Customer Reviews

5 + American Woman + Without You

5 star:		(145)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Lenny Kravitz isn't exactly the type of stuff the average hip hop head grows up listening to. I grew up in a neghborhood where hip hop was king. Like I said before though, good music is good music regardless of what genre you're into. This album is no different. This was the first Lenny Kravitz CD I ever listened to because my college roommate used to shower to it all the time. So it eventually grew on me. Afterward, I went out and purchased a few of his other albums (except for Mama Said, which I stole from my dad's collection....if you're reading this, I'm sorry pops....and yeah, it was me, not Chris). Anyway, Lenny is a genius in my book. This is still my favorite Kravitz album out of all the ones I heard. Lenny brings back feelings from my childhood with this CD. It's refreshing in a time where everything is starting to sound the same. If you're like I once was and you think Lenny Kravitz is on some spaced out, bud smokin', left field, white boy isht that only geeks listened to.....then you thought wrong like I did. This album helped me open up to different stuff that I wouldn't have ever given a chance before. Now I don't judge before I listen. And this album played a large role in me becoming a more well rounded listener. This album is arguably a classic. If you haven't heard it by now, give it a try. You'll love it.

Personal Favorites: Thinking Of You, It's Your Life (my favorite), I Belong To You, Live, Fly Away, If You Can't Say No, & Straight Cold Player

That's what Lenny is. He is one of the few truly gifted artist in the music industry today. He has a unique ability to produce different types of music. Rock, pop, R&B, and 70's funk. He also has an excellent voice, which he displays through the entire album. But that's not where his talents end. He also plays a mean guitar. His lyrics have meaning and the ability to reach deep down. Thinking Of You is the most touching song you could imagine and Little Girls Eyes is beautiful. For the romantic you have I Belong To You, If You Can't Say No, and It's Your Life, all with funky beats. Live, Supersoulfighter, Fly Away, and American Woman have those hard hitting beats that drop like an A-Bomb. It's just a shame that he isn't receiving the recognition that he deserves. Since he has songs in every catagory, they should be given radio airtime accordingly.

the other two being Let Love Rule and Mama Said. Get these three and you're set.
peace

The depressing sound of 1995's CIRCUS turned away more of Lenny Kravitz's fans than welcomed them & was his least successful album to date. But during the recording of his 1998 album 5, Lenny was making some changes in his life for the better. He was getting over the death of his mother, actress Roxie Roker & beginning to make amends with his ex-wife Lisa Bonet. Furthermore, Lenny started to realize adopting a more modernized sound wouldn't hurt either. So for 5, he began to slowly but surely live for the now.

You could say that this is Lenny's comeback album, which it might very well be, putting him back on top commercially after the failure of CIRCUS. "Fly Away" is no doubt the most popular song off the album & the one that helped propel 5 to its multi-platinum sales. Granted, the song isn't much in the way of lyrics & the guitar sound is still a bit retro, but the slight introduction of hip-hop rhythms & synthesized sounds indicate the subtle ways in which Lenny was bringing himself into the present.

But that's not to say he doesn't still have one foot left in the past. It's just that he's learned the art of subtlety after trying too hard to sound like he was from the time his song was inspired by. Although it wasn't an official single, "Live" is my favorite song off of 5, for it shows that way Lenny can fool us into thinking that the song could have been straight out of the 1970s. A blaxploitation movie theme that would have made an excellent one. Silky soul ballads like "If You Can't Say No", "Thinking Of You" (a beautiful tribute to his late mother) & "I Belong To You" are other great straight-out-of-the-me-decade tunes.

The more obvious excursions into modern times include the techno groove of "Black Velveteen" (some may think it's a bit sexist, though) & the '80s power ballad sound of "Little Girl's Eyes" (for Lenny's daughter Zoe), "You're My Flavor" & "Can We Find A Reason". Again, such new sounds are in their trial runs, but by the time of this album's follow-up LENNY (2001), Lenny would have them down to a T.

Less than a year after the album was first released, 5 was re-issued with two bonus tracks: Lenny's cover of the Guess Who's classic "American Woman" (from the AUSTIN POWERS 2 soundtrack) & "Without You". These aren't exactly big revelations, but are great bonuses to have nevertheless. And I'm sure the inclusion of "American Woman" (faithful, but no Guess Who) helped improve 5's chart performance after its sales started to decline.

Lenny Kravitz said that he called the album 5 for its religious significance & its indication of a new beginning. Lenny was indeed changing for the better both in his life & his music. Fans were now back on his side & the critics were doing the same, some even calling 5 Lenny's strongest album yet. While that might not be all true, it showed that Lenny wasn't just basically an archivist as we all first thought. So give Lenny Kravitz a high-5 for finally getting back in touch with his music.

