1. "Minister of Rock 'n Roll"
   2. "I Don't Want to Be a Star"
   3. "Lady"
   4. "Calling All Angels"
   5. "California"
   6. "Sistamamalover"
   7. "Where Are We Runnin'?"
   8. "Baptized"
   9. "Flash"
  10. "What Did I Do With My Life?"
  11. "Storm" (featuring Jay-Z)
  12. "The Other Side"
  13. "Destiny"
  14. "Uncharted Terrain" (Japanese bonus track)

Lenny Kravitz - Arranger, Art Direction, Audio Production, Bass, Composer, Drums, Guitar (Acoustic),
 Guitar (Electric), Handclapping, Mellotron, Mixing, Moog Synthesizer, Organ (Hammond), Piano, 
 Producer, Soloist, String Arrangements, Synthesizer, Timpani, Vocals, Wood Block 
 +
Bass – Henry Hirsch
Electric Guitar, Drums, Piano – Craig Ross
Saxophone [Baritone] – David Baron
Saxophone – David Sanborn
Piano – Henry Hirsch
Backing Vocals – Tawatha Agee

To some, listening to Lenny Kravitz was always a bit of a guilty pleasure, but rarely has listening to one of his albums induced overwhelming feelings of guilt, as does his seventh album, Baptism. Guilt that you took him for granted, not acknowledging the craft behind his best singles. Guilt that you thought he couldn't be as nondescript as he was on "Fly." Guilt that you thought he couldn't sink lower than Circus. Or maybe it will just be a flush of angry guilt that you've wasted 55 minutes of precious time listening to an album that betrays all faith you've had in Kravitz as a retro-rock revivalist. Since 1993's Are You Gonna Go My Way? he'd been erratic, stumbling on the doggedly rock-oriented Circus and only gathering his full strength on 2001's Lenny, which may have been a good record but failed to sell. Perhaps maintaining a balance of sales, craft, and fame had exhausted Kravitz, but he sounds worn down to the bone throughout Baptism. He may claim that he "can save your soul" on the opener, "Minister of Rock 'n Roll" (which bears unfortunate similarities in tone and theme to Circus' dud opening salvo, "Rock and Roll Is Dead"), but on the rest of the album he sounds anxious to quit the business, wondering whether he would have been better off if he were a simple man and living off the land. These themes are commonplace in rock & roll, but most rockers have better sense than to air their concerns in the first person, whining that "I'm internationally known...I've got millions sold/But after the party, I'm left standing in the cold," which engenders little sympathy since he could, after all, pull a Bobbie Gentry and quit the business and not make any more records. But he doesn't really want to do that since he's too enamored with the spoils of fame and all of its trapping, complaining "I Don't Want to Be a Star" in the same song where he exults "I got high with Jagger/It was really cool." Such shallow sentiments could be excused if the music worked, but it's as thin as his words and stultifying lethargic, to the point that he doesn't bother to disguise how he cops ZZ Top on "Where Are We Runnin'?" or Sly Stone on "Sistamamalover." It's such a drag that it's a real shock when a song pierces through the murk, as it does on the addictive rush of "California" or the fuzzy glam of "Flash" -- these are the songs that remind you that Kravitz can fuse familiar sounds into something that giddily celebrates his love of music. While these are fine individual moments, they wind up being a bit dispiriting since they're surrounded by lazy, exhausted retreads where it sounds as if the act of making music is a chore to Kravitz -- something that he nearly admits in his lyrics. It's a shame and embarrassment, and hopefully it will be a temporary slump like Circus -- unless he really does want to quit this business called show, since it would be better for him to stop making records than to crank out depressing sludge like this. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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01 - love revolution
02 - bring it on
03 - good morning
04 - love love love
05 - if you want it
06 - i'll be waiting
07 - will you marry me
08 - i love the rain
09 - a long and sad goodbye
10 - dancin' til dawn
11 - this moment is all there is
12 - a new door
13 - back in vietnam
14 - i want to go home

Darrett Adkins 	Cello
Tawatha Agee 	Vocals (Background)
Mike Block 	Cello
David Bowlin 	MViolin
Tony Breit 	Bass, Guitar (Bass)
Kenji Bunch 	Viola
Robert Carlisle 	French Horn
Cornelius Dufallo 	Violin
Elizabeth Lim Dutton 	Violin
Edison String Group 	Strings
Chris Gross 	Cello,
Amy Kauffman 	Violin
Alexandra Knoll 	Oboe
Lenny Kravitz 	Bass, Congas, Cowbell, Drums, Finger Snaps, Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Guitar (Electric), Guitars,
 Hammond B3, Handclapping, Harmonica, Harpsichord, Keyboards, Mellotron, Mixing, Moog Synthesizer, Orchestration,
  Organ (Hammond), Piano, Piano (Electric), Producer, Soloist, Sound Effects, String Arrangements, Synthesizer,
   Tambourine, Vocals, Vocals (Background), Wurlitzer
Katie Kresek 	Violin
Conway Kuo 	Violin
Kurt Nikkanen 	Violin
Lenny Pickett 	Saxophone
Stewart Rose 	French Horn
Craig Ross 	Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Handclapping, Mandolin, Orchestration
Dov Scheindlin 	Viola
Anoushka Shankar 	Sitar
Antoine Silverman 	Violin
Liuh-Wen Ting 	Viola 

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 to listen to Lenny Kravitz: his knack for shaping sound always has been his main gift. And by the measure of pure sound, It Is Time for a Love Revolution is a glorious feast of retro-rock pleasures -- a feast of empty calories, perhaps, but sometimes fast food is more irresistible than a five-course meal. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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1. Tunnel Vision 	10:03 
2. Stop Draggin Around		4:14 
3. Freedom Train 	7:11 
4. Always on The Run	 3:46 
5. Beyond the 7th Sky 	5:50 
6. Come On And Love Me 	5:16 
7. Circus	 5:06 
8. Be 	4:36 
9. Cant Get You Off My Mind 	5:05 
10.Mr Cab Driver 	3:49 
11.Let Love Rule	 9:33 
12.It Aint Over Til Its Over 	6:29 
13.Are You Gonna Go My Way	 4:19 
14.The Resurrection	 4:50
15.Believe	9:25

Bass Guitar – Jack Daley
Drums – Cindy Blackman
Guitar – Craig Ross
Guitar, Vocals – Lenny Kravitz
Keyboards – George Laks
Saxophone – Harold Todd
Trumpet – Michael Hunter

Lenny live in Tokyo cant be beat. Hearing the crowd sing along is priceless. With Lenny being the entertainer that he is he gets the crowd rocking all throughout the performance. Nothing beats capturing a show live. Put this on your vinyl player and it really seems like you are at the show. We love Lenny in household and have seen him live at least 5 times. Go Lenny Go Lenny Go Lenny. I recommend you buy this LP you will love the sound. ---S-n-M, amazon.com

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01. Sex (3:55)
02. The Chamber (4:57)
03. Dirty White Boots (3:58)
04. New York City (6:23)
05. The Pleasure And The Pain (5:09)
06. Strut (3:10)
07. Frankenstein (4:35)
08. She's A Beast (4:43)
09. I'm A Believer (3:17)
10. Happy Birthday (4:57)
11. I Never Want To Let You Down (4:38)
12. Ooo Baby Baby (3:40)

Lenny Kravitz - Arp String Ensemble, Bass, Clavinet, Composer, Congas, Cowbell, Drums, Glockenspiel, Guitars,
 Hammond B3, Handclapping, Harmonica, Heys, Horn Arrangements, Mini Moog, Organ, Piano, Rhythm Arrangements,
  Soloist, String Arrangements, Tambourine, Vocal Arrangement, Vocals, Vocals (Background), Wood Block

Darrett Adkins - Cello
Tawatha Agee - Backwards Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Dave Baron - Synthesizer Programming
David Bowlin 	Violin
Kenji Bunch 	Viola
Ludovic Louis - Trumpet
Cindy Mizelle - Vocals (Background)
Craig Ross - Guitars, Handclapping, Heys, Soloist
Harold Todd - Saxophone
James "D-Train" Williams - Vocals (Background)

