Ranking All The Lenny Kravitz Studio Albums
Lenny Kravtiz has been active as a singer-songwriter since the early 1980s. However, it is interesting to note that a lot of people will remember him best because of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which was when he won a record-breaking four consecutive Grammys for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Kravitz remains very much active as a singer-songwriter,
11. Raise Vibration
Raise Vibration would be the latest of Kravitz’s releases. It isn’t a bad studio album. However, Raise Vibration doesn’t offer much that is new, which is a huge issue when it is going up against competition as formidable as the rest of Kravitz’s body of work.
10. It Is Time for a Love Revolution
It sounds a bit strange considering that this studio album came out in 2008, but it is interesting to note that this studio album had something of a retro-rock sound. Sadly, that wasn’t enough to enable it to stand out in a major way. As such, it is alright but no more than alright.
9. Strut
Strut is named thus because it is supposed to send a message about being both proud and confident in oneself. Something of that spirit carried over to the music, which manages to be fun and enjoyable for the most part.
8. Black and White America
Drive can enable musicians to perform better than otherwise possible. In the case of Black and White America, Kravitz is known to have been planning to record a different studio album when he saw a documentary that covered some of the racism-driven opposition to President Barack Obama. Something that irked him enough that he decided to do a rebuttal in the form of a studio album. The result was Kravitz’s best release of the 2010s, which can’t match him at the height of his fame but is nonetheless a worthwhile listen in its own right.
7. Lenny
This release contained “Dig In,” which was the single that enabled Kravitz to win the fourth of his four consecutive Grammys. Unsurprisingly, this means that there was a lot to like about this studio album. However, there are also those who would argue that this was the point when Kravitz became too comfortable, with the result that his music started sounding a bit too similar. Still, Lenny is a solid release that shouldn’t be overlooked.
6. Baptism
Originally, Kravitz wanted to make a funk studio album in the style of the 1970s. Instead, he decided to make a more straightforward kind of rock, thus resulting in the Baptism that exists in the present time. There is some very listenable material on this release, which should come as no surprise considering Kravitz’s skills in this regard. However, it is dragged down by the rest of the content, some of which might be a bit too familiar for interested individuals.
5. Circus
As the story goes, Kravitz was apparently in poor spirits when he made Circus. He wasn’t very happy with the music industry at the time. Moreover, Kravitz had just lost his mother, which had a very understandable effect on his mood for the worse. Thanks to that, Circus engages in more musing than a lot of his other releases, thus enabling it to stand out to some extent.
4. 5
This release was one of those studio albums that grow on people over time. For proof, look no further than the fact that it received less than spectacular reviews from music critics at the start. Something that slowed its sales quite a bit until it started building up momentum, thus enabling it to have a run of unusual length on the charts. Naturally, that couldn’t have happened without the songs needed to carry it. Even now, 5 possesses some of Kravitz’s best-known hits.
3. Are You Gonna Go My Way
Speaking of which, Are You Gonna Go My Way did a great deal to establish Kravitz as a name of note on the international level. After all, it went number one in both Australia and the United Kingdom, thus making it very clear that he could be successful in other markets. The title track is one of Kravitz’s most famous songs. However, it is in good company on this release, which wasn’t exactly short on listenable material.
2. Let Love Rule
Let Love Rule would be Kravitz’s debut studio album. It wasn’t as successful as its immediate follow-up Mama Said. However, it managed some very respectable numbers in its own right anyways. Regardless, Let Love Rule was an intriguing mix of both modern and retro, thus setting the standard for many of Kravitz’s later releases. What is most remarkable is that the release still holds up well even though it came out more than three decades ago, which should make it clear that it possesses the staying power that so many releases lack.
1. Mama Said
It is fair to say that Let Love Rule paved the way for Mama Said. Even so, the latter nonetheless managed to make excellent use of the opportunity that it was given, with the result that it managed to exceed what had come before. Simply put, Mama Said weaves some very different influences into a single cohesive whole. The release isn’t quite seamless, but strangely enough, the places where its disparate origins show just make the work that much more impressive on the whole because they reveal the immense challenges that had to be overcome to pull everything together.
