan first teased it on TikTok live in 2024. Written from his mother’s perspective, it’s one of the saddest songs on the album despite its quick folky energy — it captures the exhausting heartbreak of waiting for someone you love to come home, leaving the “porch light” on every night with hope and turning it off alone every morning. The banjo-driven production picks up speed and volume in the chorus, where Kahan’s voice climbs into a falsetto. We think the contrast between the lively melody and the weight of what’s actually being said is part of what makes this song so good.
14. “Deny Deny Deny” — 8/10
“You said you got a guilty conscience, but I ain’t ever seen it / And I’m well-prepared to never meet him”
One of the faster songs on the album, “Deny, Deny, Deny” doesn’t ease you in, jumping straight into chugging guitar and sharp 90’s alternative rock. That energy sets the tone for the entire song right away. Lyrically, it leans into emotional avoidance; it’s about watching someone hide behind denial for so long that the frustration eventually just becomes exhaustion. There’s a constant frustration running through the track, especially in the chorus, where the harmonies feel like a scream under the surface. While the song is sonically strong, it doesn’t hit us as deeply as some of the other tracks on the album, which is what sets it back to an 8/10. Coincidentally, “23” and “Deny Deny Deny” share a score for almost perfectly mirrored reasons; what one lacks lyrically, the other lacks sonically.
15. “Headed North” — 8/10
“And it’s gone to sh*t without you / It was sh*t before, but at least I had you”
Bonus quote: “But if I see one more cyber truck, I swear to God I’m gonna floor it”
“Headed North” leans into a stripped-down, country-tinged sound, driven by acoustic guitar and a steady, almost conversational rhythm that keeps the focus on the message. Its stripped back sound has its charm, but on an album this layered and full, it does cause the song to get a little lost in the crowd. As always, his voice carries the song effortlessly, and the way it drops into a low vocal run on “north” each time is a perfect example of that here. It feels like a rambling update to someone who isn’t there anymore, filled with small-town details that only matter to the two of them. Underneath that is a heavy sense of absence, like everything is the same, just worse without them. It’s beautiful in its own way, just not quite enough for a higher score.
16. “We Go Way Back” — 7/10
“Saw the world from up close, it ain’t much to look at / Compared to you in your work clothes, wavin’ hello from the driveway”
“We Go Way Back” leans into a softer sound, built around piano and a quiet guitar, with Kahan singing in a stiller, more gentle tone that feels intimate. At its core, the song is about familiarity and comfort, finding something more meaningful in a person than in everything else the world has to offer. There’s also lines like “I haven’t wrote my own in a long time,” that hint at the pressure he felt to follow up Stick Season, and how this relationship helped ground him through that. It’s undeniably sweet, but it stays in that same soft, steady space the whole time, which, in our opinion, makes it a little less impactful compared to some other songs on the album.
17. “Spoiled” — 7/10
“’Cause where I’m from and what I’m worth have gotten too damn intertwined”
Driven by acoustic guitar with subtle synth layered in, “Spoiled” has a slightly twangy, textured sound. Lyrically, the song looks ahead, touching on ideas of the future, including family and the kind of life you end up creating. It’s reflective in a different way than most of the album, focusing on relationships that don’t even exist yet. At the same time, the song carries an underlying fear about how Kahan’s own struggles and identity could eventually affect the people closest to him, including that future family. There’s a lot of emotion woven into the song, but it didn’t connect with us as strongly as some of the other tracks, which is what keeps it at a 7/10. At this point, we’d like to reiterate that this whole album is insanely good, and the more we revisit these songs, the more we notice new details that make some of these ratings harder to stick to. Honestly, it’s almost unfair having to compare these songs to each other when the overall standard is this high.
