David Crosby’s masterful new record Lighthouse is an intimate, stripped-down set that highlights the music legend’s instantly recognizable voice, incisive songwriting, and incomparable guitar work. The palpable joy in the 9-song collection captures the iconic artist in an unexpected burst of inspiration. “To create brand new music that I’m excited about is a pearl beyond price,” says the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Lighthouse features a rare economy of sound, filled primarily by Crosby’s voice and guitars, and Michael League of Snarky Puppy’s skillful production. There’s a sparse, unvarnished quality to the tracks that allows the songs breathing room and for the full emotional weight of the lyrics to emerge, unencumbered by extraneous instrumentation.

On album opener, “Things We Do For Love,” written for his wife of nearly 40-years Jan, Crosby’s vocals reflect a poetic tenderness. On “Paint You A Picture,” a cinematic tale of romantic regret co-written with Marc Cohn (“Walking In Memphis”), they are filled with remorseful resignation. The longtime social activist lands his political punches as he bitingly condemns the craven politicians who send other people’s children to war on “Somebody Other Than You,” and compassionately reminds us that we are all the same on “Look In Their Eyes,” a poignant tale about immigration inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.

Particularly striking on Lighthouse is Crosby’s piquant guitar playing, which is as inventive as always, but never flashy. By turns gentle and caustic, his work here surprised even him as he discovered new tones. “I put a guitar in a strange tuning and I see what I find,” he says. “It gives you different inversions of the chords and it gives you different sounds. I have many tunings. It helps me find things that are fresh and that are mine rather than just repeating stuff that other people have done.”