‘Headed North’ finds Noah Kahan stripping back the built-out, electric-guitar-fuelled production that permeates much of The Great Divide, and instead delivering an entirely acoustic performance. This pared-down offering combines the core themes of the album, with Kahan crooning wistfully about nostalgia, childhood friendship and the memories he has that are inextricably linked to Vermont.

When Kahan first started teasing lyrics from the song - originally thought to be called ‘Nothing to Report’ - fans started speculating that it might be his long-awaited Lewis Capaldi collaboration. The ‘Northern Attitude’ hitmaker shared lyrics to the song alongside a photo of him in the studio with Capaldi, who came out during Kahan's momentous BST Hyde Park show in London, UK. However, it seems we're going to have to wait a little longer before we get this blockbuster link-up.

‘Headed North’ is the most DIY-feel track on The Great Divide, with Kahan signalling from the get-go that it will be less polished than other songs on the project by keeping in his mistake at the very start, which is hilariously followed by an, ‘Ah, shit’.

It carries an understated ambience, with the introduction of a more lively, uptempo guitar riff and the faint, subtle harmonies partway through this forlorn, introspective track, giving it a slightly more energised feel towards the latter half of the song.

‘Headed North’ captures the nostalgia that lies at the heart of Kahan's 2026 album, The Great Divide, with the ‘She Calls Me Back’ singer-songwriter sharing a series of sepia-tinged vignettes. These revolve around small-town storylines, with Kahan informing his old friend that the police finally caught the guys who blew up the cop-cars, something that clearly happened when they were both still in Vermont.

It seems Kahan's friend has since moved away, with ‘Headed North’ serving as another song - much like ‘Downfall’ - that feels as though it ties in with ‘You're Gonna Go Far’. On that song, the narrator is wishing his friend well as they go off on an adventure - on ‘Headed North’, the protagonist is missing them dearly, outlining bleakly, “It's gone to shit without you / It was shit before but at least I had you”.

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”.

“Well they finally caught the guys who blew up those two police cars

It was a couple college kids who thought the town was dumb as rocks

Like we wouldn’t raise an eyebrow at the sudden lack of bullshit

Too few parking tickets written, too few high school parties stopped

Well, I always wish you well when I pass the old gas station

With the banner on the front that shows how tolerant they are

You’ll get told to go to hell by some summer-time flatlander

With a coexistin’ sticker on the bumper of their car

-

And it’s gone to shit without you

It was shit before, but at least I had you

No, there ain’t nothing to report

But I hope you’re bored and headed north

-

I’ve been taking your advice and trying to scream less at the tourists

And I’ve been working on my timin’ when I ask too much of you

But if I see one more cyber truck, I swear to God I'm gonna floor it

Need somebody here to talk me out of things I can’t undo

-

And it’s gone to shit without you

It was shit before, but at least I had you

No, there ain’t nothing to report

But I hope you’re bored and headed north

-

And it’s gone to shit without you

It was shit before, but at least I had you

No, there ain’t nothing to report

But I hope you’re bored and headed north”

For more on Noah Kahan, see below:

Noah Kahan

Artist