It includes 14 original tracks, written, composed, arranged, performed, and produced by Kravitz. The album received Kravitz's best reviews in years, with Rolling Stone giving it three stars out of a possible five and suggesting that "As a blast back to the past, this is the best album Lenny Kravitz has ever made." Kravitz has planned to tour with the album's material for two years after the release, starting with a performance of two new songs on Times SquareNew Year's Eve show, hosted by Carson Daly.
Release
It debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 73,000 copies in its first week and becoming Kravitz's first US Top 5 album since 2000's Greatest Hits.
Reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Michaelangelo Matos of The A.V. Club stated "Well, there go the rumors that with each album, Lenny Kravitz was going to jump ahead three years stylistically, catching up with the present some time around 2008. From its title on down, It Is Time For A Love Revolution is spiritually interchangeable with his debut, 1989's Let Love Rule". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote "...by the measure of pure sound, It Is Time for a Love Revolution is a glorious feast of retro-rock pleasures -- a feast of empty calories perhaps, but sometimes fast food is more irresistible than a five-course meal". Betty Clarke of The Guardian wrote "having given up sex in a quest to find a wife, renowned lothario Lenny Kravitz has directed all his extra energy into getting back to his best. His eighth album is another collection of vintage riffs, funky rhythms and hippy-dippy sentiments but like an abstinence-propelled prize fighter, Kravitz sounds leaner and hungrier than for years... Ultimately bogged down by spirituality, guitar solos and soppy ballads, this comeback should nonetheless win Kravitz a few hearts, even if he doesn't discover a soulmate". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly commented "His infamous mane may be shorn but the songs on It Is Time for a Love Revolution remain the same: guitar-heavy, psychedelic-swirly, and determinedly flower-powered". Chad Grinshaw of IGN stated "It Is Time For A Love Revolution is a half-hearted return to Kravitz's bluesy-rock roots. There are glimpses of the rocker he used to be but too much of the album is nothing more than the same bland adult contemporary fodder he has been dishing out lately, dressed up with slightly cranked up guitar". A reviewer of Daily Express said "Energetic, youthful and without the cynical by-numbers feel of his recent albums, this feels like a fiery return to form". Terry Staunton of Record Collector wrote "Lenny’s got a new album out, it’s painfully similar to all his others and nowhere near as good as the records he listens to". David Fricke of Rolling Stone stated "As a blast back to the past, this is the best album Lenny Kravitz has ever made — a visceral, expertly tailored blend of late-Sixties and early-Seventies classic-rock paraphrases with just enough modernizing to justify the record's copyright date".
