Lenny Kravitz is funk, very strong funk

The fifth album by Lenny Kravitz was released on May 12, 1998 and was simply titled “5”. In Italy the album reached fifth position in the sales charts. Here follows our review of that album.

Lenny Kravitz and his personal reinterpretation of the best in rock history, fifth episode. In this issue: funk, very strong funk, a lot of desire for old Commodores, Sly Stone, James Brown, Blacksploitation and even a bit of disco music. The previous explorations remain in vogue (even more so since as a sound engineer we find Terry Manning, someone who really worked on them with Led Zeppelin) and it must be said that the final result is that of an album that now establishes what it is a consolidated trademark of Kravitz, that is, recording his own compositions in the shadow of History.

Not that there's nothing personal on the album, on the contrary: Kravitz sings like a god, and the songs hold up well, the album has depth and everything you want. Only, he continues to seem orphaned by a world that no longer exists, in a certain sense, and which perhaps Kravitz himself has chosen the role of reviving.

Recorded digitally, with the massive use of samplers and loops, it must be said that “5” sounds less rustic and more smooth and stylish than its predecessors, ending up being his most 'futuristic' album, suspended between quotes from Starsky & Hutch (“It's your life” and “Straight cold player”, but also the initial “Live” evokes an all-funk world) and some approaches that mix technology and soul (the beautiful single “If you can't say no “, “Black velveteen”, “Little girl's eyes”).

A good listen, in conclusion, with an extra moment of emotion for “Thinking of you”, a song dedicated to her mother (who recently passed away), the actress Roxie Roker, the legendary Helen from the serial “The Jeffersons”.