7. “Dig In” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “Dig In” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Lenny)

2001

In a real sense Lenny Kravitz’s time as a top of the line hit maker ended with the release of his Greatest Hits album in 2000 and its hit song “Again”. Of course, nobody knew that at the time. Furthermore, Kravitz still put out good albums and singles in the years after, but increasingly he was releasing music to his huge and devoted fanbase with his 21st century albums. This trend however was not immediately apparent as 2001’s album Lenny featured “Dig In”, another Kravitz song that seemed like a massive yet because it was everywhere. However, the truth was that the song only peaked at #31, significantly below the chart positions of his recent big hits. In spite of this “Dig In” was almost omnipresent because Kravitz was among the first to realize that the economics of the music landscape was radically shifting and that digital music and the internet was going to make it much more difficult to make money off of album sales. Understanding this change, Kravitz licensed “Dig In” to be a major part of several ad campaigns which made the song feel like a bigger hit than it actually was. However, “Dig In” did still win Kravitz his fourth consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Performance and was a sizable alt rock hit. “Dig In” also has an odd connection to real world events as the video for the song was scheduled to be filmed on the top of the World Trade Center in New York City on Septemeber 12th, 2001, meaning Kravitz missed being killed in the 9/11 attacks by a day (and that the video had to ultimately be filmed elsewhere). In the years since the release of Lenny Kravitz got into acting, a world he had been exposed to through his mother as a child, and played roles in several films. The most prominent of these being the role of Cinna in The Hunger Games franchise. Kravitz has also released five more albums since 2001 as well and has a new album called Blue Electric Light scheduled for release in May of 2024.

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6. “Again” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Again” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Greatest Hits)

2000

In the year 2000 Lenny Kravitz found that his career had bounced back from the commercial disappointment of Circus and the delayed response to 5. However, “Fly Away” and “American Woman” were both massive hits (even if they were arguably not classic songs) and Kravitz had been an upper echelon rock artist for over a decade; one that had won Grammy’s for Best Male Rock Performance in back to back years. So with his career on the rise again and a new millennium marking a time for reflection Kravitz released the compilation Greatest Hits, an album that went on to become his best selling album yet. Greatest Hits sold well, in part, because Kravitz had a pretty impressive run of hits from 1989 to 1999. However, Greatest Hits also sold well because it had a new song that proved to be one of Kravitz’s best singles in years with “Again”. “Again” is a midtempo rock ballad that is much more subtle and nuanced than Kravitz’s recent lumbering rock hits like “Fly Away” and “American Woman”. It is a strong song that reminded people of why Lenny Kravitz was not only a successful artist, but also an important one. “Again” became another Top 10 American hit when it peaked at #4. It also earned Kravitz his third consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Performance, giving him a level of success far beyond that of most of his early 90’s alt rock peers at this point.

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5. “Fly Away” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “Fly Away” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album 5)

1998

Following Circus Lenny Kravitz took some time off to rest, regroup from the commercial failure of Circus, and rethink the his musical direction. In the end Kravitz didn’t radically rework his formula and sound but he did explore sampling and new digital technology like Pro Tools more extensively, which added some new wrinkles to many of the songs on 5. In spite of this though 5 sold poorly upon its release and was not well received by critics. The lackluster sales and reviews for the second straight album from Kravitz seemed to indicate his career may have been on the decline. This was reinforced by the fact that the album’s first three singles all did poorly. Somewhat surprisingly considering how poorly the album was doing Kravitz was allowed to release a fourth single to try and give the album some life. For this fourth single Kravitz released the vaguely hip hop-flavored rocker “Fly Away” a full six months after the release of the album. Despite being a somewhat basic and simple rocker, “Fly Away” does undeniably have a groove and hook that are just enough to get lodged in your head. It also boasts a chorus that is simple and easy to sing along with. Ultimately “Fly Away” went all the way to #12 on the charts in the US and helped to raise Kravitz’s status in Europe as well. Kravitz was able to build on the momentum created by “Fly Away” even though the 5 album had been released a year earlier by following it up with his cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman” from the soundtrack of the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. “American Woman” became another big hit for Kravitz (enough so that it was added to later reissues of 5) and the back to back successes not only made 5 a slow building success but possibly saved Kravitz career as a hitmaker and relevant artist. Indeed, Kravitz would win his first of four consecutive Grammy’s for Best Male Rock Performance for “Fly Away” in 1999.