The very title of Strut makes Lenny Kravitz's intentions for his tenth album plain: he wants to swagger, he wants to get off on his moves. To underscore the whole carnality of it, Kravitz calls the album's opening track "Sex," just the first song in a parade of pleasure, pain, and dirty white boots. Any of the attempted sociopolitical overtures of 2011's Black and White America have been abandoned, jettisoned along with the stylistic excesses that pumped that album to double-LP length. Strut doesn't bother with any of that nonsense. Like so many records from the golden age of the LP, it's just 12 songs and if it weighs in at a slightly hefty 53 minutes, it's because Lenny has a hard time stopping a good groove and Strut consists almost entirely of grooves. He'll slip into a sultry slow jam -- "The Pleasure and the Pain," "I Never Want to Let You Down," and a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Ooo Baby Baby" that's fine but unneeded -- and he'll tip his hat to Bill Withers on "Frankenstein," but he devotes most of the album to disco and glam, dedicating individual tracks to each style ("The Chamber" is pure glitter-ball rock & roll, "I'm a Believer is all foot stomps and handclaps) but usually finding the point at the Venn diagram where it's all big beats, heavy hooks, and dirty sex. Kravitz deploys all his considerable sonic skills on songs that are purposefully trashy and unapologetically fun and the result is pure pleasure. --- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic.com

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01 – Black And White America
02 – Come On Get It
03 – In The Black
04 – Liquid Jesus
05 – Rock Star City Life
06 – Boongie Drop (Ft. Jay Z & Dj Military)
07 – Stand
08 – Superlove						play
09 – Everything						play
10 – I Can’t Be Without You
11 – Looking Back On Love
12 – Life Ain’t Ever Been Better Than It Is Now
13 – The Faith Of A Child
14 – Sunflower (Ft. Drake)
15 – Dream
16 – Push
Bonus Tracks:
17 – War
18 – Black and White America (Acoustic)

Personnel
Lenny Kravitz - vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums
Craig Ross - acoustic guitar, electric guitar

For his ninth album, Lenny Kravitz found much of his inspiration close to home. In fact, the very spirit of Black and White America came from the locations in which the music was made from a tiny, 400-person community in the Bahamas to the streets of Paris. And out of his experiences as a true citizen of the planet, his first new songs in three years became the most personal and diverse collection of his career. "No doubt, my environment definitely lends a lot to the creative process," he says. Black and White America was written in reaction to a documentary Kravitz saw about racism in the post-Obama United States. Amidst the defiant lyrics, the songwriter references his own family history, and the experiences of his parents as an interracial couple in the 1960s. Though the sonic emphasis of Black and White America may land squarely on the funk, the force behind such guitar-driven smashes as "Fly Away" and "Are You Gonna Go My Way" hasn't turned his back on rock. Songs like "Rock Star City Life," and the first single, "Stand," give the album a healthy dose of crunching riffs. The overwhelming emotion on Black and White America is the feel of optimism, faith and hope. ---Editorial Reviews

So says Lenny Kravitz, finally ‘marry’ with a new label and ready to publish his new ‘hard’. Ninth Chapter of record after three years of silence from the latest unreleased studio, “Black and White America” will arrive in stores next summer in fact, for Roadrunner Records / Atlantic Records. Twelve tracks, guitar parts and vocals recorded between Paris and the Bahamas, it seems that the album will be a sort of return to the country: much of the ’70s soul, funk, orchestral arrangements and a vein that leads to the success of “Let Love Rule “and” Mama Said’s “, the first two – beautiful – works that have made known the talent of this great singer and instrumentalist. However hard the challenge will be to repeat the success of the previous “It’s Time For A Love Revolution”, an album that debuted in the top 5 sales in 10 countries. We’ll see. After the jump we hear again “It Is not over till it’s over” in a great live version. ---musicsreview.com

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01 - are you gonna go my way
02 - fly away
03 - rock 'n' roll is dead
04 - again
05 - it ain't over till it's over
06 - can't get you off my mind
07 - mr. cab driver
08 - american woman
09 - stand by my woman (2)
10 - always on the run
11 - heaven help
12 - i belong to you
13 - believe
14 - let love rule
15 - black velveteen

Rock music in the 1980s had completely lost the gritty feel of earlier eras, until Lenny Kravitz rediscovered the magic formula. Kravitz's sonic template combined good old-fashioned rock & roll with glam, soul, and psychedelia, making him a massive success. He made a splash straight out of the gate with his album Let Love Rule. After that, he de-emphasized the flower-power aspects of his music and began moving toward a heavier rock sound. This progression brought him such huge hits as "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and a hard-rocking cover of the Guess Who's "American Woman." Along the way, his flamboyant image, model-like looks, and frequent acting roles made him a fixture in pop-music circles.

