Album Review – Harry Leithhead
Punk legend and Guns ‘n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan returns with his third solo effort, following 1993’s Believe In Me and 2019’s Tenderness. Like Tenderness, Lighthouse has a strong acoustic rock heartbeat, often showing elements of twangy folk, yet never losing the edge of McKagan’s punk beginnings, ever present in the snarl of his voice.
Between constantly touring the world with GNR, appearing on recent albums by Ozzy Osborne, Jerry Cantrell and Iggy Pop, and recording as part of ‘Max Creeps’, it’s a mystery where Duff found the time to put this together. Thankfully though, ‘Lighthouse’ is a fantastic album, full of hope and perserverance in difficult times.
Kicking off with the title track, a lone McKagan with his acoustic guitar sings of finding his way home to his light, being battered and beaten along the way, before hitting a refrain that builds into an epic, full-band moment. Drums, backing vocals and electric guitars crash through and turn this into a euphoric crescendo. The album then kicks into gear with my personal favourite ‘Longfeather’, a story of a figure who relentlessly marches on, leading through the toughest battles and hardest times, even in the face of death he follows his dreams. It’s a fantastic song, uplifting and inspiring, with a great riff and a strong solo.
The songs here are largely acoustic driven, with lyrics where he calls them as he sees them. As Duff describes ‘like the name of me and Susan’s radio show, I let “Three Chords and the Truth” guide me when I sit down with a guitar’. ‘I saw God on 10th Street’ calls out the seemingly never-ending conflict in the world and how we’re ‘rotten to the core’ (his punk side really coming through here!). Elsewhere though, the lyrics focus more on love and the strength it gives us. ‘Fallen’ is the ballad most representative of this, as he pleads ‘you are the final station, until my very last heartbeat’.
In the late stages of the album, a harder rock sound charges through on ‘Just Another Shakedown’, before the unmistakeable lead guitar of longtime bandmate Slash kicks in on ‘Hope’ (also featuring Paul McCartney’s longtime drummer Abe Laboriel Jr with some deep, driving toms). The combination of Slash and Duff is epic, and you can hear the sounds and the experiences of their time together in both GNR and Velvet Revolver colliding. It’s eerie, and is the song most likely to stick in your head at the end. The message of finding hope and belief in a jaded, lost world is complemented by constant powerful riffs from one of the greatest guitarists to ever live.
The second to last song is a story of a hard upbringing; ‘I Just Don’t Know’, featuring Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains). It’s a song that, according to McKagan, shows him ‘baring more of his artistic spirit than ever before… to land at the sweet spot between soul-searching reflection and pure energy’. Finally, a re-imagining of the title track featuring spoken word by Iggy Pop brings the record full circle. ‘Lighthouse’ is an excellent mix of acoustic rock, hard-edged truths and great melodies. It’s a great showcase for one of the world’s most famous bassists to take centre stage and to fully deliver.
Lighthouse, along with singles ‘I saw God on 10th St’, ‘I Just Don’t Know’, ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Longfeather’ are all available now on all streaming platforms.