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4. “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Circus)

1995

Lenny Kravitz was riding high after the twin successes of Mama Said and Are You Gonna Go My Way? However, his attempt to replicate that success stiffed with him fourth album Circus. Lead single “Rock And Roll Is Dead”, a somewhat clunky rewrite of “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”, failed to catch fire as a lead single and Circus struggled to match the critical or commercial success of its predecessors. While “Rock And Roll Is Dead” didn’t help Circus take off there were other factors at play other than a middling lead single. One factor was a changing music scene that was shifting away from the sound of the early 90’s grunge and alt rock and leaning more heavily into electronica, Britpop, nu-metal, pop music, and rap. Indeed, “Rock And Roll Is Dead” may have felt somewhat prophetic even as the single failed to generate much buzz. A second factor was that Kravitz was dealing with his mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer during the time he was writing and recording the Circus album. Kravitz was close with his mother and she would pass away from the cancer just a few months after the release of the album. In spite of being frontloaded with a handful of leaden rockers Circus is not a total lost cause and the third single “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” is a country-kissed soul ballad that is among Kravitz’s best songs. By the time “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” was released the album had already lost nearly all momentum and Kravitz was not keen on more promotional work as his mother had just died, but that doesn’t change the fact that the song is a musically rich and warm song that shows how good Kravitz could be when he rose above his influences and made them into something that was both his own and somehow nostalgic for a past time. If “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” is a song you somehow missed at the time it is well worth giving a listen to.

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3. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Are You Gonna Go My Way?)

1993

Lenny Kravitz was a star on the rise with the success of his second album Mama Said. However, mere months after Mama Said and “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” rose up the charts Nirvana released Nevermind and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” changed the rock music scene dramatically and Kravitz’s adoration of the classic rock and soul stars of the 60’s and 70’s could have been seen as firmly out of step with the punk rock rejection of commercialism and stardom that became a key part of the culture and environment of the early 90’s grunge and alternative rock explosion. On the other hand though Kravitz’s music, especially his more rock-oriented music, had always drawn on the fuzzy, distorted, bass-driven sound that had become popular and so Kravitz’s third album Are You Gonna Go My Way? was likely a make or break album for Kravitz yet again. To his credit, Kravitz doesn’t really change his style much on Are You Gonna Go My Way? and the album continues to blend genres and update the sounds of his idols; nor does Kravitz ever shy away from the imagery or iconography of the era of the classic rock gods. Kravitz wisely did release the title track “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” as the album’s lead single and it is a propulsive rocker that manages to be simultaneously fiery and grimy at once and so is a spiritual, if not a true sonic, cousin to the grunge and alt rock that was reaching its peak at the time. Lyrically, “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” is a loose retelling of the life of Jesus, although one could be forgiven for not realizing that since the song has such an aggressive vibe. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” became another big hit for Lenny Kravitz and was the perfect song to be on 90’s alt rock radio along side songs by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, and the like. It also happens to just be a great song; one of the best Kravitz ever wrote.

