Leonard Albert Kravitz was born in 1964, the only child of Black actress Roxie Roker and Jewish NBC news producer Sy Kravitz. Over the next few decades, he grew up to be one of his generation\u2019s most iconic rock stars, befriending idols like Prince and Michael Jackson and dating an array of glamorous actresses and models. Transitioning into acting, he played key supporting roles in hits like Precious and the Hunger Games franchise.<\/p>\n
Beneath all the glitz and glamor of Lenny Kravitz\u2019s jet setting lifestyle, his talent is sometimes overlooked. Kravitz has self-produced all 12 of his albums, playing every instrument on many tracks, and often puts his spirituality and social conscience front and center in his lyrics. Kravitz famously wears his influences on his sleeve, but he\u2019s demonstrated remarkable versatility in his ability to channel just about every style of rock and soul of the \u201960s and \u201970s, winning four Grammys and selling 40 million records along the way.<\/p>\n
More from Spin:<\/p>\n
In September, Virgin Records released an expanded 30th anniversary reissue of 1995\u2019s Circus. Kravitz\u2019s fourth album was considered a disappointment at the time of its release, but is it actually one of his best?<\/p>\n
12. Strut (2014)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/PhNI5bavcRERwGKCp34zJQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/42f753d5b4f15983878b2f29a7bbb66f\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nFor most of the last two decades, Kravitz has been vocal about being celibate, occasionally telling interviewers he\u2019s abstaining from sex until he remarries for religious reasons. The one period in which he wavered from that position was around the time he released Strut, which opens with a song called \u201cSex\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m just a slave for your pleasure and I\u2019m waiting to pop\u201d). Strut may be more lyrically occupied with carnal desire than any other Kravitz album, but its formulaic arena rock doesn\u2019t sound particularly seductive. The most memorable moment from Strut\u2019s promotional cycle was X-rated but purely accidental: Kravitz went viral when his leather pants split open at the crotch during a 2015 concert in Sweden.<\/p>\n
11. Baptism (2004)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/9BGHmJpiyRJe5hDuLhubiA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk1NjtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/dad6ef95e81509096c5b3951cc425792\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz spent some time in the studio with Michael Jackson in 1999, although the song they made together, \u201c(I Can\u2019t Make It) Another Day,\u201d wouldn\u2019t see release until 2010, after Jackson\u2019s death. In the meantime, Kravitz retooled the song as the Baptism single \u201cStorm\u201d featuring Jay-Z. Kravitz was briefly engaged to actress Nicole Kidman in 2004, although the lyrics about her on \u201cLady,\u201d his last Top 40 hit, are pure drivel (\u201cI know she\u2019s a super lady \/ I\u2019m weak and I\u2019ve gone hazy\u201d). Instead, Baptism is at its most compelling when Kravitz sounds disillusioned with fame and show business on \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to be a Star,\u201d \u201cFlash,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cThe Other Side.\u201d \u201cIf an element of humor or self-deprecation were evident, the results would be funny\u2014a guilty-pleasure romp. But here\u2019s the problem: Kravitz is completely and utterly straight-faced about every single aspect of what he does,\u201d David Browne wrote in the Entertainment Weekly<\/a> review of Baptism.<\/p>\n10. Raise Vibration (2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/8M_qALaokEt.1FPIzganKg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/870ba8978e6f790dc9b119e574f34f2e\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nMichael Jackson makes a posthumous cameo on \u201cLow,\u201d the Raise Vibration single that features a sumptuous Off the Wall-style disco groove and some immediately identifiable \u201cHoo!\u201d ad libs from the King of Pop. And \u201cGold Dust\u201d is one of those most creative and rhythmically intricate tracks in Kravitz\u2019s catalog. Unfortunately, the album otherwise rarely sounds that good, with irritations like a chorus of children\u2019s voices on the vapid \u201c5 More Days \u2019Til Summer\u201d and the facile political commentary of \u201cIt\u2019s Enough!\u201d (\u201cWhat\u2019s that going down in the Middle East? Do you really think it\u2019s to keep the peace?\u201d).<\/p>\n
