mschoen202 
Welcome to the closest thing you’ll ever find on this blog to ~Breaking News Journalism~.
If you have browsed any social media platform that exists you have probably seen the majority of the world getting their panties in a wad excited over Taylor Swift’s 10th album release, Midnights. An album that, in my opinion, is a fine but surface level effort from someone who has proved she is capable of far greater things. If you were to take the remaining 1% of the population, and then divide that by 10, you will find the small but elite group of people getting their panties in a wad about a different album entirely, Stick Season by Noah Kahan.
kidding obviously it’s Noah.
Noah Kahan
Now I’ve mentioned Noah in my blog before, allll the way back in my first-ever post, Ireland Vol. 1. Furthermore, anyone who has ever had a conversation with me has definitely heard of him because, hey, you don’t get into his top 0.005% of listeners by being a casual fan.
Megan the Super Fan
I started listening to Noah as a freshman in college and my love grew when I attended his concert with my best friend Julia (who will here on out be called Tajin) junior year (we got invited to his after party, got a stalker picture with him, it’s a whole story). The deal was sealed, as they say, when he released an EP called Cape Elizabeth, with the title track named “Maine” not a week before I got a call that I was moving to Maine with a week’s notice to make Covid tests.
A Family Affair (Because Let’s Face It, Tajin is Family Too)
by Tajin because apparently we didn’t get
a single picture of the three of us
together??
Noah has since become a unifying link between my best friend Tajin, my BSFF Emily (who will here on out be called HOSM…don’t ask), and me – just three happy girls who like depressing music. The bond runs so deep that Tajin and HOSM, my best friend and sister-in-law, are actually going to see him live in San Francisco together. I’m super happy that they’ve bonded and are going to my favorite artist without me. Super happy.
Anyways, the thing is (what I really mean), even after 7 years of listening to him, every song he puts out is objectively great. I don’t know how else to describe it. Like, I rarely get this passionate about things (besides Cars, All Star by Smash Mouth, London, Golden Retrievers, the Padres, Trader Joe’s… okay I’m a passionate person is that so bad?). The point here though is that Noah recently released his newest album and shocker, it’s excellent. Therefore, I decided to do an unsolicited song-by-song breakdown for your reading pleasure.
But Wait There’s More!
But that’s not all. As a special treat, rather than getting one unsolicited song-by-song breakdown, today is your lucky day because you’re getting three unsolicited song-by-song breakdowns complete with individualized track rankings! That’s right, for the first time ever Meg’s Miles and Smiles has guest writers, and who better than Tajin and HOSM, our resident Noah experts?
Without further ado here is our analysis of the greatest album of 2022 (and probably the history of the world): Stick Season by Noah Kahan
Our Analysis Of The Greatest Album of 2022 (and Probably the History of the World): Stick Season by Noah Kahan
Megan (Me)
1. Stick Season – title track, maybe the best song ever written? The melody, the vocal inflections, the reference to current events (“Doc told me to travel but THERE’S COVID ON THE PLANES”). Perfection.
2. All My Love – I don’t know how you can make a song that’s happy, sad, heartwarming, and melancholy while telling a story and causing involuntary toe-tapping all at once, but this one nails it. I said it the first time I listened to it and I’ll say it again. A Masterpiece. I genuinely couldn’t keep from smiling out loud the first time I heard it.
3. She Calls Me Back – Two words: Pre. Chorus. (maybe that’s one word?). I STILL DIAL 822993167!!!!!
4. The View Between Villages – Starts slowly until you hit the middle of the song and you’re gripping the wheel with tears streaming down your face and looking back on your past while simultaneously questioning your future… and then it gets slow again.
5. Orange Juice – listen once, and then listen again. I promise it’s worth it.
6. Growing Sideways – “I spent my savings at Lulu and now I’m suffering in style” Not sure how you can put a power line like that in a song and still reach the emotional depth this song does, but that’s the magic of Noah Kahan.
7. New Perspective – Honestly I hate that I’m putting this at #7 because I feel like it deserves higher but literally every song is just that good.
8. Northern Attitude – Mumford and Sons power anthem to start the album off and set the tone, and it does exactly that. I feel like #6, #7, and #8 are all tied in terms of awesomeness, which are obviously a 1000/10.
9. Homesick – This gives me “Noah doing Instagram Live videos during Quarantine” vibes. #IYKYK. I got excited because as someone living 5000 miles away from home I thought I’d be able to relate. While different in every way than I expected, I still was not disappointed in the slightest.
10. Strawberry Wine – The only person I know who can make the line “If I was empty space and you were a formless shape we’d fit” sound romantic. A lot of ooh’s and hmm’s but, like, in a cool way.