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1. “Let Love Rule” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Let Love Rule” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Let Love Rule)

1989

Lenny Kravitz was born in New York City and spent most of his early years living in either New York or Los Angeles. Kravitz was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age as his mother was an actress and his father was a television producer for NBS News and this, combined with easy access to the music scenes in both L.A. and New York, meant that Kravitz grew up with an interest in a wide array of musical genres. This would prove to be a fact that would impact his career over the years as Kravitz would become known for his blending of the rock, pop, soul, blues, R&B, and other genres. After his parents divorced Kravitz spent most of his high school years in Los Angeles when his mother moved there after landing a role on the television program The Jeffersons. This led to Kravitz attending high school with singer Maria McKee, actor Nicholas Cage, and Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Slash, among other prominent figures. With all of these influences in his life Kravitz had turned to music as a young man and had become quite skilled on the drums and guitar. Kravitz decided that he wanted to be a musician and so began working on music to shop around for a record deal. Kravitz however did not find much interest as most labels found his music to not be “black enough” to promote to a black audience while simultaneoiuly not being “white enough” to sell to a mostly white rock audience. Undeterred Kravitz kept working on his music and drew on his show business connections to help him overcome the labels disinterest. Without the backing of label money Kravitz’ father paid for studio time for Kravitz to work on an album and Kravitz found a musical partner in studio engineer, bassist, and keyboardist Henry Hirsh, who Kravitz had previously met through his industry connections. Kravitz, with the help of Hirsh, and a few guest musicians, created his debut album Let Love Rule, a genre-blending album that mixed rock, soul, R&B, and psychedelic pop into something very unique and interesting, but also quite out of step with the music that was popular in the slick and glossy world of late 80’s music. Indeed, the title track (which would eventually be used as the lead single), was an effective and catchy example of how Kravitz was able to blend all of his influences. However, while Kravitz had an album, he still didn’t have a record deal. Kravitz was once again able to turn to his connections to remedy this situation though when he asked his friend Stephen Elvis Smith to manage him and help him get a record deal. Smith had worked with Kravitz’s mother on The Jeffersons and currently was the music advisor for the TV show A Different World which starred Kravitz’s girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) Lisa Bonet. Once Smith was on board to promote Kravitz self-made debut album Let Love Rule he became the center of a five-label bidding war and eventually signed to Virgin Records. Virgin released Let Love Rule in September of 1989 and “Let Love Rule” became the first of five singles released from the album. “Let Love Rule” showed the potential star power of Kravitz, while the success of the hard to classify sound of both the song and album hinted at the changes that were coming to the music scene.

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4. “Building A Mystery” – Sarah McLachlan: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Building A Mystery” – Sarah McLachlan

(From the album Surfacing)

1997

Sarah McLachlan released her fourth album Surfacing in 1997 and it became her biggest hit and first album to achieve notable sales and chart success outside of North America. The first single was the mysterious and sensual “Building A Mystery”, a song that went to #13 in the US (#3 on the US alt charts) and, unsurprisingly, to #1 in Canada, and helped to launch the album that would elevate McLachlan to the rank of a full-blown star. Indeed, “Building A Mystery” was only the first of four successful singles from the album as “Sweet Surrender”, “Adia”, and “Angel” all broke into the US Top 30, with the latter two songs going Top 5. McLachlan also won two Grammy Awards for songs from Surfacing. “Building A Mystery” won the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, while the instrumental closer “Last Dance” won for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In her native Canada Surfacing and its songs were nominated for four Juno Awards with Surfacing winning Album Of The Year and “Building A Mystery” winning Song Of The Year, among other awards. The momentum “Building A Mystery” built up as the lead single helped Surfacing become McLachlan’s most successful album yet and the later singles on the record became some of her first real hits in markets like the UK, Europe, and Australia. In spite of all of this success McLachlan became frustrated with radio stations who wouldn’t play female artists back to back or concert promoters who would not schedule two female artists in a row at the same venue. To disprove this anti-female bias McLachlan booked a co-headlining tour with herself and Paula Cole in 1996. The show in McLachlan’s hometown featured not only her and Cole but also Lisa Loeb and Crash Vegas’ Michelle McAdorey and was billed as “Lilith Fair”. The 1996 tour with Cole was a success and McLachlan decided to bring back her “Lilith Fair” (named for the Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam’s first wife who refused to be subservient to him) in 1997, expanding it to be an all-female traveling concert festival. Lilith Fair proved to be the most successful traveling festival of the year and featured among others, Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega, Jewel, Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Lisa Loeb, Joan Osborne, and many others. With the success of Surfacing and her point made with Lilith Fair, McLachlan had become one of the most successful and important people in the 90’s alternative music scene.

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7. “First Of The Gang To Die” – Morrissey: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “First Of The Gang To Die” – Morrissey

(From the album You Are The Quarry)

2004

After the twin heights of Your Arsenal and Vauxhall & I Morrissey decided to challenge his audience with 1995’s Southpaw Grammar. While rooted in a similar sound as his two previous albums Southpaw Grammar was harder and harsher and featured two songs in excess of ten minutes long. Southpaw Grammar is actually a fairly strong record but it takes some to unveil its pleasures and those pleasures may not always speak to fans waiting for the next “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. Indeed, Southpaw Grammar, released right when all of Morrissey’s spiritual progeny in the Britpop scene were ascendent, seemed to refudiate that legacy to some degree and Morrissey fell out of favor. His next album, 1997’s Maladjusted, did nothing to bring Morrissey back into favor and he went on an extended hiatus and moved from Britain to Los Angeles. Morrissey released several compilations over the next few years but his next new studio album would not be released until 2004. By 2004 Morrissey’s reputation had recovered some as his music and persona was an obvious influence on both the emo and pop-punk genres that were popular at the time and he was regularly namechecked by many of those bands as an influence. While Morrissey’s new album, 2004’s You Are The Quarry (which featured an incredible cover featuring a James Bond-ish looking Moz carrying a tommy gun) doesn’t stray too far from the sound or style of Morrissey’s 90’s records it is produced by Jerry Finn, who helped to shape the sound of many of the then-current emo and pop-punk sound, and gives Morrissey a slightly modern update that makes the album feel contemporary without losing the essence of Morrissey’s sound. You Are The Quarry was well reviewed by critics and hailed as a comeback. It even was a moderate commercial success in the US and scored two UK top ten singles with “Irish Blood, English Heart” and “First Of The Gang To Die”. The second of these songs, the poppy rocker “First Of The Gang To Die”, being seen as a tribute of sorts to Morrissey’s large number of Mexican-American and Latin fans. Morrissey followed up You Are The Quarry with another strong record in 2006’s Ringleader Of The Tormentors (which has both an awesome title and album cover). Ringleader Of The Tormentors scored Morrissey more UK chart success and continued his run of alt rock success in America. Ringleader Of The Tormentors also found Morrissey working with songwriting partners other than Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer as former Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist Jesse Tobias joined his band and co-wrote five of the songs, including the album’s most successful single “You Have Killed Me”. 2009 saw the release of Years Of Refusal, another album that was well received by critics. It also was a turning point for Morrissey as Jesse Tobias replaced Alain Whyte as Morrissey’s lead guitarist and primary songwriting partner (although Whyte does still have five co-writing credits on Years Of Refusal). The years since the release of Years Of Refusal saw Morrissey write his autobiography and a novel. Morrissey also has spent much of this time battling with his various record labels, the media, and many of his fans over cancelled shows and unpopular political views. Still, in spite of these setbacks to his reputation and issues with labels Morrissey has released four more albums – World Peace Is None Of Your Business, Low In High School, California Son, and I Am Not A Dog On A Chain – three of which consisted of new original material and one being a covers album. Morrissey also has recorded a fifth record during these years, 2022’s Bonfire Of Teenagers, which in spite of being completed and having a lead single released (the Smiths sounding “Rebels Without Applause”), has been shelved by his former record label due to a dispute with Morrissey that saw him leave the label. A new album titled Without Music The World Dies has been announced but currently has not been released either.

