Review: Stick Season by Noah Kahan
November 15, 2022
Stick Season by Noah Kahan was inspired by the time of year between fall and winter, close to Halloween but before the first snow when the world is brown. It is also an album that is deeply connected to where Noah was raised in a small town in Vermont as well as where he graduated high school at Hanover High School. This album is good because no matter where you come from you can relate to many of the songs. Noah shares his belief that growing up is a continuous process. Stick Season fits with Minnesota’s seasonal depression, and it makes you feel so many emotions on all levels.
There are many songs that cover loss and moving on. These are feelings that everyone has experienced in their life. Like in the song “Stick Season” there is a lyric that speaks of moving on “Cause your voice trailed off exactly as you passed my exit sign, Kept on driving straight and left our future to the right”. This lyric speaks volumes about being left by someone you were waiting on and they didn’t stop or even notice you weren’t there. This vibe continues throughout the album and many of its songs.
Many northern states in the U.S. as well as many northern countries face seasonal depression. This is where light becomes less and it becomes very cold outside so we spend most of our time inside. So for us northern people, there is a whole song called “Northern Attitude” that speaks to the seasonal depression of the north, especially with the lyric “Forgive my northern attitude, Oh, I was raised out in the cold,” or the lyric “Oh, I was raised on little light”. This song is beautiful and it makes you feel good about being who you are as a person even if that’s a little cold sometimes.
There are many songs on this album that can make you go from smiling to crying in just one second or from one song on the album to another, but one song that holds these traits for me is “Orange Juice.” It is a song about being happy for someone who has overcome a struggle in their life, but also recognizing you are not their person anymore. They are growing up and moving on. And those are happy things that can also make you sad involuntarily. One lyric that I think fits this is “And you said, You said my heart has changed, And my soul has changed”. This is my opinion, and if you want to find a song that fits this season in the year or your life I encourage you to go ahead and listen to the album.
This album has become my anthem for many reasons like no matter where you come from you can relate to many songs, it aligns with Minnesota seasonal depression, and it makes you feel so many emotions on multiple levels. This album gave me a place to put all my emotions and I love that. If I was you I would give it at least one listen, but I don’t believe you would be able to stop there.