9. It Is Time For a Love Revolution (2008)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/8lQr7wUuSAS.zshK1cTLfw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/5489cdf885b0f5a22f1af9fdd4f06b62\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz plays most of the drums on his albums, and It Is Time For a Love Revolution is his pinnacle as a percussionist as he nails a taut James Brown groove on \u201cWill You Marry Me\u201d and plays behind the beat with the grace of Charlie Watts on \u201cDancin\u2019 Til Dawn.\u201d Unfortunately, the album is also a low point for Kravitz as a lyricist. \u201cLove Love Love\u201d is the closest he\u2019s ever come to rapping, and it\u2019s not pretty (\u201cI want you to know I\u2019m emphatic\/ About your love that\u2019s enigmatic\u201d). And on \u201cGood Morning,\u201d Kravitz even seems to bore himself imagining the workaday lives of people with 9-to-5 jobs.<\/p>\n
8. Black and White America (2011)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/3IO8YnUGZcspBFIzCUcKSQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk1OTtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/d4bed454351cea93b79281100b090148\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz confronted racism on one of his earliest songs, 1989\u2019s \u201cMr. Cab Driver,\u201d but he didn\u2019t decide to explore the topic of race for an entire album until after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Kravitz initially recorded his ninth album under the working title Negrophilia before settling on Black and White America. On the title track, he sings about his parents\u2019 interracial marriage in 1963, and how it wasn\u2019t safe for them to walk down the street together at the time. \u201cSunflower\u201d is one of the album\u2019s more straightforward love songs, but it features a verse from Drake, another superstar with one Black parent and one Jewish parent. \u201cEach of these 16 songs succeeds on its own terms, which is a vision for America beyond the black and white divide,\u201d Anthony DeCurtis wrote in the Rolling Stone<\/a> review of Black and White America.<\/p>\n7. Lenny (2001)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/BSr69OD4qdir_hVUEMswSQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk1NztjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/dc05ecf89c67bf53b976fad3b50d4ab4\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nA successful best-of compilation can be a blessing or a curse, boosting an artist\u2019s profile for future projects or putting a cap on their hitmaking days. Unfortunately for Kravitz, his triple platinum 2000 Greatest Hits package was the latter, with its new track \u201cAgain\u201d becoming his last inescapable single. Lenny\u2019s lead single \u201cDig In\u201d earned Kravitz his fourth and final Grammy win, all in the category of Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, but its monotonous chug didn\u2019t make much of an impact on the charts. Kravitz, who often shares lead guitar duties with longtime sideman Craig Ross, plays some of his finest guitar solos on several tracks on Lenny, including a lively talkbox section on \u201cGod Save Us All.\u201d And \u201cBelieve in Me,\u201d with its fidgety drum machine groove and Minimoog synth lines, actually sounds like Kravitz was taking some cues from hip-hop producers like Timbaland.<\/p>\n
6. Blue Electric Light (2024)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/CDwlJ.BZjk.nWUmcXsyc5w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/4b4f035a6704abf9044b5e770e13997d\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nIn 2024, Lenny Kravitz turned 60, began his first Las Vegas residency, and was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also, surprisingly, released one of the most creatively vital and contemporary-sounding albums of his career. Kravitz\u2019s last few albums have been recorded at Gregory Town Sound, the studio he built on the beach in the Bahamas. And with songs like the electro funk banger \u201cTK421\u201d and the sinuous slow jam \u201cStuck in the Middle,\u201d Blue Electric Light is the album that most sounds like Kravitz is just enjoying himself with jam sessions in a tropical paradise.<\/p>\n
5. 5 (1998)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/9XF0bMsDUE8TvEXJy3OnHQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/4f5792262d63c241ec2e4e7aabee5f5c\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\n5 underperformed at first, with the initial rollout focusing on the sleek R&B of \u201cIf You Can\u2019t Say No\u201d and \u201cI Belong To You.\u201d It was only after one of the album\u2019s only guitar-heavy rockers, \u201cFly Away,\u201d was promoted as a single six months after 5\u2019s release that the album really started to sell. A cover of the Guess Who\u2019s \u201cAmerican Woman,\u201d recorded for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, was added to later editions of 5, helping Kravitz reach a new level of ubiquity. Kravitz\u2019s longtime drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is frequently seen in his music videos and concerts, but \u201cStraight Cold Player\u201d is the only time she\u2019s actually gotten to lay down a deep groove on one of his studio tracks. \u201cHere we are on the brink of the millennium, but nobody\u2019s told Lenny Kravitz, who\u2019s still cranking out pedestrian Prince-style glam funk like it\u2019s 1978,\u201d Paul Lukas wrote in the SPIN<\/a> review of 5.<\/p>\n4. Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/pTj1NtPXEk.Cdeujw4x5eQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/00c4979a59a74f52f84e65ee54cde618\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nCraig Ross joined Kravitz\u2019s band for the tour in support of Mama Said, and has become Kravitz\u2019s most consistent collaborator on every subsequent album. Ross co-wrote Are You Gonna Go My Way\u2019s smash hit title track and played all of the song\u2019s dazzling interlocked guitar lines. \u201cIs There Any Love In Your Heart\u201d is the only other song on the album with the same kind of irresistible hard rock hooks as Kravitz chases one of his most persistent muses, the dry drums and reverbed vocals of John Lennon\u2019s early solo albums. \u201cSugar,\u201d however, is a soulful delight that probably could\u2019ve been a crossover hit like \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Let Love Rule (1989)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/qgmSS.HPxCuiCS59ATA0hw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk0NztjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/c3887c0818e3ee278faef6e91d13d3f4\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nLenny Kravitz was going by the stage name Romeo Blue in 1987 when he eloped in Las Vegas with The Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet on her 20th birthday. He became a tabloid fixture before the world had heard a note of his music, and a label bidding war ensued with Virgin Records eventually signing Kravitz, who decided to make music under his real name. Bonet wrote lyrics for two songs on Let Love Rule and appeared in the video for the title track, helping make it a modest hit. Despite all the media hoopla, Let Love Rule is an uncompromising self-produced debut that stands apart from even the other strains of neo-psychedelic \u201960s nostalgia that were on the charts in the late \u201980s.<\/p>\n
2. Circus (1995)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/rfBzwUT8HJeTIWaJMm7XyQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MztjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/c6e9f9974a8ae183efeaf009c0df751e\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nCircus is the dark horse of Kravitz\u2019s catalog. His mother was dying of cancer during the difficult recording sessions, and it\u2019s the only album from the first decade of his career that performed below expectations and didn\u2019t win him a significant number of new fans. But it rocks more consistently than any other Kravitz release and has a thunderous drum sound, perhaps the best faux-Led Zeppelin album since Billy Squier\u2019s Don\u2019t Say No. Kravitz headlined the 1996 H.O.R.D.E. tour in support of Circus, and songs like \u201cTunnel Vision\u201d and \u201cCan\u2019t Get You Off My Mind\u201d sounded great the only time I\u2019ve seen him live. \u201cYeah, on Circus, Lenny Kravitz proves himself to be just as much a purveyor of record collection rock as he\u2019s ever been. But what most people fail to notice is that Len has got stone-cold impeccable taste,\u201d Paul Moody wrote in the NME<\/a> review of the album.<\/p>\n1. Mama Said (1991)<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/aBGlOJJqAyurJ3abh5PA7g--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTk2MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/spin_digital_media\/023777208168c68b46c666f8d4968588\"\/)