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3. “Piccadilly Palare” – Morrissey: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Piccadilly Palare” – Morrissey

(From the compilation album Bona Drag)

1990

After following up the success of his debut album Viva Hate with a series of non-album singles, Morrissey had begun work on his second solo album with the famed production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. However, the writing sessions didn’t go as well as planned and it quickly became apparent that no new album would quickly be forthcoming. Wanting to capitalize on the success of Viva Hate quickly and knowing that outside of the UK the recently released non-album singles were basically unknown Morrissey decided to shift gears and release the Bona Drag compilation album as the follow-up to Viva Hate. Bona Drag compiled Morrissey’s singles up to that point, all but two of which were not on any album and therefore largely unknown outside of the UK, and added several of the B-sides to those songs (many of which were of high quality) and a handful of new songs that were originally intended to be on the abandoned second album. The second single, “Picadilly Palare”, a co-write between Morrissey and studio guitarist Kevin Armstrong, was released the same day as Bona Drag with both the single and the album using Polari slang terms often used by the gay subculture in the UK (Bona Drag, for example, means “nice outfit”) as a way of communicating with each other in a time when homosexual acts were still criminalized in Britain. Like many Morrissey songs “Piccadilly Palare”, which addresses the topic of rent boys, or male prostitutes, in the Piccadilly section of London, deals with unusual subject matter for a pop song and is something of an outsider anthem. While Morrissey himself wasn’t overly fond of the song, it has a sound that was still somewhat reminiscent of his former band The Smiths (Smiths bassist Andy Rourke even plays on the song, the last time one of his former bandmates would do so) and became a solid hit, going to #13 in the UK and to #2 on the US alternative charts. This was Morrissey’s best showing yet in the United States and marked something of a turning point in Morrissey’s career where he would begin to be less popular in Britain and more popular in the USA. While Bona Drag was a compilation, outside of the UK none of the songs were known except “Suedehead” and “Everyday Is Like Sunday” and so in America, and most of the world, Bona Drag played as Morrissey’s second album and “Piccadilly Palare” was its most successful song.

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6. “All Is Full Of Love” – Bjork: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “All Is Full Of Love” – Bjork

(From the album Homogenic)

1997

Bjork’s third album Homogenic was released in 1997 and was created as an homage to her homeland of Iceland, with many of the songs on the album dealing with themes and/or inspiration from there. Bjork had begun recording Homogenic near her home in London but all work on the record was halted after Bjork survived a murder attempt by a stalker. After that harrowing experience Bjork packed up and went to Spain to recover and continue working on the album. It was during this period of time that Bjork wrote “All Is Full Of Love”. The inspiration for the song came near the end of the writing and recording process for Homogenic. Bjork had been through a long winter dealing with the trauma of her attack and the loneliness of being away from home and friends. However, while out for a walk one morning Bjork recalls hearing birdsong and realizing that spring was dawning and that it was a time of renewal and recovery. This inspired her to write “All Is Full Of Love” which ended up being the closing track and fifth single from Homogenic and was meant to be a song of healing and recovery at the end of the album. Homogenic had several successful singles and “All Is Full Of Love” wasn’t released as a single until two years after the album came out. It is highly unusual to release a song to promote a two year old album but Bjork and director Chris Cunningham had come up with an idea for a music video for “All Is Full Of Love” that was very cinematic and experimental and Bjork liked the idea of the late release so that the video would feel more like a short film than a promotional project for the album. The single mix (which I have included here) also is a different mix than the original album version. Producer Howie B added a firmer beat and other sonic changes to this new mix of “All Is Full Of Love” and it is that version that was used with the video. The video was hailed as one of the best of the form and “All Is Full Of Love” was a critical success and fan favorite for Bjork, hitting #24 in the UK and #8 on the US dance charts (both good chart placements for a song that was released originally two years earlier and had already been a B-side to an earlier single).

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