Born in New York on May 26, 1964 (his mother was actress Roxie Roker, best known for her role as Helen Willis on the popular TV series The Jeffersons, and his father was a TV producer), Kravitz was raised in Los Angeles, where he found himself around countless musical giants as a youngster due to his parents' friendships with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, and Miles Davis. Kravitz was a member of the California Boys Choir until his teenage years, when he decided to pursue rock & roll while in high school and under the heavily influence of funk-rocker Prince. Kravitz's admiration of the Purple One was so great that he at first patterned his style and approach directly after Prince and became known as "Romeo Blue" (complete with blue contact lenses), but failed to land a recording contract.

In the late '80s, Kravitz relocated back to New York City, where one of his roommates turned out to be actress Lisa Bonet (who played the part of Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show); they eventually got married. During this time, Kravitz wisely discarded his Prince-like approach and looked back to such '60s/'70s classic rockers as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, and the Beatles for inspiration. Kravitz found a kindred spirit in engineer Henry Hirsch (who would stick by Kravitz throughout his career). With a back-to-basics approach, his style was quite refreshing in the humorously gaudy late '80s. He inked a recording contract with Virgin Records and issued his debut release, Let Love Rule, in 1989. Kravitz's debut proved to be a surprise hit due to the success of the title track, which became a hit single and oft-aired video. A few critics were quick to assume that Kravitz's retro look and sound were simply a schtick to get the public's attention, but come the '90s, it had become integrated into the mainstream (both musically and fashion-wise), proving that Kravitz was a bit of a trendsetter. It was around this time that Kravitz penned a major hit single, not for himself but for Madonna, who went to number one with the sultry track "Justify My Love."

What should have been a time of happiness for Kravitz quickly turned sour as he and Bonet divorced in the early '90s. Kravitz's heartbreak was very evident in his sophomore effort, Mama Said, which was even stronger than its predecessor, highlighted by the Led Zep-like funk-rocker "Always on the Run" (a collaboration with Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash), as well as a mega-hit with the Curtis Mayfield-esque soul ballad "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over," which confirmed that Kravitz's success was no fluke. But the best was yet to come for Kravitz. His third release overall, 1993's Are You Gonna Go My Way, is often considered to be the finest album front to back of his entire career, and with good reason: every single song was a winner, including the uptempo, anthemic title track, which turned out to be one of MTV's most-played videos for that year. The album was a massive hit and Kravitz became an arena headliner stateside, as well as being featured on countless magazine covers.

Despite an almost two-year gap between albums, Kravitz's fourth release, Circus, came off sounding unfocused and was a major letdown compared to his stellar previous few releases. Perhaps sensing that he needed to stir things up musically, Kravitz dabbled with electronics and trip-hop loops for his next album, 1998's 5. Although not a huge hit right off the bat, the album proved to have an incredibly long chart life, spawning the biggest hit of Kravitz's career, "Fly Away," almost a year after its original release. With the single's success, Virgin decided to cash in on the album's sudden rebirth by reissuing it around the same time with a pair of extra added bonus tracks, one of which became another sizable hit single, a remake of the Guess Who's "American Woman" (which was used in the hit 1999 comedy movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me). Kravitz's first best-of set, the 15-track Greatest Hits, was issued as a stopgap release in 2000, while his sixth studio release overall, Lenny, was issued a year later. Baptism followed in 2004. After starting a residential, commercial, and product design company called Kravitz Design, he recorded a funky version of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" for Amnesty International's 2007 benefit compilation Instant Karma. Before the end of the year it was announced that Kravitz would return in 2008 with a new album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The album arrived in February, accompanied by a brief tour.

Kravitz made his acting debut in the Academy Award-nominated 2009 film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. As he was filming his next role -- a spot in the eagerly awaited adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games -- he released his ninth album, Black and White America, in the summer of 2011. Reprising his role of Cinna in the second of The Hunger Games movies in 2013, Kravitz wouldn't return to the studio until the following year. Kravitz released his tenth studio album, Strut, in September of 2014; it was preceded by the disco-rock single "The Chamber." ---Greg Prato, allmusic.com

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