Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz
It Is Time For A Love Revolution 2008 Virgin Records

I actually liked this album upon initial listens. Even now, I find that there are some strong, standout tracks to be heard, particularly "Good Morning," a melodious and booming ballad that draws heavily upon the Beatles, but in a good way. But upon further spins, it became more than apparent that aside from a few infectious and catchy parts scattered throughout, there were great amounts of blandness. And if I've learned anything from doing "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" at Karaoke, the man is not a very strong lyricist.
It all actually starts off very strong until we get a few songs in, it is quite the rocking album. However, I would much love to start a crusade against overly long albums, in particular ones that are brimming with filler. Love Revolution boasts a whopping 16 songs and that is simply too much Kravitz to take. Trim this down six or seven songs and you're golden.
As I said before, some of the tunes suffer from great choruses surrounded by a tremendous lack of thrill. It is something to be expected in pop songs and in some strange way, it can be forgiven. In rock music though, it is an insurmountable peeve of mine that drives the compositions down among the lowest common denominators of music.
If Kravitz has one strength it is his incredible knowledge of the various forms of rock and funk that when used wisely, create memorably great songs. Songs that can stand of to the best of the genres. Take "Will You Marry Me?" for example. He draws upon the best of James Brown, Grand Funk Railroad and Stevie Wonder to weave a perfect funk rock masterpiece. Real funk rock. Not the trash you hear at bars but the stuff you'd find Roy Ayers or the Ohio players creating. One the other hand you have "Uncharted Territory" and "Confused," the two songs that unfortunately close out the album. The former is a horrendous and typically American attempt at reggae that employs tactics that I absolutely deplore. It is a very easy genre to screw up and Kravitz does so with gusto. The other is a lazy and cheap attempt at the blues which does no respect to the form, not even to that played by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Perhaps this is a case of the artist being a little too in control and that being said, if you want to keep this album good, limit it the number of tracks to about nine, forgoing most of the latter half.