18. “All Them Horses” — 10/10
“Know I wanna beat it, wanna beat it bad / Oh, everyone looks happy in a photograph / I crossed the county line I cannot go back / I’m always on my own”
“All Them Horses” starts off with a super quiet acoustic guitar and soft, almost gentle vocals. There’s a clear pain in his voice from the beginning, and as the guitar subtly becomes louder, that feeling builds with it. When the chorus comes in, the drums kick up and everything becomes more urgent, emphasizing how badly he wants to “beat” his emotions and get out of that state of mind. Post-chorus, the song really opens up, with fuller, layered instrumentation swelling underneath and pushing everything forward. The lyrics draw on the 2023 Vermont floods, using the image of horses staying calm in rising water in contrast with how overwhelmed he is. For us, everything about the song, from the instrumentation to the imagery, works together perfectly.
19. ** “A Few of Your Own” — 7/10
“‘Oh, my, my, what a time to be alive’ / Young and dumb on the edge of the world”
Leaning into a light, more jubilant sound, “A Few of Your Own” is driven by acoustic guitar with hints of the banjo. As the third bonus track, it starts fast but keeps things simple at first, focusing on the quick strumming of the guitar. The chorus has this carefree warmth to it that makes the whole song feel nostalgic in the best way. The lyrics reflect on a relationship that changed him for the better, while also looking at how far they’ve come, from being “young and dumb.” Like “We Go Way Back” and “Spoiled,” it leans into a sweeter kind of emotion. While it’s a charming song, it once again doesn’t resonate with us as strongly as other tracks on the album. It seems we just like getting emotionally wrecked…
20. ** “Orbiter” — 10/10
“I’m an astronaut, you’re the Moon / I starе at you, I sing to you / I circle you”
With airy vocals and a gentle, almost tranquil sound, “Orbiter” leans into a more atmospheric style, built on soft instrumentation. It never reaches that explosion that most of the songs on the album do, instead letting the emotion sit just below the surface. At its core, the song reflects on the disorientation that comes with fame, using the astronaut and Moon metaphor to show how lost and disconnected he feels while being pulled back by the one person who keeps him grounded. Some listeners have interpreted that figure as his wife, others as his mom, but the ambiguity is part of what makes the song feel so personal. The stillness of the melody alongside the outer space metaphors makes the song feel like something you’d play late at night while staring at the sky and thinking about life. It may not have the explosive energy that we tend to love in Kahan’s songs, but the atmosphere behind “Orbiter” makes it impossible not to love.
21. “Dan” — 10/10
“Where do we go when we die? / I wouldn’t mind right here, no, I wouldn’t mind at all”
With an acoustic folk-y sound and moments of soft humming woven in, “Dan” feels reflective in the best way. It centers on Kahan’s friendship with Dan, the kind where you don’t have to explain anything, you just get each other. The line “where do we go when we die?” somehow isn’t heavy, instead turning into something strangely comforting; as long as he’s with Dan, it doesn’t really matter. There’s something about it that feels incredibly wholesome, like sitting around a fire with your best friend, heads resting on each other’s shoulders while fireflies flicker around you. The outdoor, nighttime atmosphere also makes the song feel like a full-circle moment back to “End of August,” bringing the album back to the same warm nostalgia it opened with. The emotion isn’t overwhelming, but it sits with you, in that happy-tears kind of way. It’s one of those songs that reminds you how important those people are, which is probably why so many people have been sharing their own “Dans” online (c’mon guys, stop making us cry).
For anyone who wants to understand more of what went into this album, his Netflix documentary, Noah Kahan: Out of Body, offers a closer look at the experiences and emotions behind these songs.
At the end of the day, the success of The Great Divide speaks for itself. The album earned Noah Kahan his first-ever #1 on the Billboard 200, went #1 across multiple countries, and had the biggest first-week U.S. streaming debut of any album released this year. Even before the album was released, tickets to The Great Divide stadium tour sold out within minutes, with added dates going just as fast.
We’re still not sure every rating we gave will survive another month of listening. Trying to rate songs on an album this strong turned out to be a lot harder than we expected. Through all the second-guessing, one thing never changed: The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs is a 10/10 album.
Of course, music is subjective, and not every song is going to mean the same thing to everyone. But if this album proved anything to us, it’s that Kahan has a way of writing songs that people see themselves in. Whether it’s a lyric that reminds you of someone you know, a place you’ve left behind, or a version of yourself you’re still trying to understand, there’s probably something here that will stick with you.