11. Everywhere, Everything – it’s not a Noah Kahan love song if it doesn’t talk about the world ending and fingers decomposing. Weirdly sweet with strong verses.
12. Come Over – This might be a bit of a hot take, especially since I ranked it 12th, but I actually like this song. I think the verses are clever and relatable and hit home if you’ve ever felt like you just don’t quite fit in.
13. Halloween – I didn’t love this song when I first heard it, it repeats the same notes/melody over and over again throughout the whole song and I thought it was too simplistic and a little boring. After more listens, though, I came to appreciate the lyrics and think that maybe the simple melody was meant to let the lyrics shine, which I respect. Still not the best on the album though.
14. Still – Here’s the deal with Still. I actually really like the concept of the verses being syncopated against the music, I’m just not a huge fan of the chorus. It kind of ruins the song for me, earning it the last place spot on the list.
Emily (HOSM)
When Megan (who will be referred to as BSFF from here on out), asked Tajin and I to contribute to this blog by ranking our favorite songs in order from the new Noah Kahan album Stick Season, I had a split moment of excitement then immediate anxiety because how the heck was I supposed to rank songs from my favorite album of all time? She was asking the impossible from me. It felt like BSFF was asking me to pick my favorite kid from 14 options and that’s just impossible, as all you parents know.
After many listens to the entire album (for research purposes of course) and long deliberation, I, like many parents, ranked my kids (aka songs) from my favorite to my least favorite. We all know that parents who say they love their kids equally is a lie, parents have their favorite kid (says me who obviously thinks I’m my parents favorite ;)). So without further ado, here is the rankings you all have been waiting for:
1. All My Love – this song deserves my number one spot because it was the first song on the album that I fell in love with. It’s catchy, but it tells a realistic love story that ends with a breakup and I’m here for the realism.
2. Everywhere, Everything – this is one of those songs that I cannot stop humming and it’s stuck in my head all day, every day. Not only is it catchy, it’s a beautiful take on love and reminds me of a teen love movie (specifically A Fault In Our Stars) and who doesn’t love a sappy love story that ends in tragedy?
3. Homesick – I frickin’ love this song! I feel like this song is so relatable for people that are from small towns and have a love-hate relationship with where they grew up. Not only is it a lyrical genius, it’s funny, a little angsty, and it makes me dance with my dog Daisy around the house.
4. Northern Attitude – This song has the same sound as Mumford & Sons, Of Mice and Men, and the Lumineers all mixed together to make a wonderful song. What’s not to love about that?
5. Stick Season – BSFF, Tajin, and I all got to hear this song back in December 2021 at Noah Kahan’s concert in Phoenix. I think it’s safe to say that we all loved this right away. How can you dislike an incredibly relevant and catchy song?
6. Orange Juice – I hope you are catching on that lyrics mean a lot to me and what can I say, Noah Kahan is a lyrical God. This song is no exception. I love the story that he tells in the song and he always finds beautiful and creative ways to describe and tell us hard stories of life.
7. Growing Sideways – I love a good Noah song about mental health spinning out of control. And haven’t we all had a lapse in judgment and spent our savings at a Lulu?
8. The View Between Two Villages – I’m not really sure why I like this song as much as I do since it’s one of the slow songs on the album, but I love the vibe and that’s why it’s my #8
9. Come Over – to be fair, I really didn’t like this song when I first heard it. I found it whiny, but as I continued to listen to it, I realized there was a beautiful story written in the verses of this song. Not only is Noah telling a heartfelt story he is practically singing without any music behind him, which I find amazing. I also will pay $5 to anyone who can find a song where they say “The Dow Jones” in their lyrics. BRILLIANT!!
10. New Perspective – this song is just another jam that I enjoy for no particular reason! I like the lyrics and it’s fun to bop to in the car.
11. Still – as Noah fans, we are very used to sad songs and for once this album is a little more upbeat, with the exception of a few songs; Still being one of them. I like it, it’s just not my fav.
12. She Calls Me Back – I don’t know what it is about this song, but I find it repetitive and just kind of there. It’s not bad, its not good, just meh for me.
13. Strawberry Wine – I am starting to like this song the more I listen to it, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. It’s just kinda there. That being said I still listen to it and sing along to it, it’s just not my jam for whatever reason.
14. Halloween – as I write this on Halloween, I feel a little sacrilegious because I don’t like this song. I skip it every time and that’s all I have to say about that.
