BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA
| Lenny Kravitz
BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA
Black and White America is the ninth studio album by American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and arranger Lenny Kravitz, released on August 30, 2011. It is considered Kravitz's long-awaited funk studio album originally intended for release before Baptism's last minute songwriting sessions. The album also produced six singles released in 2011 and 2012. - WIKIPEDIA
Critic Reviews
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RollingStone
Kravitz is most gripping at his most personal, but he doesn’t sustain that intensity. Still, each of these 16 songs succeeds on its own terms, which is a vision for America beyond the black and white divide.
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paste
Many moments rank high on the Kravitz funkiness chart, including the fantastic title track—which rides liquidy slap-bass and buzzing synth, fleshed out by interjections from glistening strings and horns. “Superlove” is as nasty as an Ohio Players deep cut, offering another wonderful slice of slap-bass (this time smothered in wah-wah), some airy harmonies, a note-perfect guitar solo, and a palpable sexual tension in the chorus. The “blacker” he gets, the better he gets. Unfortunately, Kravitz’s whiter side proves far less interesting.
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GUITAR PLANET magazine
Lenny Kravitz is back with an album originally intended to be called 'Negrophilia'. He wants us to be united; but are you gonna go his way or not?
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BBC
More heartfelt observations of life and love from the multi-faceted soul-rocker.
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ALL MUSIC
Here, he reverses that dynamic, playing the studio like the virtuoso that he is, and he's come up with his best record in years, a shamelessly enjoyable piece of aural candy.
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Entertainment
Kravitz's ninth album is a melting pot of funk, soul, rock, and other made-in-the-USA genres, with songs about growing up biracial after civil rights (the '70s-inspired title track) and plenty of hopey-changey stuff (''Stand,'' ''Push'').
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American Songwriter
Black and White America is a laudable musical statement, and a much needed reminder of how prodigious Kravitz is at melding together rock and funk.
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musicOMH
Overall, it's an easily enjoyable album with its heart in the right place.
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What Culture
He’s a class above most artists that are around these days and it’s a relief to know that he’s still plying his trade and is still as creative and influential as ever.
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sputnik music
From its ill-advised working title – Negrophilia (!!!) – to its egregiously bloated tracklist, everything about Black and White America seems like an exercise in bad judgment.
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Bluebird Reviews
The Vision. The Message. Equality. Freedom. Life can be enjoyed passionately at its core. Lenny Kravitz transmits it through this album.
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Sound Sphere
The album is so impressively diverse that it has something for everyone, and for those with diverse tastes, this album is a must-have.
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We Got This Covered
Thankfully, Lenny has left the covers and the Best Of’s behind and is back with a new record. It’s called Black and White America and in typical Lenny fashion, it features a number of songs about peace and brotherhood set to some seriously crunchy guitar, bass heavy funk and lyrics delivered with Lenny’s trademark silky vocals.
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nzherald.co.nz
as diverse and wild as his ninth album gets it never loses focus. As a return to form goes, it's impressive stuff.
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Alternative Addiction
“Black and White America” is the best effort from Kravitz in years.
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IGN
Kravitz delivers an eclectic, pleasing ninth album.
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TheUrbanMusicScene.com
With his ninth studio effort Black and White America, soulful, psychedelic rock-veteran Lenny Kravitz delivers his best studio effort in years. Through sixteen solid cuts, there are no misses to be found whatsoever.
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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
Overall, “Black and White America” more than lives up to the expectations that have been building for this album since nearly a decade ago, and that is not an easy task. Lyrically, the album both challenges and reposes within a modern society’s ability to rectify social issues through the spiritual redemption of love.
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the arts desk
In 1989 when Lenny Kravitz released his debut Let Love Rule people complained that he had failed to quite master the Sixties influences that cut through it. They were wrong. That year it made Kravitz the most exciting black/white crossover artist since Prince. Since then, his path has been mainly a little more straightforward - maybe a little retro, but still consistently stirring. However with Black and White America Kravitz has again thumbed back through his Black-American songbook to find new styles with which to score his treatise on 21st-century race relations. Is it as good as Let Love Rule? Simple answer, no.
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The West Australian
Commendably using music to state his political and racial beliefs, which are often extremely vague, the end result is an honest record that is essentially a medley of styles and themes that are crying to be heard.
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pop blerd
Black & White America is a very…well, I wouldn’t necessarily say inspired, but there are some good jams on here. However, there’s certainly no ground broken, and there’s very little on here you haven’t heard before-whether from Lenny himself or someone else.
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The Couch Sessions
I honestly can’t tell you the last time I enjoyed listening to an album as much as I’ve enjoyed listening to “Black and White America.
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antiquiet
Will we be talking about this record in 6 months? More than likely not, but a few songs here will definitely join in on Kravitz’ next greatest hits collection.
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Something Else!
Even at his best, Kravitz’s music is confection, but also a lot of fun — and a direct connection to the more carefree, simpler times, when the music on the radio wasn’t “black” or “white.” Just good.
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the grio
Lenny Kravitz’s ninth studio album, is technically a very fine album. But if you’re not willing to overlook the fact that Lenny Kravitz sidesteps talking about race in America — which the title of his album suggests he will — then you might understandably dismiss the album as artistically dishonest and pandering to the pop culture machine.
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The Guard
Yes, it's true, there are worse things in the world than a new Lenny Kravitz album and he keeps a pretty positive attitude throughout. I'll even give Lenny Kravitz credit for one thing on "Black And White America": crafting 16 songs, each as equally forgettable and vapid as the next.
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LOUDER
With 16 tracks weighing in at a hefty 66 minutes, it’s also way too long, but Kravitz’s soul-searching is never less than propulsively funky and, having recovered from a nasty bout of bronchitis in 2008, its feels like necessary cleansing of the creative pipes: funk as therapy.
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