Six years after his previous album, the New York singer returns in better shape than ever.
Review dated May 25, 2024 by
Michele Boroni
When we talk about Lenny Kravitz in the end we always end up talking about his splendid physical form, his thousand houses, his spiritual side and his relationships but less and less about music. After listening to this “Blue Electric Light” perhaps someone will once again become aware of Kravitz, the indestructible author and musician.
The influences and the excellent finished product
Let’s clear things up right away. This his twelfth album is nothing new, Kravitz is always an artist, capable of mixing and working on melodies and sounds already in the air, created by great masters of soul, rock and rhythm & blues, to create new songs that they work excellently.
Listening to these 12 tracks, even the harshest detractors will have to give up and admit that ours here has the magic powder for the radio friendly fusion of rock and soul for a songwriting with a rich pop grammar.
In short, Kravitz knows his craft inside out and continues to churn out songs that draw from past influences and, at the same time, sound up to date.
For example, the sly groove of the opening song “It’s just another fine day” takes inspiration from Aaron Neville’s old classic “Hercules”, the reference of “Paralyzed” is clearly “When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin, and then here and there (“Tk421” and “Bundle of Joy”) broad echoes of Prince.
Derivative, you will tell me. Of course, but it doesn’t matter when the results are these songs created with this great mastery, such as the excellent yacht rock track “Honey” and the perfect ballad “Spirit in my heart” which can in turn become new classics. It will be fun to listen to them live on his already sold out tour in July in Lucca and Perugia, while there are still tickets for the August 13th date in Lido di Camaiore.
Kravitz is said to have spent the lockdown in the Bahamas in an ideal creative context that has him writing material for four potential albums, including this double which represents his first release in six years. So if this is the level we can expect other very pleasant records, in which he always plays alone, without the need for featuring or collaborations with other pop stars or famous producers.
