Album · Lenny Kravitz
5 by Lenny Kravitz
5 is an album by Lenny Kravitz, released in 1998. 4 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 103 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Fly Away”, on 93 lists with a best position of #6.
5, Lenny Kravitz's fifth studio album, landed on Virgin in 1998, and it's the record where the man with rock's most retro reputation went digital. Pre-production started early in 1997, and that October he began recording at his carriage house studio in New York, with a parade of famous drop-ins: Madonna, Chris Rock, Bobby Brown, Marilyn Manson and Gwen Stefani all stopped by. The later sessions moved to engineer Terry Manning's Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.
It was his first album made on Pro Tools, recorded start to finish without ever touching tape, and Kravitz leaned into the new tools, threading synthesizers and tape loops through his usual blend of vintage funk, soul and rock guitar. The result sounds sleeker and more modern than anything he'd done before, without losing an ounce of strut.
"Fly Away" is the one that stuck, a lean, fuzzed-up riff and a skyward chorus built for rolled-down windows, and it reached the top ten of the Alternative Airplay chart. "If You Can't Say No" struts on a greasy groove, "Thinking of You" slows to a tender, soulful sway, and "Live" keeps the energy crackling. Virgin pulled six singles from it across 1998 and 1999, and SNEP certified it double gold.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from 5 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fly Away | 93 | #6 | – | 1998–2026 | |
| 2 | Live | 7 | #1199 | – | 2007–2014 | |
| 3 | If You Can't Say No | 2 | #69 | – | 1998–2021 | |
| 4 | Thinking of You | 1 | #84 | – | 1998 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.