Self-titled after the hits package
On 30 October 2001, Lenny Kravitz released Lenny on Virgin Records. It was his sixth studio album and the first to carry his first name as the title, arriving a year after the multi-platinum Greatest Hits set. He produced and mixed the record himself, with long-time engineer Henry Hirsch on the boards. The brief was clear: write new songs that could stand next to the radio staples without recycling the 1990s templates.
The twelve tracks run about fifty minutes. Opener “Battlefield of Love” sets a mid-tempo rock pulse. “If I Could Fall in Love,” co-written with guitarist Craig Ross, leans into a cleaner hook. “Stillness of Heart” slows the groove into a ballad shape that later became a live staple. “Believe in Me” and “Dig In” push harder, with dry guitar stacks and a vocal that sits upfront in the mix rather than drowning in reverb.
“Dig In” was the lead single, issued in September 2001. Samuel Bayer directed the video. On the Billboard Hot 100 it peaked at No. 31 and reached No. 7 on Adult Top 40. Follow-up singles “Stillness of Heart,” “Believe in Me,” and “If I Could Fall in Love” kept the album on international radio through 2002.
It’s time to face it and come on in and join the party. Life has been waiting for you to care.
(Lenny Kravitz, “Dig In”, 2001)
Lenny entered the Billboard 200 at No. 12. In Europe it hit harder: No. 1 in Austria, No. 3 in Switzerland, No. 5 in Germany and Sweden, No. 6 in Italy and Japan, No. 7 in the Netherlands. The UK peak was a more modest No. 55. Those numbers matter because they show where Kravitz’s rock-soul hybrid still sold after a decade on the charts.
Deeper cuts fill out the portrait. “Bank Robber Man” tightens the rhythm section. “A Million Miles Away” and “You Were in My Heart” stretch into slower, more open arrangements. “Let’s Get High” closes the album with a longer jam feel. Across the set, guitars stay relatively dry, drums punch without gated 80s gloss, and the bass sits round under the vocal. It is still classic Kravitz vocabulary, but less ornate than 5.
Lenny bridged the hits era and the later Virgin years that led to Baptism in 2004. It did not invent a new persona; it locked in the one he already owned. For listeners who came in through “Dig In” on rock radio in late 2001, this is the full album behind that single: twelve tracks, self-produced, and aimed straight at the live stage.
