Let Love Rule

Don't like it

1.5/5

Not much redeeming about this one. Completely boring bunch of songs with little to make them stand out. And some really obnoxious lyrics and melodies that bordered on cliche. Hard to believe he was so popular after listening to this.

1/5, not for me

Quero começar dando crédito pro cara. De acordo com Wikipedia, ele compôs o álbum todo com exceção de uma faixa, e ainda tocou todos os instrumentos. Bem comendável a sua virtuosidade, apesar dos resultados serem abaixo de estelares. Lenny Kravitz certamente não é nenhum Stevie Wonder. Pra começar que achei todo o disco bem pastelão. A voz de Kravitz não é ruim, mas também não é boa. Passa batido, um vocalista completamente esquecível. Uma voz que serviria mais para atender clientes em um drive-thru. A instrumentalização, composta e tocada inteiramente por ele, é sem gosto. Básica, pedestre, nada notável. O resultado é este. Um disco completamente inofensivo, mas também desprovido de qualquer personalidade própria ou maior ambição. Parece que ele existe apenas para existir. E é aquilo, não conheço nada sobre o artista em si, mas tenho certeza que se fosse conhecer ia acabar gostando ainda menos desta obra. Vamos tentar novamente amanhã, 1001 álbuns. 1/5

In a nutshell: foreplay music for a movie It’s as if Lenny is a mix of Prince and Sly Stone. The funk/soul stylings, a sensual voice (for the most part), multi-instrumentation. Speaking of, I find it amusing that the Personnel entry on the album’s Wikipedia page lists Lenny’s credits as “lead and backing vocals, all other instruments.” All other instruments. Good for you. Overall: 2/10

What a half-baked mess. Each track is like one of Hannah's dolls in Toy Story - made up of pretty parts; but stitched together, they are comically unpleasant. Does nothing to disabuse me of my sense that he's famous because of that face.

Ultra boring.

Why is this album on the list??? Totally unimaginative and boring.

I don't know how Lenny Kravitz convinced himself so contritely that he was good, let alone anyone else; in the words of Ongo Gablogian "DERIVATIVE" He saw Prince moving into new sonic territories to mixed success and then jumped into his grave. The only saving grace, is this palette somewhat sounds like how Prince would revive himself with in 95 and thereafter.

Oh this was not good. Highly irritating.

I never need to listen to this one again

Homie is vibing in his room alone feeling himself, wanking himself and decided to release the video for some reason

I know Lenny Kravitz's 5 or 6 hits, and based on that, I expected to at least partially enjoy a few songs on this album at worst. I couldn't wait for it to end. There's hardly any meat here. None of the songs go anywhere particularly interesting. Not musically, not lyrically. Several songs touch on compelling subjects, but ultimately the tone is too preachy and / or the rhymes are too cheesy. Rosemary, for example, is basically just a really bad CCM song. (Not knocking the genre itself - I could name dozens of Christian rock songs that are infinitely better than anything on this album.) The first half sets up a story that could really go somewhere, but it evolves into a sermon. What a complete turn-off. Not for me.

1. Let Love Live 2. Does Anybody Out There Even Care 3. My Precious Love

I really didn't care much for this one. The vocals in particular were bad to the point I couldn't listen to half the album before needing to turn it off, even while I was working on other things. No good!

Спасибо за дочь, наверное. Лучшая песня - Rosemary.

It's not for me.

positiivi, komparatiivi ja superlatiivi, tämä on tylsin albumi jonka olen pääkoppaani laittanut vähään aikaan…

I built this garden for us Forever

this is sweet, it really is. lenny loved prince, the beatles, jimi, and stevie so much that he self-produced this loving macaroni art tribute. it's sweet, but it's not good.

I’m not going to let my deep disdain for Lenny Kravitz’s absolutely horrendous cover of “American Woman” have any effect on this review, as that travesty was released on a different album. Having said that, I really just cannot stand this guys voice. Musically this album is.. fine? Pretty generic late 80’s/early 90’s pop rock, definitely designed for radio airplay aspirations. But the voice is really what kills this record for me, I’m not even entirely sure why, but it’s just so grating to me. Not something I’ll ever even consider listening to again. 1*

Lenny Kravitz tells us to love each other and love god. I was hoping this album would show me a new appreciation for him, but I didn’t find that here. It’s really just bluesy pop rock that doesn’t stand much. It occasionally tries on a little more edge or a dil of psychedelia for color, but it’s shallow and not enough to really influence the sound. Almost just a nod to an influence or cool factor without really embracing it. There are some decent instrumental breaks which were probably my preferred parts. While I respect that he does almost everything in his own, maybe he’d benefit from some collaborators.