<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz co-wrote and co-produced Madonna\u2019s provocative chart-topper \u201cJustify My Love\u201d in 1990, and followed it a few months later with his biggest solo hit. \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over\u201d borrowed a quirky neologism from the baseball legend Yogi Berra, turning it into a plea to Kravitz\u2019s estranged wife. The song didn\u2019t save their marriage\u2014he and Bonet divorced in 1993\u2014but it remains his finest soul song, with a silky, expressive vocal and a lush arrangement that includes the Phenix Horns from Earth, Wind & Fire. \u201cFlowers for Zo\u00eb\u201d is another beautiful song on Mama Said that he wrote for their daughter, actress Zo\u00eb Kravitz. The era\u2019s other most prominent biracial rock star was Slash of Guns N\u2019 Roses, who went to high school with Kravitz and played on the first two tracks on Mama Said. And it\u2019s hard not to wish that the two friends made a lot more funk rock masterpieces together after \u201cAlways on the Run.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For most of the last two decades, Kravitz has been vocal about being celibate, occasionally telling interviewers he\u2019s abstaining from sex until he remarries for religious reasons. The one period in which he wavered from that position was around the time he released Strut, which opens with a song called \u201cSex\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m just a slave for your pleasure and I\u2019m waiting to pop\u201d). Strut may be more lyrically occupied with carnal desire than any other Kravitz album, but its formulaic arena rock doesn\u2019t sound particularly seductive. The most memorable moment from Strut\u2019s promotional cycle was X-rated but purely accidental: Kravitz went viral when his leather pants split open at the crotch during a 2015 concert in Sweden.<\/p>\n
11. Baptism (2004)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz spent some time in the studio with Michael Jackson in 1999, although the song they made together, \u201c(I Can\u2019t Make It) Another Day,\u201d wouldn\u2019t see release until 2010, after Jackson\u2019s death. In the meantime, Kravitz retooled the song as the Baptism single \u201cStorm\u201d featuring Jay-Z. Kravitz was briefly engaged to actress Nicole Kidman in 2004, although the lyrics about her on \u201cLady,\u201d his last Top 40 hit, are pure drivel (\u201cI know she\u2019s a super lady \/ I\u2019m weak and I\u2019ve gone hazy\u201d). Instead, Baptism is at its most compelling when Kravitz sounds disillusioned with fame and show business on \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to be a Star,\u201d \u201cFlash,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cThe Other Side.\u201d \u201cIf an element of humor or self-deprecation were evident, the results would be funny\u2014a guilty-pleasure romp. But here\u2019s the problem: Kravitz is completely and utterly straight-faced about every single aspect of what he does,\u201d David Browne wrote in the Entertainment Weekly<\/a> review of Baptism.<\/p>\n10. Raise Vibration (2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nMichael Jackson makes a posthumous cameo on \u201cLow,\u201d the Raise Vibration single that features a sumptuous Off the Wall-style disco groove and some immediately identifiable \u201cHoo!\u201d ad libs from the King of Pop. And \u201cGold Dust\u201d is one of those most creative and rhythmically intricate tracks in Kravitz\u2019s catalog. Unfortunately, the album otherwise rarely sounds that good, with irritations like a chorus of children\u2019s voices on the vapid \u201c5 More Days \u2019Til Summer\u201d and the facile political commentary of \u201cIt\u2019s Enough!\u201d (\u201cWhat\u2019s that going down in the Middle East? Do you really think it\u2019s to keep the peace?\u201d).<\/p>\n
9. It Is Time For a Love Revolution (2008)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz plays most of the drums on his albums, and It Is Time For a Love Revolution is his pinnacle as a percussionist as he nails a taut James Brown groove on \u201cWill You Marry Me\u201d and plays behind the beat with the grace of Charlie Watts on \u201cDancin\u2019 Til Dawn.\u201d Unfortunately, the album is also a low point for Kravitz as a lyricist. \u201cLove Love Love\u201d is the closest he\u2019s ever come to rapping, and it\u2019s not pretty (\u201cI want you to know I\u2019m emphatic\/ About your love that\u2019s enigmatic\u201d). And on \u201cGood Morning,\u201d Kravitz even seems to bore himself imagining the workaday lives of people with 9-to-5 jobs.<\/p>\n
