Lenny Kravitz - Let love rule Review

In many ways, Lenny Kravitz's Let Love Rule is a thoroughly impressive debut. Like Prince, he plays nearly every instrument on the record, yet makes it sound organic and alive. Musically, it's a startlingly accurate replication of late-'60s psychedelia, crossed with a Princely groove and a heavy John Lennon fixation. Kravitz has no desire to move forward, he only wants to recreate classic rock, and as a result, Let Love Rule is an enormous, guilty pleasure. His songcraft may be derivative, but it's catchy -- the title track has a lean groove and a colorful chorus, "Sittin' on Top of the World" and "Does Anybody Out There Even Care" have strong hooks, and while the stately psychedelia of "I Build This Garden for Us" can sound like a parody, it is quite effective. Kravitz stumbles when he gets preachy (the awkward "Mr. Cab Driver") or flowery ("Flower Child"), but that doesn't diminish the pleasures of Let Love Rule. [In honor of the album's 20th anniversary, a deluxe double-disc version was released in 2009. This enhanced version included remastered tracks and assorted rarities, including original mixes, demo material, and live performances.]...full text These two major-label debuts capture the sound of young America sifting through the fragments of postmodern culture and creating childlike musical collages of no particular point. Everything on these albums refers to earlier styles, as if the world were a kind of shopping mall in which this type of music can be blended with that, regardless of the inherent integrity of any particular genre. The consolation for living in a time when social problems are pushing our nation to the point of collapse, these records intimate, is the freedom to play aimlessly among the ruins.


On the strength of a couple of independent releases – which were combined to create this album – Poi Dog Pondering, an Austin, Texas, band that started up in Hawaii, was highly sought after by a number of record companies hungry for the next breakthrough from the underground, à la Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. Poi dog is, evidently, Hawaiian slang for "mutt," an apparent allusion to the eclectic musical sources drawn on by the group's nine members. The songs on Poi Dog Pondering, which are largely acoustic, variously employ tin whistle, violin, guitars, trumpet, trombone, mandolin, accordion, bass, drums and a host of additional percussion instruments in arrangements that bend traditional elements to their own skewed ends....full text The world was stunned when Justice’s remix of U2’s “Get On Your Boots” hit the interwebs. Though I’m not really sure why. It’s no secret that Justice are big pop music fans. Gaspard and Xavier have remixed Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in the past, remember? However, I have to admit that their latest remixing move sort of left me in minor shock; why is Justice remixing someone as irrelevant as Lenny Kravitz?

The fact that Team Kravitz hired Justice to remix the titular track off of Kravitz’s 20th Anniversary re-release of, Let Love Rule, lead me to believe Justice were handed a nice fat check (or cheque) for this remix....full text