ALL HAIL THE KING

Lenny Is Back With A Fresh Outlook And A New Revolution.



By George Hagan



If you had any doubt at all of Lenny's "rock god" status, all you have to do to be assured is be in the general vicinity when he rolls through a magazine shoot with his accompanying entourage. First off, there's the heavier than usual fleet of publicists busily tapping away on Blackberries and iPhones, ensuring that Lenny keeps his cluttered schedule of press engagements. Next, you got his hair and grooming people followed closely by the no-nonsense personal stylist in the fierce stiletto boots and matching Prada dress. And you can't forget the other assorted friends and hanger-ons who are there to perform miscellaneous duties, like providing downtime banter and ordering Lenny's lunch you know, superstar stuff.



In the center of this cluster of supporting cast, Kravitz has no problem standing out. He's back to wearing his hair in a trim, funky 'fro, and his choice of attire is standard rock deity fare; extremely fitted, dark leather jacket, super-skinny black denim pants, slinky black t-shirt and black-as-night wraparound sunglasses. Everything about his aura exudes the global icon he is all the way down to the swagger and lean of his walk. If there was ever an accredited school that graded musicians on being the most "rock n roll," Kravitz would probably be campus valedictorian.



The New LP



"I really have no favorite out of all my albums," Lenny says, while winding down from a shoot in which he nailed like every single frame (no joke, Tyra from America's Next Top Model would be envious of Kravitz's prowess in front of the lens). "I feel that each album chronicled my life and what I was going through for the period in which it came out," he continues. "But you know what I feel that this new album is my best one yet."



Kravitz is on to something. No matter how jaded a music critic you might be, it's impossible to deny the quality and creativity of Lenny's new disc, . Perhaps it's even better than the progressive, ingenuous 5 he put out in 1998. Similar to how that album had stacks and stacks of winning cuts like "Fly," "I Belong to You," and "Thinking Of You," Love Revolution is similarly loaded with amazing songs from beginning to end.



What makes this new album even more special is its wide-reaching range and diversity. "This is the kind of record you really have to sit down and take in because, musically, it's all over the place," Lenny excitedly explains. "I recorded in many different places too Brazil, NYC, Miami, Paris and I played all the instruments as well," he adds.



For every barn stomping, stadium rocker on Love Revolution, like "Bring It On" and "Time for a Love Revolution," there are a handful of beautifully-crafted, slow-burning love songs like the idyllic "I'll Be Waiting," the bittersweet "I Love the Rain" and the poignantly urgent, "This Moment."



There are some special surprises thrown into the mix too. One of them is "Will You Marry Me," a chunky slab of James Brown-style funk that blares out the speaker and hits you square in the face. Another standout is a downright lustful groove called "Dancin' Till Dawn." The latter was conceived after a memorable night Lenny spent at a swanky spot in NYC's kitschy Little Italy neighborhood.



"I was working really late," he recounts, "and I finally got out around 3 a.m. and decided to hit this spot called Gold Bar that's right around the corner from my house. It has a really cool interior decor, it's really loungy and the DJ plays really, really great music. So while I'm there, I started thinking about being in a club and imagining this beautiful girl that was there, and the song began forming in my head.".........



For the complete story get ISSUE 82 "THE FASHION ISSUE"