Here’s a man who needs no introduction with a persona larger than his entire career. And I have to underscore that his career started in 1981, with his first album landing the year Taylor Swift was born. But look at him — this man is sixty years old.
Fucking how?
Anyway, if you listen to music anywhere in America (or possibly anywhere in the English-speaking world), you’re pretty much guaranteed to have heard a Kravitz song.1 His mix of Rock and Soul has widespread appeal and often plays on Top 40 stations.2
Blue Electric Light, an album which Kravitz states “is the record [he] didn’t make as a teenager before ‘Let Love Rule,’” is Kravitz’s 12th full-length effort. What he means by that, as Mikaela Ponce writes in the Daily Utah Chronicle, is that while he has always aimed to write music which promotes love and peace, he now feels that he has the wisdom and experience to create a full album which “celebrates the human experience and sends a message of love and light.”
The album does include two songs which he originally wrote in high school3 and rediscovered (likely during quarantine).
Because, surprise, it’s another album which was conceived and created largely during the Covid pandemic. I should make it clear, though, that this fact shouldn’t be held against the album — I certainly don’t. Dark times inspire great art. It’s part of how we, collectively, deal with the strife and turmoil and trauma. And the Covid pandemic, being a global, universal experience, has naturally impacted everybody in really profound ways.
For Kravitz, it was a time of introspection and spiritual exploration. And that necessitated an album focused on positives. And that’s exactly what the album provides: songs about love and humanity and tolerance and understanding.
As a final note on this conceptual overview, Billboard asked Kravitz, “[w]hat does a ‘blue electric light’ represent?”, and Kravitz responded:
Energy. God. Love. Humanity. Power. The song just came to me, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I wrote [the] song “Blue Electric Light,” and after I’d recorded it, my guitarist Craig [Ross,] who plays on several [other] tracks and is also the engineer of the record, said, “You know, that’s the name of the album.” I already picked something else out – I can’t remember what it was – but I went home that night and kept listening to the record with that song now on it. I said, “You’re right, it is [the title.]”
Conceptually, I love it. There are some great vibes on the album. And with most tracks running over the four-and-a-half minute mark, you really get to savor them. Stylistically, Blue Electric Light pulls in a lot of 80s Pop and Rock elements, including heavy synth usage, along with strong Funk grooves, and fuses all of that with Kravitz’s typical Rock and Soul blend.
The resulting sound is very bright, but frequently has a subtle ‘stank’ from the Funk elements. The majority of songs are just good. The opening trio of “It’s Just Another Fine Day”, “TK421”,4 and “Honey” set a really solid tone for the album.
This is counterbalanced, though, by the repetition in several compositions. “Let it Ride” and “Love is My Religion” are among the more egregious offenders on this front. There is also a general, noticeable decline in quality through the last half of the album.
I still find this to be a good album, and I’ll be vibing to several of these songs for the rest of the year.
Rating: Green
If you aren’t sure, sample these links:
“American Woman” (Cover of The Guess Who’s classic rock song from 1970)
“Fly Away”
Not that many of us listen to the radio much anymore.
One of these is “Heaven”.
This song’s strange title has a layered meaning, which Kravitz explains in a video.