Who is Noah Kahan? Where did he come from, and why is he suddenly everywhere? These are the questions that have plagued the Exclaim! staff for the past few months, and quite literally none of us who are 25 or older get it. Shockingly, this also includes those of us with active TikTok accounts. Big Indie Folk has convinced us that he is famous, and what better way to validate this than a collaboration with millennial woodland darling Hozier?
The pair released the track "Northern Attitude" today (November 10), but if someone told me that this was a smash hit from 2013, I'd believe it without hesitation. The prophecies that claimed the "Stomp Clap Hey!" radio alternative would make a comeback have come true, and it makes me feel older than the indie sleaze theme party I attended last night did.
The song serves acoustic soft-boy realness alongside a heaping dollop of that vaguely earthy I-live-in-a-small-cabin-in-the-forest folk epidemic that spread a decade ago. "You build a boat / You build a life / You lose your friends / You lose your wife," Kahan and Hozier both sing over their respective verses. At first, I thought, "What wife do the 20-year-olds listening to this have to lose?" but then I remembered that this genre of boneless folk belongs to the hip Evangelist kiddos that get hitched after six months because they won't do it before marriage.
It feels redundant for Hozier to use "Northern Attitude" as a torch pass to Kahan when he's still on the same wave that made him famous, and people are still eating it up. We simply don't need Hozier 2: Gen Z boogaloo, and this is exactly what this track is. "Take Me to Church" still slaps at karaoke, but "Stick Season" would make me finish my drink and go home.
If you think any of this is over-embellishment, consider this: when you Google Kahan, it says, "People also ask: Was Noah Kahan in Mumford & Sons?" I rest my case.
The pair released the track "Northern Attitude" today (November 10), but if someone told me that this was a smash hit from 2013, I'd believe it without hesitation. The prophecies that claimed the "Stomp Clap Hey!" radio alternative would make a comeback have come true, and it makes me feel older than the indie sleaze theme party I attended last night did.
The song serves acoustic soft-boy realness alongside a heaping dollop of that vaguely earthy I-live-in-a-small-cabin-in-the-forest folk epidemic that spread a decade ago. "You build a boat / You build a life / You lose your friends / You lose your wife," Kahan and Hozier both sing over their respective verses. At first, I thought, "What wife do the 20-year-olds listening to this have to lose?" but then I remembered that this genre of boneless folk belongs to the hip Evangelist kiddos that get hitched after six months because they won't do it before marriage.
It feels redundant for Hozier to use "Northern Attitude" as a torch pass to Kahan when he's still on the same wave that made him famous, and people are still eating it up. We simply don't need Hozier 2: Gen Z boogaloo, and this is exactly what this track is. "Take Me to Church" still slaps at karaoke, but "Stick Season" would make me finish my drink and go home.
If you think any of this is over-embellishment, consider this: when you Google Kahan, it says, "People also ask: Was Noah Kahan in Mumford & Sons?" I rest my case.
