The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Electric Ladyland” (1968)

Rating: 9

Best Song – “(1983) A Merman I Should Turn to Be”

I’ve no doubt listened to Electric Ladyland more than any other Hendrix record, yet I still find myself unsure of how to rate it. Back when I was in high school, I had an album review site for about a year, partly as a project for my Creative Writing class. At the time, I reviewed Ladyland and gave it a rating of i, representing an imaginary number. This was basically my 11^th grade way of saying that I had no idea how to rate it properly. Ten years later, that hasn’t entirely changed. The reason is that it’s a quintessential sprawling double album, and a particularly sprawling one at that. There’s a 15 minute live blues jam which I find tedious, a 20 minute near-progressive suite about escaping into the sea in a dystopian future which I find brilliant, and then another 45 minutes or so of more typical Hendrix songs that nonetheless range all over the map in terms of quality.

Ultimately, I went for a 9 rating because I am inclined to reward albums that reach high peaks, and at its peak, it’s as good or better than the Experience's debut. Of course, Ladyland rates lower because it’s inconsistent as hell, but I’m willing to take the bad with the good in this case. It starts out well enough, with the title track being almost a soul song, but you’ve never heard a soul song with such a stirring, otherworldly guitar solo. “Crosstown Traffic” is an addictive short rocker that compares well to the better songs on Axis like “Spanish Castle Magic.” And then we get a 15 minute blues jam (“Voodoo Chile”), and whatever momentum there was comes to a halt. “Voodoo Chile” seems to be a fairly divisive track, but I definitely count myself among its detractors. There is some great soloing by Hendrix to be sure, but that still only takes up about 25% of its length. The verses move at a crawling pace and I inevitably find myself totally bored waiting for the next eruptive solo. Worst, it feels very out of place to me, not really fitting into the fantasy world that the rest of the album conjures.

And although there is yet another Noel Redding tune I find inexplicably charming (“Little Miss Strange”), there’s a fairly pedestrian sequence of pop-rockers that follow it up. I do like the weird guitar intro to “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” (good thing, because the rest of the song is only so-so), and “Come On, Pt. 1” is generic, but has some energy, but I can’t help but feeling that “Long Hot Summer Night” and especially “Gypsy Eyes” are ultimate examples of how you can only do so much with a song that is mediocre to begin with. I’m probably being a bit harsh, but while I have to admit the production on “Gypsy Eyes” is really cool, with Jimi’s guitar moving from speaker to speaker, the song itself is a total bore.

And so nearly halfway through the album, Electric Ladyland would definitely rate as his weakest release to date. Fortunately, Jimi saved all his tricks for sides three and four. The aforementioned “Rainy Day, Dream Away” suite is where all his mysticism and sonic exploration really comes together for me. I always got a weird undercurrent from his other albums where he seemed to be positioning himself as this benevolent alien come to grace the world with his guitar playing (I suppose it’s not really an undercurrent since the opening “EXP” on Axis outright states as much). And this is where I finally feel the vibe I think he was always aiming for. “Rainy Day, Dream Away” sets the mood with Jimi falling into a dream, which then leads into the epic “1983… A Merman I Should Turn to Be,” which plot is described in the opening paragraph. Then we get nine minutes or so of ambient noise (“Moon… Turn the Tides Gently, Gently Away”) before the climactic “Still Raining, Still Dreaming,” which reprises the opener, but with furious guitar solos that slowly build in intensity.

I often think that the concept of how well an album flows together is somewhat overrated and that the individual song quality is ultimately the primary driver in how much I like an album. But this suite is definitely an example of where the songs work much better together in unison than they would apart. Most notably, I can get behind the more ambient “Moon” because it slowly builds to the climax of “Still Raining, Still Dreaming” while utilizing some of the themes introduced earlier in the suite. It also helps that “1983” is just an awesome song, a rare plaintive rocker for Jimi, and a strangely touching one at that.

After what would seem to be the ultimate demonstration of his talents, Hendrix again slightly deflates the mood, with another fairly generic rocker (“House Burning Down”) but then again totally redeems himself with the closing duo of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).” I’m an unabashed Dylan fanatic, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d probably choose the Hendrix version. As well-trod as it is by radio, it just has a totally natural flow to it, with seemingly effortless guitar solos that never diminish in their greatness. And “Voodoo Chile” has one of most Hendrix’s iconic riffs, and is also probably the single greatest demonstration of his guitar technique, with its monstrous walls of sound that famously, were played only by one guitar.