Aggressively lame.

poundshop prince is overpriced

Was a little surprised by how painfully corny this was. The lyrics on this album are just terrible. I’ve never heard much beyond Kravitz’s hits, but I was under the assumption he was a lot “cooler” than this. I feel like this album has no business being on the list, so it’s getting a rare 1 star from me.

Stream of consciousness review. First track - Stevie Wonder's keyboard. Erm. Freedom Train. Freedom Train. Track 4 is Prince from Wish. Noone says that now, Prince from Temu. The wars of viral marketing between the cheapo websites for control of that meme phrase are violent and ongoing. The lyrics "Little fishies in the sea say hooray" No comment necessary there. Some real sub-Beatles/Peter Gabriel/Tears For Fears snoozefest songs follow. Does Anybody Out There Even Care or know any of these songs? Lenny has 3 genuinely good songs, and they're on three different albums. None of which are this one. No more notes necessary. So unremarkable. Why have I listened to this?

“Are you gonna go my way?” “No mate, sorry” 1/5 13/4/25

It was a shock to me that I didn't enjoy this album more than 2! I like Lenny's guitar but a lot of the songs are too long and even some of the shorter songs like Freedom Train are too repetitive for me (for a rock song). A lot of the melodies are recycled - I liked Fear but didn't like how much it sounded like War Pigs. I also kind of liked the writing in Fear and was curious as to why so much of the other writing felt sophomoric and naive - that one was written by Lisa Bonet! The super Christian stuff near the end like Rosemary was so grating to listen to and felt like a high school creative writing workshop where people with little lived experience are trying to write about extreme circumstance and the sanctimonious Christ stuff on top just really left a bad taste in my mouth. Some good riffs though! I understand why this album created hype.

Not a fan Rating: 1.5

Didn't really like this.

I thought Prince was crap, but this, fucking hell It's a shame tbh some of the guitar work behind it was decent

I have some money here for you, so reach into me and grab it And I've never understood why anybody likes Lenny Kravitz I see no reason for this to continue I don't have anything else to put in you Now go back home girl, and do whatever it is that you do - from the song "Lenny Kravitz" by Electric Six

Hot derivative garbage. Nothing worse than a nepo baby singing about the plight of the marginalized.

Aggressively boring Psychedelic Rock.

DNF, could not get through this. His voice is atrocious in this. Best Song: N/A Rating: 1/10 Stars: 1

Generic funk soul twoddle. There’s playing with your whole heart like the marvellous set of influences that he isn’t shy about plagiarising and then there’s cold and technical. I honestly felt the square root of F-all listening to this bloater.

1. zitting - 0 2. rule - 1 3. train - 1 4. preciouz - 1 5. garden - 0 6. fear - 1 7. care - 1.5 8. cab - 1 9. roze - 1 10. be - 1.5 11. bluez - 0 12. empty - 0 13. child - 0

lenny, you ever consider that cab driver had heard your music before?

Poseur

Yeah. I'm gonna go ahead and skip this one. UPDATE: I went back and listened to it. So, so boring.

Awful

I did not know that he got his start making Christian music. This is really awful stuff.

Lenny Kravitz has the voice of an angel. Except it's a fallen angel. And it's actually Satan. And he sucks as singing. Lenny Kravitz strikes me (and probably his dog) as the kind of guy who sings about love all the time, but also viciously beats his dog or hookers. Album sucks lol bad voice annoying lyrics 1/5

Not really into it. Lenny sounds like if you mixed Prince and Paul McCartney. His instrumentals aren't all that interesting either.

hollow

Insipid, just like each and every one album by Lenny Kravitz, a talented musician and performer but a rather bland composer, except for a fistful of hits. Worse, this debut doesn't even have the bangers of *Mama Said*, or "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and its infectious hits. Deep cuts are not just deep cuts with this rich Beverly Hills kid who just profited from happy circumstances. They're abyssal. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1) Number of albums left to review: around a hundred, as I've went over the 1000 line and this generator is including albums from all editions of the book Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 433 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 257 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 318 (including this one)

This album hit me with a double whammy. It was an hour-long ordeal of Lenny Kravitz delivering what I found to be terrible music, and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, the last song felt like a punch in the gut on the way out.

