The cover indicates that
Are You Gonna Go My Way is
Lenny Kravitz's bid for
rock stardom. Designed in the style of an early-'70s record, it features
Kravitz in hippie clothing, apparently exposing himself to a photographer -- in other words, he's a dangerously sexy counterculture rebel. That may have been true in 1970, but in 1993, he simply sounds like a weird sideshow exhibit, the man who never lived past 1973. Of course, it's easy to make such potshots, but
Kravitz opens himself up to such attacks. No other artist, especially a successful one, has been quite so devoted to the past and ignorant of the present. Since he has considerable talent for songcraft and production,
Kravitz isn't nearly as bad as he could be, and
Are You Gonna Go My Way is just as enjoyable and more accomplished than its predecessors. This time around,
Hendrix is his chief influence, as evidenced by the roaring title track, and he does expand that with his traditional
Lennon,
Curtis Mayfield, and
Prince obsessions. Song for song, it's his most consistent album, although by the end of the record, his painstaking reproduction of classic
rock sounds begins to appear a bit too studied, suggesting that
Kravitz may have hit a creative wall. Nevertheless, that does nothing to diminish the enjoyment of this record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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