I have seen a number of reviews complaining about the redundancy in the songs on the album. I understand the critique, I really do. I also know that we have a tendency to get defensive when criticism is directed at artists whose work is important to us. That said, I believe the critics are missing the mark on this one.
There is a common thread that runs throughout ‘The Great Divide,’ and to someone listening without paying attention to the nuance, it can make it feel as though the songs are repetitive. Nearly every track on the album is written from the perspective of someone from Kahan’s past. That alone could account for a feeling of stylistic similarity. But it goes beyond that. The perspective he is trying to capture in the songs is what he imagines these people—his family, folks from his hometown, ex-girlfriends, old friends—think and feel about him, his success, his struggles, and—probably most importantly—his absence.
From track to track, we see a pattern of emotions expressed: frustration, resentment, anger, sadness, nostalgia. Each song narrator feels this array of emotions differently, but the core perspective is fairly similar. Which makes sense, of course, because the songs weren’t actually written by these people; they were written by Noah Kahan.
The entire album is a therapeutic exercise in empathetic consideration of the perspectives of others, but it is also his way of processing the shame and sadness he feels about what may have been lost along the way.
Can 17 (or 22) tracks about this same thing feel a little self-indulgent (and maybe a lot self-injurious)? Sure. But in the same way that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ would have been an incomplete project for Taylor Swift if she had tried to over edit the tracks and cut out some of what she was trying to process, ‘The Great Divide’ had to include every one of the songs in the album in order to feel like a unified whole.
(There are actually more ways that this album reminds me of TTPD, but that’s another post entirely. What I will say here is that I think it’s interesting how the theme of so many of Taylor Swift’s songs is “people from my past underestimated me, they resent me because of my fame, and now I am showing them up through my success,“ while the message in Noah’s songs is “no, they were right and I’m kind of a dick.”)
I think The Great Divide is brilliant. And as much as it was frustrating to wait so long, I’m glad Kahan didn’t release it until he believed it told the entire story he had to tell.