David Crosby has always made less commercial solo music than his group forays with you-know-who, or even the duo albums with Graham Nash. Going back to his If I Could Only Remember My Name debut solo release from 1971, the albums have featured experiments and a noticeable intensity and seriousness. That's the certainly the case here, and as with that earlier album, Lighthouse sounds like no other, even within his own releases.
Each song is cut from the same cloth, and seemingly very simple, just Crosby and producer Michael League on acoustic guitars, and the very occasional additions on certain songs, some double bass or keyboards, all barely noticeable. The music is moody, slow, dreamy at times, and floats along. Crosby mellow voice lays on top of that, adding a hypnotic melody. There are some harmonies, on the rare choruses, but mostly it's him stacking his own voice a bit, and certainly the album isn't heavy on them, like a CSN disc.
There's a certain crankiness about the album, although the lyrics aren't obvious. The targets are misguided people, no names given, even though Crosby is never shy about publicly criticizing people (hello, Neil). Somebody Other Than You starts "I can see the way you are, by far the worst of the lot." Even love is worrisome, The Us Below being about the distance between two lovers, in the middle the "frozenness of fear", while The Things We Do For Love talks about the fear holding someone in a relationship. It's kind of like those elves in Lord Of The Rings; everything's beautiful, but it's all sad, too.
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