Lenny Kravitz - Lenny

Generally speaking, artistically successful musicians fall into one of two groups: innovators or synthesists (unsuccessful artists probably fall into a whole array of other groups, but let’s not go into that now). Innovators—the Beatles, for example—introduce new elements into music.

Synthesists take the existing components of a musical vocabulary or vocabularies and combine them to make a new musical whole. Lenny Kravitz is a synthesist. In particular, Kravitz is a synthesist of rock and soul music of the 60’s and 70’s. Especially of note as influences on Kravitz’s music are Sly & the Family Stone, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles.

The strength of Kravitz’s first three albums Let Love Rule (1989), Mama Said (1991), and especially 1993’s Are You Gonna Go My Way?, along with his collaboration on Madonna’s “Justify My Love” made Kravitz a highly sought after sideman/producer/songwriter for a disparate group of artists including Aerosmith, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Mary J. Blige, Inqbator, and Chicago. As a result of his full calendar as a collaborator, Kravitz’s own albums released during the second half of the last decade (1995’s Circus and 1998’s 5) were essentially uninspired rehashes of the best bits of his first three albums. Although each has its fine moments, overall they sounded stiff, formulaic, and uneven.

It took 2000’s Lenny Kravitz’s Greatest Hits, a collection of the best tracks from each of Kravitz’s five albums (plus his involuntary wince-producing but groovy nonetheless cover of the Guess Who’s “American Woman”) to remind critics of the degree of Kravitz’s talents. It’s 15 tracks offered the most cohesive portrait of Kravitz as a songwriter, performer, and producer yet, and also included the outstanding new single “Again.”

Bob Dylan released an album last year called Love and Theft. It’s a shame Kravitz didn’t get to this title first. He’s made a career of stealing from the music he loves and recontextualizing it in his own songs. Lenny finds Kravitz focused more on song structure and melody and less on massive classic rock guitar riffs like those that powered songs like “Are You Gonna Go My Way?,” “Always on the Run,” and “American Woman.”

Kravitz is still shamelessly derivative of his influences, but at his best (as he is here once again on Lenny) he’s so passionate and authentic in his replication of classic rock and soul, that Kravitz is able to synthesize the musical elements he lifts from his record collection so cleanly on his own albums that they sound new again, yet nearly burst with nostalgia.

While not revolutionary—there’s still not all that much on Lenny we haven’t heard from him before—track for track, Kravitz’s execution, as producer, songwriter, and performer, of the 12 tracks that make up Lenny is on par with his best work. It’s a cohesive, well-constructed album that is Kravitz’s most listenable since Are You Gonna Go My Way?.

Best songs: 'Battlefield of Love,' 'Believe in Me,' 'Pay to Play,' 'Dig In.'

--Matt Parks (Jan. 21, 2002)