Lenny Kravitz It Is Time For A Love Revolution CD

Personnel: Lenny Kravitz (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, piano, harpsichord, Wurlitzer organ, Mellotron, synthesizer, Moog synthesizer, drums, congas, cowbells, tambourine, hand claps, background vocals); Lenny Kravitz (guitars, electric piano, Hammond b-3 organ, keyboards, bass guitar, sound effects); Amy Kauffman (violin); Darrett Adkins (cello); Tony Breit (bass guitar); Craig Ross (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, hand claps); Anoushka Shankar (sitar); David Bowlin, Elizabeth Lim Dutton, Katie Kresek, Antoine Silverman, Kurt Nikkanen, Conway Kuo, Cornelius Dufallo (violin); Dov Scheindlin, Kenji Bunch , Liuh-Wen Ting (viola); Chris Gross , Michael Block (cello); Edison String Group (strings); Alexandra Knoll (oboe); Lenny Pickett (saxophone); Robert Carlisle, Stewart Rose (French horn); Tawatha Agee (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Lenny Kravitz; Henry Hirsch.
Photographer: David Hindley.
Arranger: Lenny Kravitz.
Lenny Kravitz has been working a soulful, hard-rock vibe since the early 1990s, drawing on Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Funkadelic, retro soul, psychedelic pop, and power balladry for inspiration. The results have made him one of the best-selling artists in the industry, and 2008's IT IS TIME FOR A LOVE REVOLUTION reminds listeners why. All overdriven guitars, slinky driving rhythms, and fist-pumping afro-charged flower-power mojo, LOVE REVOLUTION is quintessential Kravitz.
"Bring It On," a kick-down-the-doors rocker that recalls the feel of Kravitz's amped-up cover of the Guess Who's "American Woman," is a case in point. The artist wails over the thunderous main riff, a droning sitar, and a wall of drums and bass, inciting listeners to crank the stereo and wail on air guitar. Elsewhere, the ballad "I'll Be Waiting" alternates a tender piano-led verse with an anthemic singalong chorus. Kravitz may not be doing anything new, but he continues to push the right buttons with LOVE REVOLUTION.
Never let it be said that Lenny Kravitz lives in the past -- he knows that 2008 is all about the resurrection of Led Zeppelin, so he's constructed his eighth album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, as a virtual tribute to the mighty Zep. Once he dispenses with the neo-title track -- a signature two-chord, fuzz-tone stomp recalling "Are You Gonna Go My Way" -- Kravitz turns his attention to a stack of old Zeppelin LPs, borrowing the close of "When the Levee Breaks" for the coda of "Bring It On," echoing "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" on "I Love the Rain," recycling the JB groove of "The Crunge" twice (once freshening it up with some Dirty Mind synth on "Will You Marry Me"), and then stitching together the verse of "Ramble On" and the chorus riff of "The Rain Song" for "If You Want It," all before inverting the "No Quarter" riff for the song's furious conclusion. Clever classicist that he is, Kravitz does all this without outright thievery, drawing knowing allusions to sacred texts and then meticulously constructing an album that feels and plays like an LP from the golden age of gatefolds. What his newfound obsession with Jimmy Page's guitar army has done is revitalize his overly familiar aesthetic, giving him another palette of colors to splash across his re-creations of the past. This new coat of paint surely helps It Is Time for a Love Revolution feel fresh, but it also helps that he has written some of his best classic rock pastiches in years, songs powered by big hooks and bigger harmonies. As sonic sculptures, they're damn near irresistible but, as so many Kravitz songs are, they're about almost nothing but the sound. Always one who favors a sledgehammer to a scalpel, he bluntly addresses his dying father in "A Long and Sad Goodbye" and the Iraq War in "Back in Vietnam," never digging deeper than the messages in the titles, while the rest of the record is dominated by rhymes only slightly more complicated than those of "Fly." Then again, insight has never been among the chief reasons toRolling Stone (p.82) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] visceral, expertly tailored blend of late-Sixties and early-Seventies classic-rock paraphrases..."
Spin (p.94) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Kravitz's irony-free pastiches often satisfy like the best work of his rock and soul forebears..."
The Word (magazine) (p.104) - "[With] extravagant guitar solos and thick-and-fast drums....This is well polished, catchy stuff..."