The song that kicks off Noah Kahan's evocative 2026 studio album, The Great Divide, we first heard a snippet of ‘End of August’ when the Vermont native launched his ‘secret’ TikTok account, @thelastofthebugs, to start teasing the forthcoming project.

It finds Kahan picking up where he left on the final song of Stick Season, ‘The View Between The Villages’, referencing those “bugs” that pop up throughout The Great Divide. Kahan has said previously he was initially going to call the album The Last of the Bugs.

‘End of August’ introduces the idea that The Great Divide will see Kahan experimenting with different sonic textures, with this track finding the ‘Northern Attitude’ singer-songwriter crooning soulfully across a sweeping, atmospheric instrumental.

The way the hook builds is stunning, and it's refreshing to hear Kahan singing across some pared-down keys, rather than his usual guitar-led backing. ‘End of August’ begins with a gentle, twinkling piano, hinting at the vulnerability and intimacy of the track. The composition gives this track a rousing, expansive feel that captures the miles of seemingly hostile, empty space that surrounds Kahan as he drives.

‘End of August’ is packed with satisfying, easter egg references to Stick Season and, specifically, ‘The View Between The Villages’. On that 2022 track, Kahan sings about “the last of the bugs”, and then here on ‘End of August’, our protagonist extends the narrative, declaring mournfully, “the bugs are just starting to die”.

Lines like “All the neighbors are voting for someone who wins every time” and “We're a drawing of a place / We're a photo on the fridge” capture Kahan's bittersweet relationship with Vermont. He refers to it as a postcard-town, which harks back to ‘Homesick’, where he sings, “Every photograph that's taken here is from the summer”.

The reference to mining copper is a nod to Vermont's rich history of having copper mines, with ‘End of August’ a clear signal at the start of The Great Divide that - much like Stick Season - the setting for the overarching narrative will be Kahan's home-state.

‘End of August’ explores how Kahan's heart is in Vermont, but also conveys his sense of feeling frustrated with how nothing changes and how it feels as though it's stuck in time. The beauty of this is that, as he outlines in his Netflix documentary, once he's gone out to chase his dreams and tour the world, he finds himself craving this peace and quietude, and ultimately moves back to Vermont from Nashville.

There's a powerful theme - which we often see in Kahan's music - of needing to be in pain in order to feel alive. He sings about being uncomfortable and tormented, before suggesting this is what makes him feel human, “Late August angst, and a pointless night / Ooh, and the feeling of being alive / For the first time, in a long time”.

‘End of August’ feels like the perfect opening song choice for The Great Divide because of how it combines so many core pillars of the album as a whole: nostalgia, how Kahan's relationship with Vermont has altered since his explosion in fame, lost friendships, the changing of summer into fall, the bugs and cars. The latter is arguably the vital through-line, with much of The Great Divide feeling like the thoughts Kahan tussles with as he makes the long drive home to Vermont.

As part of his official The Great Divide album announcement, Kahan shed some illuminating light on what this body of work represents to him, “From a long silence forms a divide, a great expanse demanding attention. I stare across it. I see old friends, my father, my mother, my siblings, my younger self, the great state of Vermont. I want to scream these feelings, to gesticulate wildly at the figures on the other side, but my voice has grown hoarse and muted after years of climbing a ladder towards the wild, spiraling dreams that have materialized in front of me”.

The Vermont native offers insight into his creative process, “Instead, I wrote them down next to a piano in Nashville, next to a pond in Guilford Vermont, in a legendary studio in upstate New York, on a farm with a firetower in Only, Tennessee. The songs are the words I would say if I could. They are the fears I dance with in the moments before I drift off to sleep. The music here is my best attempt to delve deeper into the people, places, and feelings that have made me who I am. I am grateful for all of it, for all of you, for listening to them, if you choose to do so”.

Kahan has repeatedly touched on how challenging he found the writing process for The Great Divide, as the pressure to outdo his magnum opus, Stick Season, weighed on him, something he explored in-depth in his 2026 Netflix documentary, Out of Body.

During an interview with Zach Sang, he reflected on how he managed to overcome his writers’ block, “It was a hugely cathartic experience. I had been so stressed and so lost and was literally thinking about quitting and going to work at my golf course as a divot repair person”, adding, “The Great Divide for me, I’m so proud of, because not only did it come out of a time of great pressure and expectation. I felt like I was fully able to say what I wanted to say in the songs”.

“Richie and Austen are often along for the ride
They don’t say a lot, but they know every inch of this drive
If these trees started talking, I bet you they’d only talk shit
’Cause we never do anything real, we just talk about it
Endin’ of August, the bugs are just starting to die
All the neighbors are voting for someone who wins every time
And I thought getting older meant knowing it’s too late to try
And I tried getting sober, I swear I did better this time

-

Ooohh, oohhh
Ooohh, oohhh

-

Whoa, everything you see out here will die
Ooh, it’s a matter of time ’til it’s
Fields of ice and reflector lights
’Til it’s our town
Mmm
And anything you need I will provide
A ride home or an alibi
I know the traffic light
You can speed right by
’Cause the camera’s down

-

And I follow New York plates to the county line
I ignore ’em when they wave on 89
The minute that September hits
I’m going off my medicine, oh

-

Late August angst, and a pointless night
Ooh, and the feeling of being alive
For the first time, in a long time

-

Oh we’re a drawing of a place
We’re a photo on the fridge
They mined copper for years
Oh, there was nothing left to dig
It’s a place where most kids
Just grow up and have kids, who grow up and have kids
Who build homes for the rich, oh

-

Whoa, everything you see out here will die
Ooh, it’s a matter of time til it’s
Fields of ice and reflector lights
’Til it’s our town
’Til it’s our town
’Til it’s our town
And it’s ours now
It’s ours now”

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Noah Kahan

Artist