First teased back in 2024, Noah Kahan finally released ‘Lighthouse’ - originally thought to be called ‘Wreckage of You’ - as part of his The Great Divide: The Last Of The Bugs deluxe project. Although the initial version was believed to feature backing vocals from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, the studio rendition does not include Vernon singing. It does however, credit him as playing the synth, organ and mandolin. Elsewhere on the album, Vernon contributes backing vocals to ’Downfall’.

When Kahan's fourth studio album, The Great Divide, arrived on April 24th, 2026, fans were disappointed to see that ‘Lighthouse’ was nowhere to be found, despite being one of the most keenly anticipated tracks from the Vermont native's next musical era. However, the day after, Kahan surprised us with a deluxe The Last Of The Bugs edition of the project, featuring ’Lighthouse’, ‘Staying Still’, ‘A Few Of Your Own’ and ‘Orbiter’ interwoven into the original tracklist.

‘Lighthouse’ is permeated by an ethereal, synth-driven atmosphere, which transports you to the misty, foggy and somewhat hostile shores that Kahan is singing about.

Kahan's layered, reverb-soaked vocals accentuate this haunting, ethereal ambience, and captures the spirit of the narrative. The opening portion of the track is relatively pared-down and minimalist, with the composition building out as Kahan launches into the spellbinding hook, which sees him bringing back his much-loved falsetto.

Although not ultimately featured as a vocalist, you can undoubtedly hear Bon Iver's influence on this pared-down yet sweeping arrangement, which feels as raw as it is otherworldly.

Throughout ‘Lighthouse’, our protagonist appears to be singing to someone who has gone missing from his home-town of Vermont - either literally or metaphorically. It seems the person has indeed moved away, with Kahan left to try and put the pieces of his life back together in a way that doesn't include the person he misses.

The titular theme of a lighthouse seems to call back to Kahan's popular - and career-altering - EP, Cape Elizabeth, which features a lonely, blue-tinted lighthouse on the cover. The location that inspired the project is known for its Portland Head Light.

It's worth noting, too, that the lyrics about “the wreckage of you” feel like a reference to Kahan's Stick Season gem, ‘Halloween’, in which he sadly croons, “But the wreckage of you, I no longer reside in / The bridges have long since been burnt / And the ash of the home that I started the fire in / It starts to return to the Earth”.

Over the course of ‘Lighthouse’, Kahan uses the imagery of a lighthouse searching for a lost boat the represent how he still finds himself desperately looking for the person he's singing to. It's not clear whether his description of this person as being a “wreckage” means they are no longer alive, or simply absent from his life.

Regardless of where they are now, the narrator promises to preserve the true story of who they were, and not allow it to be distorted by people who didn't really know them.

In the opening verse, there's a hint at the frustration Kahan feels about how many tourists flock to Vermont in the summer, as he dryly observes, “They're turning your house into a parking lot / One more outfitter store that only the tourists want”. This theme of demolition foreshadows the imagery of his friend now being “wreckage”.

As part of his official The Great Divide album announcement, Kahan shed some illuminating light on what this body of work represents to him, “From a long silence forms a divide, a great expanse demanding attention. I stare across it. I see old friends, my father, my mother, my siblings, my younger self, the great state of Vermont. I want to scream these feelings, to gesticulate wildly at the figures on the other side, but my voice has grown hoarse and muted after years of climbing a ladder towards the wild, spiraling dreams that have materialized in front of me”.

The Vermont native offers insight into his creative process, “Instead, I wrote them down next to a piano in Nashville, next to a pond in Guilford Vermont, in a legendary studio in upstate New York, on a farm with a firetower in Only, Tennessee. The songs are the words I would say if I could. They are the fears I dance with in the moments before I drift off to sleep. The music here is my best attempt to delve deeper into the people, places, and feelings that have made me who I am. I am grateful for all of it, for all of you, for listening to them, if you choose to do so”.

Kahan has repeatedly touched on how challenging he found the writing process for The Great Divide, as the pressure to outdo his magnum opus, Stick Season, weighed on him, something he explored in-depth in his 2026 Netflix documentary, Out of Body. During an interview with Zach Sang, he reflected on how he managed to overcome his writers’ block, “It was a hugely cathartic experience. I had been so stressed and so lost and was literally thinking about quitting and going to work at my golf course as a divot repair person”, adding, “The Great Divide for me, I’m so proud of, because not only did it come out of a time of great pressure and expectation. I felt like I was fully able to say what I wanted to say in the songs”.

“They're turning your house into a parking lot
One more outfitter store that only the tourists want
In the corner of town that just you and time forgot
I sit where your couch was, say, "Go ahead and call the cops"

-

Feeding the flightless birds on the pier
Hoping you might return to the fog 'round here

-

But I look out
At the wreckage of you
For as long as there's light
For as long as you last
I curse 'em all out
When they fuck up your story
I tell it the way that you told me

-

You were born with a face made for a "Missing" sign
But you had something misplaced that you'd spend your life tryna find
I still hear your name from some of the local guys
Said they always placed you for the leaving type

-

But I look out
At the wreckage of you
For as long as there's light
For as long as you last
I curse 'em all out
When they fuck up your story
I tell it the way that you told me

-

I comb the lighthouse
And hope you're there in the morning
Burning your boat
Back to the ocean”

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Noah Kahan

Artist