Didnt enjoy

kinda gay

This is so much worse than I thought it would be. It’s got the wimpiest, flattest mixing, but the dude is doing his best Prince imitation with horrible, screeching vocals.

can't get over some of these lyrics I know a girl who gets off By sticking needles in her vein Oh lord what a shame

Couldn’t do it.. I am not a fan of Lenny.

I'm not sure I'm the demographic for this album. It is far too neutered - it feels like Lenny is straining to deliver some better material. Really dull, and uninspiring/uninspired instrumentation.

This album is pretty mediocre to me. Even the "hit" songs on this album are not great and forgettable. I'm glad that he kept making music because his later stuff is much better. Guess there is a reason I never heard this album before now.

Not for me

Unable to finish this

Bloody awful.

Bit plodding, cock rock.

Oh hell no

So boring. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

I like Lenny, but this album specifically seems another Lenny. Too much screaming.

Let Love Rule is not good. The main problem is that Lenny Kravitz can't sing, or couldn't at this point, and it starts on the second line of the first song. The music itself is pretty meh, not especially creative or interesting, but it's dragged down further by the vocals and it's not a enjoyable listen at all. Don't see how I can reach to a 2, it's so poor, not downright bad and offensive like other 1s (although it is lyrically quite empty too), just embarrassing.

This album hit me with a double whammy. It was an hour-long ordeal of Lenny Kravitz delivering what I found to be terrible music, and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, the last song felt like a punch in the gut on the way out.

we need to ban annoying people from making music because ngl this is just slop. like it’s so bad, i think it made my eczema flare up

This has to be a joke. Probably better off going your whole life without hearing this. Cheers Len. Watch Pat Finnerty's Kravitzbowl on YouTube instead of wasting your time here.

WTF. Seriously W.T.F. This was shaping up to be a solid 3 stars (a score reserved for music I don't give a crap about. Then came Rosemary. WTF. Rosemary is a five year old girl living on the streets after being abandoned by her parent but apparently that's OK because God. WTF. Not a word of condemnation for her parents (who clearly weren't cab drivers) or society or anyone. WTF. Just platitudes about God and Jesus. EFFING HELL So EFF Lenny Kravitz and EFF Lisa Bonet the co-writer of this vile despicable garbage. PS: W.T.F. PPS: EFF L & L for making me want to believe in Hell so garbage humans like them will get their just deserts. Unfortunately Hell doesn't exist so no just deserts for L & L. PPPS: Seriously EFF L & L.

Just sounds like a studio version of a dude with an acoustic guitar sitting below a tree on a college campus trying to get laid.

It gives the vibes of a Christian youth counciler trying to help inner city kids find God while also sliding into a 15 year old's DM's.

Love transcends all space and time. This album thinks it does too.

LOL! This is absolute trash.

My favorite part of this album was when it ended. I'd say this album put me to sleep if he didn't wail through half of it. Boy do I not care for Lenny Kravitz's music.

i like Lenny but this album did nothing for me.

god what a pretentious loser I actually can't stand listening to this guy. Look at me I'm so cool I'm a soulful huge rockstar. No you aren't!!! He had mild success and can play guitar and has a good voice and wrote the least authentic, most generic and meaningless ass songs and just started acting like he was Prince. Prince already behaved like a weird egotistical loser if you ask me, he just had the music to back it up. God idk why i hate this guy so much but fuck him. lenny crapshitz hehe

Funkadelic, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Hendrix... he's copying from good source material. But the problem with wearing your influences on your sleeve is that when you're this bad it just reminds everyone how much better music there is they could be listening too instead. Insipid lyrics. "There is a woman who does drugs and has sex for money, ain't that a shame." "What if we like, did a love, instead of like, doing a hate?" It's so embarrasing when dumb rock guys really go for it with the deep social issues songs. Thin grating voice. Slow repetitive songs that just play the one-line choruses over and over again. The sax is good at least and Fear has a a pretty good groove until the boring riff kills it.

Incredibly repetitious all throughout. This albums marks 32/1001 for me, and it’s the first one I couldn’t finish. I hated it.

I got 3 songs in and got a headache from being screamed at.

Hahahha die voice crack by Sittin on top of the world, hi-la-risch.. Dit album voelt heel erg alsof iemand heeft gegoogled "Hoe maak ik een Rock album" en dat daarna maar tot op de letter gevolgd heeft. Er gebeurt niet zoveel bijzonders, Lenny heeft besloten dat teksten optioneel zijn en dat je veel beter gewoon de titel van het nummer kan herhalen... Nu vind ik Daft Punk geweldig en kan ik ook genieten van Fatboy Slim, maar daar gebeurt muzikaal een stuk meer dan dat hier gebeurt. Dat geschreeuw in I built this garden for us, erg onnodig Lennert... Ik vind dit gewoon echt een matig album, als je mij 3003 albums zou geven dan zou ik dit nog steeds niet op de lijst zetten. Zn zang is vrij irritant, muzikaal is het niet heel interessant en de teksten... Oh god de teksten... Lennert, je bevindt je in goed gezelschap, want dit is een 1. FAVO

Not really a fan

Chat GPT's take on how to mix Beatlesesque song structures, some Hendrix guitar stylings (toned down so nothing too scary), Prince vocals and a DOA early nineties production style. Lyrics auto-generated from keywords 'love' 'baby' 'freedom' and 'peace'. But we're still a world away from AI creating anything you could call original.

It's a bit like a Prince album, just without the amazing songwriting, or the incredible voice, or the intense sexual energy and charisma, or the great guitar playing, or the decent lyrics. Whose idea was it to put this snoozefest on the list?

Didn't like this. Competent, but that was about it. The songs and the playing dragged, and I don't find his voice particularly interesting. Bailed after 5 songs.

I figured this would be a bit on the dull side and I was not disappointed! Not as bad as I may have expected, but I guess being a sexy rockstar does get one a few album deals. I’ve never really gotten Lenny beyond that rockstar persona. A lot of the songs are vaguely rock and funk and R&B but I’m not really wowed in any one way. He definitely had the fashion but I feel a little bit that he was channeling Prince but not achieving. It’s not devoid of talent or interesting songs, but all I can think is Lenny Kravitz waving a “make love with Lenny, not war”. This was a 2/5 until rosemary. That barfbag was enough to tick this down to a 1 for me. That and B and empty hands. This first half of the album feels one sex and the second half is poorly made Christian rock? What is happening?

Early 90s Lenny Kravitz was one of 14 year old me’s first ideas of what cool was. He had a nose ring and dreadlocks and was married to Lisa Bonet. He had a song about racist cab drivers where he used the f word. His music was theoretically the kind of thing I would put on if I ever got the chance to make out with a girl. Super cool super edgy. For all those reasons I was looking forward to revisiting this album from my youth. Turns out this music plays a lot better to a tween who’s just getting into music than to a aging music nerd with decades of listening to all the people Lenny’s ripping off. This is boho poser music of the highest order. This is the guy who pulls out a guitar at the party. This is the trust fund hippie who’s always bumming smokes. These songs are reasonable surface level facsimiles of the Jimi/Sly/Beatles type Lenny is going for, only with some astonishingly trite-ass lyrics. I did listen to a little of Mama Said just to see if all of it is this dorky and thankfully it does improve a bit. I guess since it eventually led me to the real stuff I’m ok with Lenny Kravitz as gateway music for a kid who was still playing with action figures a year before he dubbed this album onto a cassette. I think the first time I heard Lenny Kravitz might have been on Square One TV (look it up, kids) when they were doing a segment on racism and a cool girl a grade above me pointed out that they were playing Mr Cab Driver and I pretended that I knew the song. Seems appropriate.

Pahimmillaan ekstrajuustoisen geneeristä, parhaimmillaan vain geneeristä.

I got sick of the sameness

I'd rather listen to Len! I like Mr. Cab Driver but the rest not so much!

Despite being a well known name, I had next to no knowledge of Lenny Kravitz’s music & had no idea what to expect. Just felt incredibly generic & didn’t keep my attention at all

Boring

Admittedly, I didn't like Lenny Kravitz on sight alone. I had never really listened to his music aside from the music I absorbed through osmosis, but something about him seemed... off. Which is a shame. He's clearly a talented guy, since Wikipedia notes he played most of the instruments on this himself. However, I think I finally have a spot to plant my flag: the lyrics. Kravitz's lyrics are first-draft, but he howls them with such confidence as to obfuscate that fact, or maybe because he feels like what he's saying is *that deep*. It's coffeeshop, "Why can't we all get along, racism is bad," type shit. I flipped between a two and a one on this project, mostly due to the hook and riff of "Fear", until I hit "Rosemary". It was a double whammy, honestly: the whiplash of the religiosity of, "He love you so much He gave His only son," with two lyrics later telling the titular five-year-old to "stay down on [her] knees." Obviously, he means prayer, but... did you run that one by anyone? Anyone? At all? Especially when the rest of the record is so, so, so very horny. Kravitz obviously enjoys Prince, but tries to blend that with a few Christian themes here and there (notably, "I Built This Garden For Us"), and the two just... don't particularly mix. It also doesn't help that Kravitz feels like a Prince the record industry tried to synthesize in a lab. I'm not heartless and can admit that there is some genuine (instrumental) talent on here, but it's nowhere near enough to save this project.

I remember this guy being forced down the record-buying public's throat back in the late '80s, and was very confused as to why anyone wanted a 3rd-rate Prince/Hendrix/Stevie wedding singer/elementary school lyricist. Music for people who hate music. I've done greater crowd-pleasing farts than "Freedom Train" or "Fear". "Be" and the subsequent tracks are almost crimes against humanity. Obviously a dumb rich kid who just needed a hard slap at the appropriate moment; unfortunately we're stuck with the consequences of bad parenting. I hesitate to give this a 1* as it distinguishes it from just another boring effort, but this is *passively terrible* (compared to e.g. Radiohead which are more interesting through being actively awful) and I wish it never existed. Fuck off Lenny

Not my cup of tea, felt pretty generic. Not got much more to say than that.

It makes a case to be a 2 because while it's pretty bad, the occasional good riff or funky part pops up. However it gets a 1 for all the damn times I had to hear "I Want To Get Away" (or whatever it's title was) and that godawful American Woman cover back in the day. It'd also too freaking long.

It started fine and got worse. Lyrically simple bordering on laughable, musically uninteresting. I quite like LK as a concept but this album needs binning

Insipid shite. Runny Crevice.

he has the odd tune but just can't shake the fact he's insufferable.

Poor. Just cut to the chase and listen to Hendrix or Prince instead, not a poor pastiche.

Not good. (Thank God for the edit button! Moving this from 2 to 1. It always should have been 1 but for some strange reason I felt guilty but regretted it ever since. Finally I have righted a wrong.)

Afternoon drive time radio fare - at times going to be interesting but then falling short to mid-tempo rock / blues. Maybe I’m biased but time hasn’t erased the sound of Lenny Kravitz voice as the sound of fast food music - and the writing is a bit too Christian rock for my linking - struggled to give it a fair listen - but was better on the second round.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Not so good. Some of it is downright bad. It had the hallmarks of genres I like. But I felt like I was being screamed at for half the album!!

initial thoughts: i’m actually bummed bc I literally hated this album. fav from album: literally none - I didn’t vibe with anything

No, this is bad.

There's not a bit of this that grabbed my attention. The song Let Love Rule is fine, but the rest of it just never got its hooks into me.

Just not my style at all.

Not my style, disliked very much

here's the most interesting sentences about this album on its wiki page - "Let Love Rule reached number 61 on the Billboard 200, while it peaked at number 56 on the UK Albums Chart. The album is also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. " credit to him for the production, which is very good for 89, and that he played all the instruments but the songs are crap. i didn't get more than a minute out of many tracks.

Lenny Kravitz is the dirty slut who broke my mother's heart.

Must have been a practice album. Not as good as he later material. Even his voice isn’t as good

Santo dios que puta pesadilla

Production feels a little too soft and the album sort of bumbles along without leaping out in the way it probably wants to. Lyrics are pretty trite. Buried in the album are some more interesting moments (like the end of Freedom Train). Most tracks feel like watered down rip-offs of much better songs - a classic Christian rock mood.

I think I only like his pop stuff?