So yeah, the highs are really high, and if the lows are kind of low, so be it. There’s enough great material here to keep any classic rock aficionado satiated for a long time.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Axis: Bold as Love” (1967)

Rating: 8

Best Song – “Little Wing”

If there were some sort of critic consensus Hall of Fame, I feel it’s safe to say that Axis: Bold as Love would be in it. So perhaps some words on why it doesn’t make my personal one. It's the melodies! (or lack thereof) This complaint is not an uncommon one on some of the websites I read, but I do feel it’s worth pointing out that Jimi was capable of writing great songs, so it would be grossly unfair to completely disparage his songwriting abilities. Instead, I would say he was an inconsistent songwriter and although a very good one on the whole, not up to the same level as some of his 60s contemporaries.

So where Are You Experienced? struck the right balance for me between great guitar-playing and great pop songwriting, I find Axis to be yet another excellent album from a guitar-playing perspective (probably goes without saying) but only a solid one from a melody perspective. The album is a fairly even one, but it operates at a level of 'pretty good' rather than 'great'. Where nearly every song on the debut was a landmark in its own right, here we got a lot of overly simplistic pop songs that all run together, distinguished only by whether the guitar playing particularly catches my fancy (for example, the relaxed riff on “Wait Until Tomorrow” draws my attention, but the rocking distortion of “Little Miss Lover” doesn’t really), which I imagine to be a fairly random impression anyways.

Of course, I still rate the album highly and it’s because you can always just listen to the guitar parts and be entertained. And there is at least one undisputed classic – “Little Wing,” which is one of those rare songs here that feels epic, with its guitar solo that suddenly takes flight, and yet is in actuality two and a half minutes long. But I’m not sure it’s entirely a good thing when the song written by the bassist (“She’s So Fine”) is one of the most memorable on the album. Still, Axis is absolutely worth absorbing, just after the other two Hendrix albums.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Are You Experienced?” (1967)

Best Song – “Purple Haze”

Rating: 9.5

If one has any interest in classic rock at all, it’s hard not to be kind of awestruck by the track listing of this album (I’m reviewing the US version). I’m pretty sure something like seven or eight of the 11 songs on the album would qualify as rock radio staples. “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Fire,” they’re all here! And this is also one of those occasions where much as I’d like to be snide and dismissive, it’s hard for me to avoid the conclusion that the reason these songs are still familiar today is the same reason that the Beatles and Stones are still so widely played: because they’re really really good.

Honestly, I rarely find myself in the mood to listen to this album, but I think it’s only because I was already so familiar with half the songs before I ever even heard them in an album context. As good as AYE is, it never had a hope of providing me with that intoxicating thrill of new discovery, something that is hardly Hendrix’s fault, but makes it feel like it’s not one of ‘my’ albums. But when I put it on, it’s hard not to get swept away from the opening power chords of “Purple Haze.” It’s a simple enough intro and riff but the sound of it is still as titanic to my ears as I imagine it was in 1967, and at its core, it’s a great pop song too. On one level, simple and catchy, but on another level, hardly obvious, and there's all kinds of neat parts throughout (my favorite part is the ringing high guitar notes Jimi plays in the coda).

I can’t really remember whether “Manic Depression” and “Love or Confusion” get played on the radio, but if they don’t, then you ought to hear them, since they’re as good as everything else. I particularly am fond of “Manic Depression” with its pounding, hazy rhythms and jagged, psychedelic guitar solos, whereas “Love or Confusion” is a cool, dreamy comedown after the murderous “Hey Joe,” at least until that squealing guitar solo that suddenly shifts the song to a darker place.

I could go on, but the point is that right here on his debut, Jimi struck the perfect balance between great pop songs and sonic experimentation. There is enough interesting guitar playing here to reward many, many listens but even if you stripped it all away, you’d still have some great songs, which is something I can’t really say about his later albums. There are varying versions of the album floating about, such as the original UK version missing some of the essential singles, or the extended 17-track version including songs from the original UK version that were dropped. These are still worth hearing, but the 6 tracks left out here range from decent to pretty good, while the 11 included range from pretty good to great, so this is the version I will return to.