Lenny Kravitz
Let Love Rule

THE REVIEW

Not everyone can do what Mr. Kravitz has done. ⁽¹⁾

Tall as a can from a vending machine, good-looking, with very long dreadlocks, rock blues and soul spirit, fan of Hendrix, Lennon, Sly Stone, Prince, Stefanino Meraviglia, and Led Zeppelin, Lenny embarks on his career in the magical star business with this album which, all things considered, turns out to be the best of his entire production. From there on, a decline, a poverty of ideas, and a forced stagnation in the same primordial broth will characterize a free fall without harness or parachute.

Just like another unfulfilled promise of "new black music," Terence Trent d'Arby, Lenny Kravitz plays a bit of everything here: bass, keyboards, drums, guitar, and of course, he sings and does his own backing vocals as much as he can.

There are those who say he busted his ass on the road before success, going from venue to venue to introduce himself to the world with his little guitar, but I honestly have some doubts, considering his mother already belonged to the entertainment world (Ellen Willis, wife of Tom, in the "Jeffersons", remember?) and maybe opened some doors for the prodigal son.

But that's none of my business and honestly, I don't care, because nowadays if you don't get a kick in the ass it's hard to go anywhere at the upper levels and, honestly, if I were a producer, I would have signed him right away after listening to an album like this.

Let's be clear, Mr. Kravitz hasn't invented anything, some define him as the copycat of copycats because you can embarrassingly feel all the influences I mentioned before in this album, especially for the left-handed god of the six-string and the bespectacled genius of the Beatles, but the merit of this man has been to perfectly blend a myriad of influences to give rise to a product with very good and promising foundational elements, boldly reviving the old 70's sound.

The groove of "Sitting on the Top of the World..", with that funky bass, the slow blues/gospel stride of "My Precious Love", the '70s - Starsky and Hutch - sound of "Fear", the sensual "Does Anybody Out There Even Care", the rhythm of "Mr. Cab Driver", the beautiful crescendo ballad "Rosemary", co-written with ex-partner Lisa Bonet, the Lennonian "Be" and the Hendrixian "Blues for Sister Someone", alone justify buying the record.

All the instruments sound (deliberately) like they came out of a blues and soul reunion, with a hint of psychedelia from the splendid years just past, the album flows from the first to the last track without ever being heavy or repetitive, the arrangement of the pieces seems deliberately designed to intrigue you and not restrict you to a single listen then shelve it.

An album like this is timeless, you can dust it off whenever you want and it will always leave you satisfied. In a review of Kravitz's latest, I read that: "If he wanted to do something good, he would have done it by now..".

Well, I think this album is that good (and right) thing.

⁽¹⁾ Not everyone does better than the first release if you come out with a product like this...

Sadly, not even he managed.