Noah Kahan - Busyhead

Before the stadium sing-alongs, Noah Kahan made Busyhead, a 2019 debut that sounds like a Vermont winter spent overthinking absolutely everything.

Kahan had spent a couple of years putting out singles before this first full-length landed on Republic, and several of those early songs found a permanent home here. Most of the record was produced by Joel Little, whose clean, roomy touch gives Kahan's acoustic guitar and cracked-open voice plenty of space without sanding off the rough edges.

The songs circle anxiety, self-doubt and the push and pull of home, with a wry humour that stops things from sliding into gloom. "Young Blood" carries a restless, wide-open urgency, while "Hurt Somebody" pairs him with Julia Michaels for a tender back-and-forth about the fear of letting someone close. "Mess" turns emotional chaos into a chorus that refuses to leave your head.

Listening now, the blueprint for his later success is all over these ten songs. The confessional detail is already there, and so is the folk-pop lift that makes a private worry feel like something a whole room can shout together.

For fans who arrived with the bigger hits, this is the origin story on wax, and a reminder that the heart on his sleeve was there from the start.