Label: Roxie Records 2014
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
I have never been that much into Lenny Kravitz, but after hearing the first single ”The Chamber” from this album, I thought I’d check it out. As it often turns out, the single wasn’t really representative of the album’s overall sound. ”The Chamber” is a unashamed throwback to the eighties, a catchy pop tune that would not have sounded out of place on Jean Beauvoir’s solo albums. Those LK fans who didn’t like the single are probably relieved to find out that most of the album is more in the vein of typical Kravitz material.
The album does start with another 80’ies styled track. ”Sex” reminds me a lot of Duran Duran’s early material like ”Girls On Film” or ”Rio”. With ”The Chamber” as the second song, one could be fooled into thinking that Lenny has fallen completely for the eighties’ sounds, but that’s not the case. The gritty, rocking ”Dirty White Boots” and the funky ”New York City” are more familiar LK stuff, as is the slower ”The Pleasure And The Pain”. The rest of the album showcases Lenny’s versatile style from bluesy ballads to funky tracks like ”Strut” and ”Frankenstein”. Some of it is okay, some of it not that great… ”Ooh Baby Baby”? Seriously?
For what it’s worth, I really like the sparse, spacious production on the album. Every song seems to have room to breathe, yet there’s quite a lot going on in some of them. There’s no denying that Kravitz is a great singer and guitar player, but still, I’m still not that much into his material. ”The Chamber” is one of the best mainstream songs this year though.
http://www.lennykravitzmusic.com
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