Lenny Kravitz - Circus
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Free Music Notes for Circus
Free Music Review: If you like Lenny Kravitz, this CD is a must.
Hit: 5 Stars
If you like Lenny Kravitz, this CD is a must. Circus is arguably his best released work to date. As diverse as ever, hard-hitting raw sounding funky beats contrast superbly with harmonious contemporary rock tunes.Free Music Review: Simply The Best
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is awesome and so is he. This has a lot of soul and heart in it. I could listen to it all day! I love you Lenny!Free Music Review: deep circus
Hit: 5 Stars
this is one of lenny's best, it's different funky rock'n'roll,but you wont be disappointed if you buy it...Free Music Review: Personal pain resulted in darker, more personal record
Hit: 4 Stars
After finally discovering himself with 1993's ARE YOU GONNA GO MY WAY (not to mention a fair amount of critical respect), Lenny Kravitz didn't have much time to enjoy his newfound acclaim. His mother, actress Roxie Roker, was slowly dying of cancer. Furthermore, Lenny's outlook on the world had taken a turn towards the militant, bringing out an anger in his music we hadn't expected. That surprise no doubt had an effect on 1995's CIRCUS, which turned some people off with its more downbeat approach.Probably the most damning was the Zeppelin-derived opener "Rock & Roll Is Dead", which really is a good rocker in the end, but people thought Lenny was contradicting himself when he put down the excess of rock stars, everything from drugs to groupies. After all, didn't Lenny's music come from a time when those things were used in abundance? Even so, the song still rocks to high heaven. The same goes for the funk-driven (if a little too James Brown-inspired) "Tunnelvision", "Magdalene" (Lenny's "Dancing Days", if you will) & "Thin Ice".
But with all the emotional turmoil in Lenny's life around the time of CIRCUS, a more introspective person emerged. The eerie title track (with its eyebrow-raising video), "Don't Go & Put A Bullet In Your Head", "In My Life Today" & the country-tinged "Can't Get You Off My Mind" demonstrate a Lenny starting to mellow out ever so slightly, even if it took a personal tragedy (his mother's death) to make that happen.
Religion also becomes a focal point on songs like "God Is Love", "Beyond The 7th Sky" & "Resurrection". While the death of his mother may have gotten Lenny to thinking about his own mortality, most of these songs come off as too preachy in the end. Such indulgence can be forgiven & even understood nevertheless.
CIRCUS was indeed a shocking record coming from Lenny Kravitz, not just for its ever-present influences, but for its overall depressing mood. After all, wasn't Lenny supposed to be about the love, peace & happiness vibes of the late 1960s? Instead, CIRCUS had Lenny facing reality & discovering that such things don't come so easy. Most fans weren't willing to go on that dark ride with Lenny & critics were often even more harsh in their reviews. But while it's true that CIRCUS may be not as enjoyable as its upbeat title states, after a few listens, the album will start to reveal itself as an intriguing, well-worth-listening record in the end.
Free Music Review: Viking Rock forever!
Hit: 4 Stars
It is indeed hard to listen to Lenny Kravitz if you don't like sonic references to Viking Rock, that brilliant (in a beer guzzling, "Party on, dude! Yeah! Owww!" kind of way) sound first brought to you by Led Zeppelin and their ilk. Critics laugh at Viking Rock because they think it's too close to Classic Rock -- and may the discount bins have mercy on your soul if you happen to like Classic Rock. Of course, critics also hated Led Zeppelin.But what people invariably overlook is this: some of us like that big, open-E chord sound. There is truth in seventh and thirteenth chords, and they sound even better when volume is involved.
Circus is of course no exception; this album is full of peals of thick guitars and forced rhymes (Kravitz has never been known for his lyrical craftsmanship). "You think you're on top of the world but you know it's really over/Runnin' round with diamond rings and coke spoons that are overflowin'" he sings through a sneer on "Rock and Roll is Dead." Yeah, it's hard to tell if Kravitz is being serious. If he's writing off all rock musicians, then he's engaging in one of the biggest paradoxes in modern rock history. If he's writing about himself, which I personally think he is, then he is not just writing off his own existence. He's venting. Artists do that.
I won't keep defending this album because, frankly, if you don't like Lenny Kravitz, then you probably aren't interested in what people are saying about this particular album. However, if you do like Kravitz, and if you do enjoy large sounds emanating from large chords, then this is yet another addition for your high-rotation collection. Essential Kravitz, but for fans only.