Album Discussion: "Baptism," Lenny Kravitz

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All Music Guide absolutely trashed this giving it a star and a half. I think it's a pretty good album. He went back to his more rock-ish backgrounds. It's not mind blowingly amazing or anything, but one star? I'm a little surprised.

I could definitely hear "Calling All Angels" being a single. He always releases a ballad. This one sounds almost exactly like "I Swear" by All-4-One.

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The Observer gave this a much more reasonable review.

Lenny Kravitz
Baptism
(Virgin)

Lenny Kravitz doesn't want to be a star. He says so, repeatedly, on 'I Don't Want to Be a Star'. This being the multi-platinum-selling, sunglass-sporting, Nicole Kidman-dating rawk cartoon who recently teamed up with P Diddy and Pharrell of the Neptunes for a single that celebrated their celebrity, it is with difficulty that we swallow the self-examining, regular-guy guff that animates Kravitz's seventh album. But even though it kicks off with a ridiculous track called 'Minister of Rock'n'Roll', Baptism is by far the least bloated record Kravitz has ever made. There's virtually no coffee-table funk here - Kravitz's homages to Hendrix and Prince are rock. Instead, garagey pop songs such as 'California' and stripped down tunes such as the Kidman-inspired 'Lady' dominate. By the time he ruefully croons 'What Did I Do with My Life', you almost believe in his Damascene conversion. Almost.

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LENNY KRAVITZ
Album Title: Baptism
Producer(s): Lenny Kravitz
Label/Catalog Number: Virgin 7243 5 84145 2 3
Release Date: May 18
Source: Billboard Magazine
Originally Reviewed: May 29, 2004


With his seventh album, Lenny Kravitz enthusiastically returns to the retro styling of his early work. Like its lead single, "Where Are We Runnin'?," "Baptism" is a respectable effort. Though the songs on this collection mostly fall short of dynamic early rockers like "Are You Gonna Go My Way?," the straight-ahead, distorted guitar-heavy "Lady" and funk/soul "Storm" should please fans of the former hits. Interestingly, though, the ballads work best. Again recalling such earlier songs as the Lennon-esque "Stand by My Woman," the reverb-drenched piano that anchors "Calling All Angels" and "The Other Side" reveal the artist in a reflective, melancholy, even remorseful mood. He muses on "The Other Side," "Could a wife and some children be better than being in a band?" That observation is also evident in "California," an otherwise jubilant, power-pop workout. "Baptism" is vintage Kravitz, familiar terrain to classic rock fans.—CW

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To some, listening to Lenny Kravitz was always a bit of a guilty pleasure, but rarely has listening to one of his albums induced overwhelming feelings of guilt, as does his seventh album, Baptism. Guilt that you took him for granted, not acknowledging the craft behind his best singles. Guilt that you thought he couldn't be as nondescript as he was on "Fly." Guilt that you thought he couldn't sink lower than Circus. Or maybe it will just be a flush of angry guilt that you've wasted 55 minutes of precious time listening to an album that betrays all faith you've had in Kravitz as a retro-rock revivalist. Since 1993's Are You Gonna Go My Way? he'd been erratic, stumbling on the doggedly rock-oriented Circus and only gathering his full strength on 2001's Lenny, which may have been a good record but failed to sell. Perhaps maintaining a balance of sales, craft, and fame had exhausted Kravitz, but he sounds worn down to the bone throughout Baptism. He may claim that he "can save your soul" on the opener, "Minister of Rock 'n Roll" (which bears unfortunate similarities in tone and theme to Circus' dud opening salvo, "Rock and Roll Is Dead"), but on the rest of the album he sounds anxious to quit the business, wondering whether he would have been better off if he were a simple man and living off the land. These themes are commonplace in rock & roll, but most rockers have better sense than to air their concerns in the first person, whining that "I'm internationally known...I've got millions sold/But after the party, I'm left standing in the cold," which engenders little sympathy since he could, after all, pull a Bobbie Gentry and quit the business and not make any more records. But he doesn't really want to do that since he's too enamored with the spoils of fame and all of its trapping, complaining "I Don't Want to Be a Star" in the same song where he exults "I got high with Jagger/It was really cool." Such shallow sentiments could be excused if the music worked, but it's as thin as his words and stultifying lethargic, to the point that he doesn't bother to disguise how he cops ZZ Top on "Where Are We Runnin'?" or Sly Stone on "Sistamamalover." It's such a drag that it's a real shock when a song pierces through the murk, as it does on the addictive rush of "California" or the fuzzy glam of "Flash" — these are the songs that remind you that Kravitz can fuse familiar sounds into something that giddily celebrates his love of music. While these are fine individual moments, they wind up being a bit dispiriting since they're surrounded by lazy, exhausted retreads where it sounds as if the act of making music is a chore to Kravitz — something that he nearly admits in his lyrics. It's a shame and embarrassment, and hopefully it will be a temporary slump like Circus — unless he really does want to quit this business called show, since it would be better for him to stop making records than to crank out depressing sludge like this. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine (All Music Guide)

[singingsparrow]

Rolling Stone gave it a fairly comfortable 3 star review.

I have heard the album, and I think Rolling Stone gave the album a fair review. It certainly is nothing groundbreaking, but definitely an album t please true Kravitz fans.

It has its rockers, it has its ballads. Just as "Where Are We Runnin'" is this album's "Dig In", the next single will likely be this album's "Stillness of Heart". Definitely not a disappointment.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton