Lenny finds his spark again

Lenny Kravitz

His single TK421 whetted the appetite. Hot, strutting funk-rap with rock guitar and a dance-floor beat, it found Lenny sounding like a more butch Prince – right down to the suggestive lyrics.

“Come on, baby, get on the one,” he sings, “Can you feel it, oh, my TK421?”

That might be a reference to the Star Wars stormtrooper TK-421, but I suspect not.

This is Kravitz’s 12th full-length album and his first release in five years. The New York-born star recorded it at his home studio, 100 yards from the beach on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas.

The smooth groove of opener It’s Just Another Fine Day (In This Universe Of Love) must make more sense there than it would do in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

We get 12 tracks ranging from the sunny old-school soul of Honey to Let It Ride’s lusty techno-pop via the stomping rock of Paralyzed.

It’s deep soul rock’n’roll infused with ecstatic chemistry.

Lenny sounds re-energised, not least on the easy soft rock sweep of Human, which rolls along with a chorus as catchy as cactus spines.

There are spiritual references throughout. TK421 suggests we can “dance our way to the divine”, and a trio of other numbers expand on that.

We get the call-and-response rock of Love Is My Religion, the insistent funk of Heaven, and the Stevie Wonder-reminiscent Spirit In My Heart, with its moody minor chords.

Kravitz closes with the hymn-like title track, which builds to a frenzy as he tells us, “I just, I just wanna make love”.

He’s notched up hits since the early 90s – Fly Away, Are You Gonna Go My Way, It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over etc.

And it ain’t over yet.