8. Black and White America (2011)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz confronted racism on one of his earliest songs, 1989\u2019s \u201cMr. Cab Driver,\u201d but he didn\u2019t decide to explore the topic of race for an entire album until after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Kravitz initially recorded his ninth album under the working title Negrophilia before settling on Black and White America. On the title track, he sings about his parents\u2019 interracial marriage in 1963, and how it wasn\u2019t safe for them to walk down the street together at the time. \u201cSunflower\u201d is one of the album\u2019s more straightforward love songs, but it features a verse from Drake, another superstar with one Black parent and one Jewish parent. \u201cEach of these 16 songs succeeds on its own terms, which is a vision for America beyond the black and white divide,\u201d Anthony DeCurtis wrote in the Rolling Stone<\/a> review of Black and White America.<\/p>\n7. Lenny (2001)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nA successful best-of compilation can be a blessing or a curse, boosting an artist\u2019s profile for future projects or putting a cap on their hitmaking days. Unfortunately for Kravitz, his triple platinum 2000 Greatest Hits package was the latter, with its new track \u201cAgain\u201d becoming his last inescapable single. Lenny\u2019s lead single \u201cDig In\u201d earned Kravitz his fourth and final Grammy win, all in the category of Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, but its monotonous chug didn\u2019t make much of an impact on the charts. Kravitz, who often shares lead guitar duties with longtime sideman Craig Ross, plays some of his finest guitar solos on several tracks on Lenny, including a lively talkbox section on \u201cGod Save Us All.\u201d And \u201cBelieve in Me,\u201d with its fidgety drum machine groove and Minimoog synth lines, actually sounds like Kravitz was taking some cues from hip-hop producers like Timbaland.<\/p>\n
6. Blue Electric Light (2024)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nIn 2024, Lenny Kravitz turned 60, began his first Las Vegas residency, and was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also, surprisingly, released one of the most creatively vital and contemporary-sounding albums of his career. Kravitz\u2019s last few albums have been recorded at Gregory Town Sound, the studio he built on the beach in the Bahamas. And with songs like the electro funk banger \u201cTK421\u201d and the sinuous slow jam \u201cStuck in the Middle,\u201d Blue Electric Light is the album that most sounds like Kravitz is just enjoying himself with jam sessions in a tropical paradise.<\/p>\n
5. 5 (1998)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\n5 underperformed at first, with the initial rollout focusing on the sleek R&B of \u201cIf You Can\u2019t Say No\u201d and \u201cI Belong To You.\u201d It was only after one of the album\u2019s only guitar-heavy rockers, \u201cFly Away,\u201d was promoted as a single six months after 5\u2019s release that the album really started to sell. A cover of the Guess Who\u2019s \u201cAmerican Woman,\u201d recorded for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, was added to later editions of 5, helping Kravitz reach a new level of ubiquity. Kravitz\u2019s longtime drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is frequently seen in his music videos and concerts, but \u201cStraight Cold Player\u201d is the only time she\u2019s actually gotten to lay down a deep groove on one of his studio tracks. \u201cHere we are on the brink of the millennium, but nobody\u2019s told Lenny Kravitz, who\u2019s still cranking out pedestrian Prince-style glam funk like it\u2019s 1978,\u201d Paul Lukas wrote in the SPIN<\/a> review of 5.<\/p>\n4. Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nCraig Ross joined Kravitz\u2019s band for the tour in support of Mama Said, and has become Kravitz\u2019s most consistent collaborator on every subsequent album. Ross co-wrote Are You Gonna Go My Way\u2019s smash hit title track and played all of the song\u2019s dazzling interlocked guitar lines. \u201cIs There Any Love In Your Heart\u201d is the only other song on the album with the same kind of irresistible hard rock hooks as Kravitz chases one of his most persistent muses, the dry drums and reverbed vocals of John Lennon\u2019s early solo albums. \u201cSugar,\u201d however, is a soulful delight that probably could\u2019ve been a crossover hit like \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Let Love Rule (1989)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nLenny Kravitz was going by the stage name Romeo Blue in 1987 when he eloped in Las Vegas with The Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet on her 20th birthday. He became a tabloid fixture before the world had heard a note of his music, and a label bidding war ensued with Virgin Records eventually signing Kravitz, who decided to make music under his real name. Bonet wrote lyrics for two songs on Let Love Rule and appeared in the video for the title track, helping make it a modest hit. Despite all the media hoopla, Let Love Rule is an uncompromising self-produced debut that stands apart from even the other strains of neo-psychedelic \u201960s nostalgia that were on the charts in the late \u201980s.<\/p>\n
2. Circus (1995)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nCircus is the dark horse of Kravitz\u2019s catalog. His mother was dying of cancer during the difficult recording sessions, and it\u2019s the only album from the first decade of his career that performed below expectations and didn\u2019t win him a significant number of new fans. But it rocks more consistently than any other Kravitz release and has a thunderous drum sound, perhaps the best faux-Led Zeppelin album since Billy Squier\u2019s Don\u2019t Say No. Kravitz headlined the 1996 H.O.R.D.E. tour in support of Circus, and songs like \u201cTunnel Vision\u201d and \u201cCan\u2019t Get You Off My Mind\u201d sounded great the only time I\u2019ve seen him live. \u201cYeah, on Circus, Lenny Kravitz proves himself to be just as much a purveyor of record collection rock as he\u2019s ever been. But what most people fail to notice is that Len has got stone-cold impeccable taste,\u201d Paul Moody wrote in the NME<\/a> review of the album.<\/p>\n1. Mama Said (1991)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/span><\/div>\nKravitz co-wrote and co-produced Madonna\u2019s provocative chart-topper \u201cJustify My Love\u201d in 1990, and followed it a few months later with his biggest solo hit. \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over\u201d borrowed a quirky neologism from the baseball legend Yogi Berra, turning it into a plea to Kravitz\u2019s estranged wife. The song didn\u2019t save their marriage\u2014he and Bonet divorced in 1993\u2014but it remains his finest soul song, with a silky, expressive vocal and a lush arrangement that includes the Phenix Horns from Earth, Wind & Fire. \u201cFlowers for Zo\u00eb\u201d is another beautiful song on Mama Said that he wrote for their daughter, actress Zo\u00eb Kravitz. The era\u2019s other most prominent biracial rock star was Slash of Guns N\u2019 Roses, who went to high school with Kravitz and played on the first two tracks on Mama Said. And it\u2019s hard not to wish that the two friends made a lot more funk rock masterpieces together after \u201cAlways on the Run.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kravitz spent some time in the studio with Michael Jackson in 1999, although the song they made together, \u201c(I Can\u2019t Make It) Another Day,\u201d wouldn\u2019t see release until 2010, after Jackson\u2019s death. In the meantime, Kravitz retooled the song as the Baptism single \u201cStorm\u201d featuring Jay-Z. Kravitz was briefly engaged to actress Nicole Kidman in 2004, although the lyrics about her on \u201cLady,\u201d his last Top 40 hit, are pure drivel (\u201cI know she\u2019s a super lady \/ I\u2019m weak and I\u2019ve gone hazy\u201d). Instead, Baptism is at its most compelling when Kravitz sounds disillusioned with fame and show business on \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to be a Star,\u201d \u201cFlash,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cThe Other Side.\u201d \u201cIf an element of humor or self-deprecation were evident, the results would be funny\u2014a guilty-pleasure romp. But here\u2019s the problem: Kravitz is completely and utterly straight-faced about every single aspect of what he does,\u201d David Browne wrote in the Entertainment Weekly<\/a> review of Baptism.<\/p>\n Michael Jackson makes a posthumous cameo on \u201cLow,\u201d the Raise Vibration single that features a sumptuous Off the Wall-style disco groove and some immediately identifiable \u201cHoo!\u201d ad libs from the King of Pop. And \u201cGold Dust\u201d is one of those most creative and rhythmically intricate tracks in Kravitz\u2019s catalog. Unfortunately, the album otherwise rarely sounds that good, with irritations like a chorus of children\u2019s voices on the vapid \u201c5 More Days \u2019Til Summer\u201d and the facile political commentary of \u201cIt\u2019s Enough!