If Noah Kahan's ’Orbiter’ sounds a little familiar, it might be because we first heard a clip of it back in 2022. When the Vermont native performed an acoustic version of his unreleased gem, ‘Pain is Cold Water’, ‘Orbiter’ was packaged up as the outro to that song.

The track was eventually released as part of the ‘She Calls Me Back’ singer-songwriter's surprise deluxe version of his 2026 studio album, The Great Divide: The Last Of The Bugs, alongside ‘Lighthouse’, ‘Staying Still’ and ‘A Few Of Your Own’. It finds Kahan reflecting on his discomfort at awards shows, and although not 100% clear, it seems to specifically reference his Grammy Awards experience in 2024.

Much like The Great Divide stand-outs such as ‘End of August’, ‘Downfall’ and ‘23’, ‘Orbiter’ showcases Kahan and Aaron Dessner's ability to beautifully build out a track towards a rousing conclusion. After singing across a sparse, atmospheric, guitar-driven instrumental, the composition gradually expands as the intensity grows.

Kahan's vocal performance is stunning, with the ‘Northern Attitude’ crooner eschewing the angst and rage of songs like ‘Staying Still’ and ‘Deny Deny Deny’ in favour of a much gentler, more intricate delivery, capturing the intimacy of the narrative.

It's interesting how, instead of tagging on the four deluxe tracks at the end of The Great Divide, Kahan decided to very intentionally position them in the midst of the original tracklist. It's not an accident, therefore, that on The Last Of The Bugs edition, ‘Orbiter’ becomes the penultimate song before the hopeful finale, ‘Dan’.

It is underpinned by a deeply personal reflection from Kahan on how he interacts with fame, and where he sees his place among the dazzling stars of Los Angeles. He begins by recalling how uncomfortable he felt at his first Grammy Awards show in 2024, touching on the disappointment that washed over him when he lost.

Kahan has spoken in various interviews about not particularly enjoying being on the Red Carpet, even joking about how his mother, Lauri, seemed more at ease than him at the Grammys.

He bitterly criticises California's approach to up-and-coming artists, with Kahan likening the way they perceive these hopeful singer-songwriters to that of someone looking at a bug trying to get in through a window (“You’re no more important than an insect on a window / They’ll see you climbing but won’t care until you get close”). This ties in with Kahan's overarching symbolism of bugs on The Great Divide.

Kahan then questions how warped our self-esteem becomes when we depend on others to “point out” our beauty, something that becomes exacerbated in the public eye.

In the titular lyric, Kahan describes himself as a planet orbiting the person he is singing to. It's not specified who our protagonist is addressing, but judging by the fact that he is expressing how much he relies on them through this ‘Orbiter’ imagery, we have to assume it is his wife, who steadies and grounds him when he feels cut adrift.

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”.

“I look exhausted, oh stiff and awkward on the outside of the moment
It’s not my first time bitter drunk on a red carpet
Or my first time losing, and it won't be my last
You said ignore it
Oh California’s so much more than some award show
You’re no more important than an insect on a window
They’ll see you climbing but won’t care until you get close
-
You said some people don’t know why they’re wolves
They just howl for the sound of it
Some will never know they’re beautiful
Until the crowd points it out for them
But I see you through a camera flash
I look back and you laugh and this is hard
But I feel less far
-
This ain’t Watertown
I’m on alien ground
I’m a college kid
With my windows down
I’m an astronaut
You’re the moon
I stare at you
I sing to you
I circle you
-
Rain on a steel roof, leaks through the ceiling
Hits the patrons in the ballroom
You said “oh look babe, even God is trying to warn you
all this ain’t for you”
But I cling to my seat
-
I guess some people don’t know why they’re wolves
They just howl for the sound of it
Some will never know they’re beautiful
Until the crowd points it out for them
But I see you through a camera flash
I look back and you laugh and this is hard
But I feel less far
-
This ain’t Watertown
I’m on alien ground
I’m a college kid
With my windows down
I’m an astronaut
You’re the moon
I stare at you
I sing to you
-
And I clutch my cloth
And I bite my tongue
I’m an aging wolf
Who lost the taste for blood
Even anxious pups need the moon
I howl for you
I sing to you
I circle you
I circle you
I circle you
-
If I’m gonna lose you either way
If I’m gonna lose you either way
If I’m gonna lose you either way
If I’m gonna lose you either way”

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Noah Kahan

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