TORONTO - Lenny Kravitz is hoping his funky new double album "Black and White America" sells some record players.
When the 47-year-old rocker started thinking about what he wanted to do for his followup to 2008's "It Is Time for a Love Revolution," the only thing that immediately came to mind was the format.
He thought back to some of his favourite records, seminal music that inspired him, and decided to make a double album.
And he knew it would have to come out on vinyl.
"I wanted to make a record in the style of, in the tradition of, (Jimi Hendrix's) 'Electric Ladyland,' (the Beatles') 'White Album,' (Prince's) 'Sign of the Times' or (George Harrison's) 'All Things Must Pass' -- great double records," Kravitz says.
As it turns out, the album's 16 tracks do squeeze onto a single CD and fans who buy the album digitally may not even realize it was envisioned as a double album.
But those who get it on vinyl will hear the album as Kravitz intended, divided into four four-song parts.
Lifting the needle and flipping the record might be a foreign experience to many of today's music listeners, a shift Kravitz laments. And he especially doesn't like that many don't think of the album as a whole and just download individual tracks.
"An album used to be a thing -- just like a piece of art, a sculpture, a painting -- and it's just sad to me that that's gone, because when I'm working on an album I'm working on an entire body of work and it matters how it all sounds together," Kravitz says.
"Then you (release it) and people take it apart.... I understand the freedom to do what you want is great but when you buy a book you don't just pull out a page, or with a photo or a painting or a sculpture you don't say, 'Well, I'll just take the head or the foot, or just that red section of the painting' -- you take it as a whole."
He's encouraged by initial reaction, including tweets and emails from those pledging to pick up a record player so they can listen to "Black and White America." He's also glad those fans will be hearing his new music in a higher quality than digitally compressed MP3s allow.
"An iPod's convenient for running around with but yeah I have vinyl and I love listening to vinyl and I like not listening to things that are smashed down and the sound quality's low.... You work hard in the studio to make this sound."
As for the sound, Kravitz says most of the songs ended up being shaped by soul, R&B and funk music from his teenaged years, including Earth, Wind and Fire and albums produced by Quincy Jones. But there's still plenty of Kravitz's signature overdriven guitar sounds on several tracks.
He also recruited a couple of hip hop heavyweights -- Jay Z and Toronto's Drake -- to add vocals to the album.
"I just heard his voice when I made" the track "Sunflower," says Kravitz of drafting Drake.
"I always let the music tell me what to do and so that's what I did. I also thought it was interesting that we had a very similar background, being half Jewish. So it was a pleasure to meet him, he's a gentleman and he's really good at what he does."