\u201d (\u201cWhat\u2019s that going down in the Middle East? Do you really think it\u2019s to keep the peace?\u201d).<\/p>\n Kravitz plays most of the drums on his albums, and It Is Time For a Love Revolution is his pinnacle as a percussionist as he nails a taut James Brown groove on \u201cWill You Marry Me\u201d and plays behind the beat with the grace of Charlie Watts on \u201cDancin\u2019 Til Dawn.\u201d Unfortunately, the album is also a low point for Kravitz as a lyricist. \u201cLove Love Love\u201d is the closest he\u2019s ever come to rapping, and it\u2019s not pretty (\u201cI want you to know I\u2019m emphatic\/ About your love that\u2019s enigmatic\u201d). And on \u201cGood Morning,\u201d Kravitz even seems to bore himself imagining the workaday lives of people with 9-to-5 jobs.<\/p>\n Kravitz confronted racism on one of his earliest songs, 1989\u2019s \u201cMr. Cab Driver,\u201d but he didn\u2019t decide to explore the topic of race for an entire album until after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Kravitz initially recorded his ninth album under the working title Negrophilia before settling on Black and White America. On the title track, he sings about his parents\u2019 interracial marriage in 1963, and how it wasn\u2019t safe for them to walk down the street together at the time. \u201cSunflower\u201d is one of the album\u2019s more straightforward love songs, but it features a verse from Drake, another superstar with one Black parent and one Jewish parent. \u201cEach of these 16 songs succeeds on its own terms, which is a vision for America beyond the black and white divide,\u201d Anthony DeCurtis wrote in the Rolling Stone<\/a> review of Black and White America.<\/p>\n A successful best-of compilation can be a blessing or a curse, boosting an artist\u2019s profile for future projects or putting a cap on their hitmaking days. Unfortunately for Kravitz, his triple platinum 2000 Greatest Hits package was the latter, with its new track \u201cAgain\u201d becoming his last inescapable single. Lenny\u2019s lead single \u201cDig In\u201d earned Kravitz his fourth and final Grammy win, all in the category of Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, but its monotonous chug didn\u2019t make much of an impact on the charts. Kravitz, who often shares lead guitar duties with longtime sideman Craig Ross, plays some of his finest guitar solos on several tracks on Lenny, including a lively talkbox section on \u201cGod Save Us All.\u201d And \u201cBelieve in Me,\u201d with its fidgety drum machine groove and Minimoog synth lines, actually sounds like Kravitz was taking some cues from hip-hop producers like Timbaland.<\/p>\n In 2024, Lenny Kravitz turned 60, began his first Las Vegas residency, and was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also, surprisingly, released one of the most creatively vital and contemporary-sounding albums of his career. Kravitz\u2019s last few albums have been recorded at Gregory Town Sound, the studio he built on the beach in the Bahamas. And with songs like the electro funk banger \u201cTK421\u201d and the sinuous slow jam \u201cStuck in the Middle,\u201d Blue Electric Light is the album that most sounds like Kravitz is just enjoying himself with jam sessions in a tropical paradise.<\/p>\n 5 underperformed at first, with the initial rollout focusing on the sleek R&B of \u201cIf You Can\u2019t Say No\u201d and \u201cI Belong To You.\u201d It was only after one of the album\u2019s only guitar-heavy rockers, \u201cFly Away,\u201d was promoted as a single six months after 5\u2019s release that the album really started to sell. A cover of the Guess Who\u2019s \u201cAmerican Woman,\u201d recorded for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, was added to later editions of 5, helping Kravitz reach a new level of ubiquity. Kravitz\u2019s longtime drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is frequently seen in his music videos and concerts, but \u201cStraight Cold Player\u201d is the only time she\u2019s actually gotten to lay down a deep groove on one of his studio tracks. \u201cHere we are on the brink of the millennium, but nobody\u2019s told Lenny Kravitz, who\u2019s still cranking out pedestrian Prince-style glam funk like it\u2019s 1978,\u201d Paul Lukas wrote in the SPIN<\/a> review of 5.<\/p>\n Craig Ross joined Kravitz\u2019s band for the tour in support of Mama Said, and has become Kravitz\u2019s most consistent collaborator on every subsequent album. Ross co-wrote Are You Gonna Go My Way\u2019s smash hit title track and played all of the song\u2019s dazzling interlocked guitar lines. \u201cIs There Any Love In Your Heart\u201d is the only other song on the album with the same kind of irresistible hard rock hooks as Kravitz chases one of his most persistent muses, the dry drums and reverbed vocals of John Lennon\u2019s early solo albums. \u201cSugar,\u201d however, is a soulful delight that probably could\u2019ve been a crossover hit like \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over.\u201d<\/p>\n Lenny Kravitz was going by the stage name Romeo Blue in 1987 when he eloped in Las Vegas with The Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet on her 20th birthday. He became a tabloid fixture before the world had heard a note of his music, and a label bidding war ensued with Virgin Records eventually signing Kravitz, who decided to make music under his real name. Bonet wrote lyrics for two songs on Let Love Rule and appeared in the video for the title track, helping make it a modest hit. Despite all the media hoopla, Let Love Rule is an uncompromising self-produced debut that stands apart from even the other strains of neo-psychedelic \u201960s nostalgia that were on the charts in the late \u201980s.<\/p>\n Circus is the dark horse of Kravitz\u2019s catalog. His mother was dying of cancer during the difficult recording sessions, and it\u2019s the only album from the first decade of his career that performed below expectations and didn\u2019t win him a significant number of new fans. But it rocks more consistently than any other Kravitz release and has a thunderous drum sound, perhaps the best faux-Led Zeppelin album since Billy Squier\u2019s Don\u2019t Say No. Kravitz headlined the 1996 H.O.R.D.E. tour in support of Circus, and songs like \u201cTunnel Vision\u201d and \u201cCan\u2019t Get You Off My Mind\u201d sounded great the only time I\u2019ve seen him live. \u201cYeah, on Circus, Lenny Kravitz proves himself to be just as much a purveyor of record collection rock as he\u2019s ever been. But what most people fail to notice is that Len has got stone-cold impeccable taste,\u201d Paul Moody wrote in the NME<\/a> review of the album.<\/p>\n Kravitz co-wrote and co-produced Madonna\u2019s provocative chart-topper \u201cJustify My Love\u201d in 1990, and followed it a few months later with his biggest solo hit. \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s Over\u201d borrowed a quirky neologism from the baseball legend Yogi Berra, turning it into a plea to Kravitz\u2019s estranged wife. The song didn\u2019t save their marriage\u2014he and Bonet divorced in 1993\u2014but it remains his finest soul song, with a silky, expressive vocal and a lush arrangement that includes the Phenix Horns from Earth, Wind & Fire. \u201cFlowers for Zo\u00eb\u201d is another beautiful song on Mama Said that he wrote for their daughter, actress Zo\u00eb Kravitz. The era\u2019s other most prominent biracial rock star was Slash of Guns N\u2019 Roses, who went to high school with Kravitz and played on the first two tracks on Mama Said. And it\u2019s hard not to wish that the two friends made a lot more funk rock masterpieces together after \u201cAlways on the Run.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n10. Raise Vibration (2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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9. It Is Time For a Love Revolution (2008)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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8. Black and White America (2011)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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7. Lenny (2001)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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6. Blue Electric Light (2024)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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5. 5 (1998)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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4. Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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3. Let Love Rule (1989)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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2. Circus (1995)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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1. Mama Said (1991)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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