Lenny

No pomp, no empty posturing and please god, no more car ads. The title of Lenny Kravitz’ sixth album hints that the pint-sized poster-boy of funk may finally be casting off his mantle as the face of a thousand fashion magazines and the voice that can sell cool clobber to the masses (and that’s not forgetting the cars).

Written and produced by Kravitz in his own studio, Lenny sees the less-than-fashionable funkster attempt to regain credibility by fusing his trademark trad-rock guitar sound with more modern, radical influences. From the electro groove soundscape of ‘You Were In My Heart’ to the battered, bluesy work-out of ‘A Million Miles Away’, this album at least has the potential to make Kravitz vaguely relevant again.

Trouble is, any fresh input is overshadowed by the same old relentless guitar grind and over-inflated lyrical vaporousness that once made Kravitz a star but now makes him a dead cert for the next Meg Ryan movie soundtrack.

When Kravitz actually scales down from the epic to the more personal, a breakthrough of sorts is made. ‘Bank Robber’, a frenetic punk-rock frolic through the seedy underbelly of L.A. life, is based on a scrape with the Miami police during which Kravitz was mistaken for a suspected bank robber. Fast-paced, upbeat and intelligent, it shows what he’d be capable of if he just told it like it really is.

Elsewhere, on tracks like ‘Yesterday Is Gone (My Dear Kay)’, Kravitz manages to create a laid-back, languid vibe without venturing too much into embarrassing ballad territory.

“My soul is crying,” he sings on ‘Stillness Of Heart’. Still, at least it’s proof that he’s actually got one.