Julia (Tajin)
So Megan has yelled at me for holding up this blog post bc I procrastinated this for too long, apologies to everyone for the delay (and by yell I mean an all caps text- about as angry as she gets). Procrastinating is something I usually do for things I expect to be very hard, not great I know, working on it in therapy. Seriously though how the hellll do I, possibly the most indecisive person in the world second only to Miss Megan, rank all of my favorite songs. I’m going to give you my order which is heavily influenced by the order I queue them on Spotify because I feel like that speaks volumes right? Please direct any disputes and angry emails to Megan.
1. Stick Season – People talk about love at first sight, but what about love at first listen? I don’t think I’ll ever forget my first listen of Stick Season and how with each second it got better and better and it felt like I was going to explode. I kid you not I listened to it probably 25 times from the second it was released over the next 24 hours. Whoever made the decision to release this as the first single is a very smart individual. I’ll never forget some of my closest friends texting me this song and it being the first song that made them fall in love with Noah like I had been for so many years.
2. All My Love – I think Megan and Emily have covered this enough, it’s pure magic and I know that I will cry heavy, thick, rainstorm tears when I see him play it live with Miss Emily.
3. Northern Attitude – I just have so much love for this song and am so thankful he released a second single to hold us over before the album. I’ve screamed this, cried to it, yelled it, all the above and it just makes you feel like dancing so hard and jumping up and down to the chorus – which I will definitely be doing in concert.
4. The View Between Villages – I think this is one of Noah’s rawest songs, which if you know his music it’s pretty sad in general and he’s very real about his depression and anxiety but there’s something about the slowness, rawness in his voice as he reflects “I’m 17 again, I’m not scared of death I’ve got dreams again” ; “there is meaning on earth I am happy” and then a slow bridge into the chorus like COME ON.
5. Everywhere, Everything – the opening “it’s been a long year” just yes. Yes it has. This was in my top 3 favorite songs my first listen through, and I continue to absolutely love it but it’s just the decomposing fingers lyric that always makes me cringe a bit but that could just be me, the other lyrics make up for it like DOG EARING BOOKS bc same Noah.
6. New Perspective – I could listen to how he starts the chorus with “OO” and downtown literally all day… and I have.
7. Strawberry Wine – this one took awhile to grow on me but boy then it grew fast, “I’m in love w every song you’ve ever heard” – ya well Im in love with every song you’ve ever sung, Noah. Also “I said love is fast asleep on a dirt road with your head on my shoulder” and “no thing defines a man like love that makes him soft and sentimental like in a stranger in a park” just CUTE.
8. She Calls Me Back – I feel like this is something we all experience when we really like someone, have anxiety, just want to hear from them, I also just love “there was heaven in your eyes” I think it’s a really beautiful love song without being a explicit love song if that makes sense?
9. Still – this song is just so beautiful, the slowness and the lyrics that he semi-raps that don’t have a distinct beat and the way he sings the chorus makes me try to match his high pitch but alas I never can as well. THE slow song of the album that makes me wanna cry and slow dance and all the emotions.
10. Come Over – this one started out as my least favorite when the album came out, but it quickly grew to one of my favorites as I listened which is why I hate even putting it at 10, it’s just how good the album is. His voice is just so beautiful in it and the lyrics are funny, painful, telling a story – it’s like the most Noah song ever (if you’ve seen him live and/or follow him on Twitter you know his sense of humor and self-deprecation).
11. Homesick – this song makes me laugh “and that makes a lot of sense this place is such great motivation for anyone who tryna move the f**k away from hibernation”. I’ve never wanted to be from New England more to scream “I’m mean bc I grew up in New England!”
12. Orange Juice – this song makes me sad but hopeful at the same time – classic Noah confusing my emotions. I know Emily and Megan ranked this much higher so maybe I need to listen more.
13. Growing Sideways – I hate ranking this one so low but the only reasoning I got is that I never reach to play it ya know? I know how deep and raw the lyrics are but i just can’t rank it any higher when there’s songs I play 65x on repeat.
14. Halloween – to be honest friends I’m not sure if I’ve listened to this song all the way through and that’s just that, sorry Noah.
Final Thoughts
In the same way that throwing down a Draw 4 in Uno can end relationships, these rankings have already caused a rift in our rock-solid friendships. From the moment the lists were submitted the group chat has been active with discussion, accusations, and some not-very-nice words typed. Noah just has that power.
So with that we urge you to run, not walk, to go listen to the greatest album of our generation so you too can rank your favorites. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but only if it matches my list. And Noah if you’re reading this, I’m mad that you got too big and don’t respond to my Instagram DMs anymore. That is all.
I love my three daughters, you can always make my heart smile❤️