I own all of Lenny's cds and think this is a refreshing new directions for Lenny. I don't think that their is an artist that you can get to know through their music like Lenny Kravitz. His life and the events of his life are written and entwined in every cd he has made. 5 has songs on it that are deeply meaningful to Lenny and the way they are crafted shows. Thinking of you, written for his mother is a powerful and beatiful song that brought a lump in my throat when I first heard it. Little Girls Eyes about his daughter growing up too fast on him, which all parents can relate too, is a wonderful song. All of this aside he still throws out songs like fly away and live which rock. His catchy tunes like If you can't say no, shines on this cd. His version of American woman rocks the soul and if there has ever been a remake that flatters the original artist more I would like to know what it would be? Overall this is a new sound,new directions, new look (bye bye dregs) for lenny and works great without getting lost with who he is. Good job Lenny, you rock!

No, this is not Lenny's sell-out album. Yes, there is a techno/house song ("Black Velveteen") and yes, there are things you won't see on any other Lenny album (electronic drums, "If You Can't Say No"), but is that all so terrible? Here, Lenny not only let loose and experimented with almighty digital recording, but recruited a new generation of fans.

Why is it that people always get so mad when an artist wants to experiment? If you listen to Circus, Lenny's previous album, you hear unhappiness. Lenny flew off to the Bahamas, took a break, and ended up writing lyrics for 5, which is his most positive and upbeat album to date. "Live" tells us to get off our butts and dance; "It's Your Life" is about grabbing the opportunity of love and running with it. The longest track on the album is "Little Girl's Eyes", about his daughter Zoe, and it's really a good song. No, really, listen to it. I happen to have the rereleased version that has "American Woman" and "Without You" tacked onto the end, bringing the total number of songs to 15. "American Woman" never was a big deal to me, but it probably got the most airplay, next to "Fly Away". In fact, "Fly Away" is the song that got a lot of people turned onto Lenny, mostly the younger fans like myself. Don't hate him (or us) for that. Even if Lenny strays from his classic rock roots on 5, it doesn't make for a bad album. You should still buy it. Trust me.

I wanted to give the album a 3.5. The album is solid and shows parts of Lenny's talent. Fly Away, American Woman, and Black Velveteen show that Kravitz has talent to put together good songs music wise (if not lyrically). The problem with this album is that its too long. 15 songs with too much filler. Subtract the generic sounding Straight Cold Player, and Its Your Life and you have a better album. The songs all seem to blend together a little too much with the exception of Fly Away and American Woman. plus the songs are too long for their quality and begin to sound alittle repetitive after awhile. The best song on the album (not because its a hit)Fly Away is also the shortest while the extremely unnecessary musical solo Straight Cold Player is 4 minutes and 19 seconds of unbarable filler. Lenny is a great singer however and Thinking of You is a testament to that greatness. To sum up I will say this about 5, it is Lenny's best so far, but he could do better as I think we'll see in his next album. 5 has its bright spots but they are at times drowned in a see of redundancy. My Grade: C+

If you are a fan of rock music (not necessarily Lenny Kravitz) you must check out the greatest album of the pas 25 years, Nevermind from Nirvana as well as Ten from Pearl jam, these are priceless masterpieces.

...my introduction to this was at a movie theatre over a year ago. My wife and I got there before the previews and were snacking on our popcorn when this jam comes bumping out of the theatre music repertoire...E and I were like, "Hey, who's that? We really like it". It turned out to be our hero Lenny with his cut "If You Can't Say No" and that jam is a smooth funk number. When we picked up the CD, it was like, we were blown away, but to our chagrin, no one else was groovin' on the vibe of "5"... can you believe it? I mean, it's a little too much funk for straight-up rock'n'roll and a little too much rock'n'roll for funkin', but heck E and me were jammin' the sugar honey iced tea outta it. I especially dug "Straight Cold Playa" and "Black Velveteen"..but no one else seem to be on that vibe until "Fly Away" and its video. I mean, Lenny sure must've felt like Wolverine of the X-men to be endowed with such great power, but scaring the heck outta evvybody because of his mutant state. That's ok, kid. Me and my wife were behind you from it's release. We feel that your recent Grammy win was much deserved and we can't wait for your next project. Thanks.

In my opinion this is Lenny's 2nd best work."Mama Said" being the best of course.It shows his deep understanding of funk/dance/rock/pop music.He has got to be the most versatile musician I've ever heard.Sure his influences are obvious,but everyone had to hear some music first before they developed their own.What I like most about it has got to be how unashamably he does the funk thing.."Super Soul Fighter"...The first time I heard it I was blown away.I literally laughed with delight.It was like listening to a Fat Albert soundtrack.Then move on to something like "Fly Away" and you're doing the head bangin' air guitar thing.Mellow sounds abound with "Thinkin of You" and others.I could go on but suffice it to say that if you like to hear different sounding stuff from the same artist on the same CD with soooo much soul you want be dissapointed with this one!

I bought this disc after riding in my friends car as he was playing it, not because of Fly Away or American Woman, but because I liked the first track Live. I like the horns and funky guitar of the song, like a Sly Stone groove but recorded with modern technology. The rest of the disc is pretty nice, You Belong To Me and Thinking of You are two of the best tracks. Stone Cold Player has a nice groove as well. Lenny still pales in comparison to 0(+>, but then again, who doesn't.