Lenny Kravitz: It Is Time for a Love Revolution

Label: Virgin
Sound/Style: Classic-styled rock with strongly spiritual and topical lyrics

By Steve Morley

Rocker Lenny Kravitz was an anomaly in 1989, when his debut disc Let Love Rule hit the bins. To begin with, it was unusual to see an African-American in the rock arena; never mind that Kravitz also picked up the then-uncommercial threads of the late ‘60s, both in sound and style. Dressed in flashy retro garb, he not only waved the love-and-peace banner but audaciously preached the Gospel as well. Kravitz’s initial blurring of spirituality and hippie-retro rhetoric compromised his Christian message somewhat, as did the sex and drug references and plentiful obscenity, which won him points for authenticity but alienated most Christian listeners. On It Is Time for a Love Revolution, Kravitz delivers on the gospel-rock promise of Let Love Rule with a focused and aggressively evangelical record that consolidates his pop, funk and classic rock influences as cohesively as anything he’s done in a decade.

Rock and roll’s love-one-another crusade has rung hollow at times, but Kravitz gives it ballast on the declarative title track, which promises a love that won’t let you down and then proceeds to elaborate on the source. ("It is time for a love revolution/ It is time for a new constitution/ You are a child of the most high/ There is nothing you can't do and that is no lie.")

He’s similarly outspoken on the insistent mid-tempo rocker "If You Want It," a salvation sermon fortified with stinging lead guitar. ("Just believe and you will see that God/ Will shower you like pouring rain/ If you want it, you can change your world today/ If you want it, just break free and walk away.")

Cuts like these convincingly assert that changes in the heart are tied to breakthrough in the spirit, an idea delivered with particular sensitivity on the melodic and uplifting "A New Door." ("When you think that nobody cares/ Close your eyes and know that God is there/And if you reach out, He'll do the same/ Just ask for what you need in Jesus’ name/ Don’t be ashamed.")

Kravitz breathes fiery life into Old Testament concepts on the blues-rock battle cry "Bring It On," confidently touting the power of his spiritual sword against all would-be attackers over an insistent, Led Zeppelin-esque drum and guitar figure. ("I'm gonna walk by faith/ Gonna raise my sword/ I'm gonna fight my battle/ Gonna praise my Lord.")

While Kravitz airs non-religious concerns on the disc, he’s lessened the inconsistencies with his spiritual side that peppered previous albums. He espouses a modern version of traditional values on "Will You Marry Me," built on a funk-rock rhythm as suggestively sensual as it is propulsive. The influence of 1999-era Prince is evident in the squiggly synthesizers, though Prince’s classic line "let’s pretend we’re married" is one-upped by Kravitz’s matrimonial lyric, which clarifies his desire to keep things on the up and up.

On "Back in Vietnam," Kravitz criticizes the executive muscle America is flexing in Iraq, comparing the present war to the unpopular Asian conflict that persisted throughout the hippie era often evoked in the singer’s work. His focus on power oversimplifies the similarities, but he effectively zooms in on a lonely and frustrated soldier on "I Want to Go Home." The track ends the album on a sober note, as Kravitz makes no attempt to answer present-day problems with the possibility of inner peace and transcendence he entertains elsewhere. Exceptions like that one aside, It Is Time for a Love Revolution is an impressive example of unapologetically secular rock with a decidedly spiritual spin.

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