Jimi Hendrix Album Reviews - Cilantro Milkshake

Jimi Hendrix is Jimi Hendrix, greatest guitar player ever, flipped a Stratocaster upside down and restrung it so he could play it left-handed, wore colorful hippie outfits and dropped acid. Heard of him?

Jimi might be known for his rip-roaring distortion and yo-yoing wah-wah and other techniques that made people say, “Is this guy even human?” but I love him more when he turns off the pedals and just plays his uniquely bright, uplifting guitar lines. He could manhandle a guitar, but he could also tickle it.

When his guitar isn’t ripping holes in the sky with otherworldly racket, he plays a loose “blues on acid” style, somewhere between straight melodies and flashy solos, pushing traditional scales past their limits and occasionally defying rhythms with electric bursts. His songs get their structure not just from the verses and choruses and notes and chords, but from the guitar’s varying sonic textures.

Along with that distinctive guitar work, there’s the smartly reserved bass playing of Noel Redding, the active, stylish, jazzy drumming of Mitch Mitchell, and of course Jimi’s soothing but untrained voice.

Jimi might be “blues-based,” but he’s far from the blues. It’s happy blues, hippie blues, blue-tinted psychedelic rock, something like that. Jimi doesn’t whine with anguish like his blues brethren, nor does he scream with rock’s youthy celebration. He’s doing 60s acid philosophy, yet in the least pretentious, most laid-back way.

All my favorite Jimi songs are the “songy” songs — “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Foxey Lady,” “Fire,” “Bold As Love,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” — with their tight structures and catchy choruses, all found on the three core studio albums released before Jimi’s death.

The rest of his extremely long catalog contains mostly live recordings, where we witness him favoring big long jams, sometimes soloing for several minutes while the other two guys (who eventually changed to two other “other two guys”) groove on some blues riff. Which blues riff? It hardly seems to matter to Jimi. He’s just playing his guitar, man.

The guy had the precious gift of individual brilliance with a guitar. Restraining it wasn’t always his strong suit.

By the way, yes, I know the early albums are credited to “The Jimi Hendrix Experience,” but with lineup changes and posthumous releases, it seems society has agreed to just call it all “Jimi Hendrix,” which makes things easy for me, the lowly music reviewer. For now, I’m covering the first seven releases, and I’ll pick and choose which other ones to add later. Go to Wikipedia and pack a pot of coffee if you want to get the lowdown on the entire complicated catalog.

Are You Experienced

1967
10 footprints dressed in red out of 10

Quick annoying note before we get to the fun stuff: The original British version of this album doesn’t include three great songs, “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” and “The Wind Cries Mary” because they were released as singles. If I were reviewing that version, you could drop the score significantly. Luckily for us fat Americans, the much-improved U.S. edition puts those songs in place of three lesser songs and clocks in at a solid 39 minutes.

In the streaming era, the powers that be at Spotify wisely stuck with the order from the U.S. edition and generously tacked on six more songs, three of which aren’t on the British edition, to make it a hearty 67 minutes. Got all that? Okay here’s your review:

This album is amazing! It’s beautiful, bright, radiant music, Jimi’s most awesome wizardry arranged into neat little songs, some rockin’, some groovin’, some soothin’, each one unique and distinct. It’s easily the most classic, most precious Hendrix release and you’d have to be an asshole hipster stubborn contrarian to suggest otherwise.

“Hey Joe” is a cover, but Jimi makes it his own from the opening notes, blaring bright, then dark and warm a second later. There’s cool ass choir singers toward the end, and I love how the simple lyrics sort of come and go harmlessly.

“The Wind Cries Mary” is a GORGEOUS song, so sweet and breezy (like wind, see?) and I love that guitar warmth oozing through it.

The more rocking stuff includes “Purple Haze” and “Foxey Lady,” and it’s funny how they both capture Jimi really letting that distortion scream bloody horror, and yet they feel kinda relaxed and groovy to me. Crazy sounds, but fun vibes, that’s Jimi for you. “Fire” is yet another rocking classic, with its own odd-jumping rhythm.

The non-hits do a decent job blending in. I never thought “Stone Free” was a great song, but I sure love the way it rolls down the stairs into its speedy chorus. “I Don’t Live Today” has a distinctively raucous bounce to it. A couple others are pleasantly weird, decorated with stoney studio tricks and first-of-their-kind reverse tape effects and an electric monster jibber-jabbing at one point, but hardly anyone ever mentions all that stuff because the songs themselves are so damn good.

Maybe the album’s only flaw is its production quality: plenty of dynamics in the guitar, but not a very full sound overall … or is that actually its greatest charm? The drums are especially thin-sounding. The bass drum sounds like an empty cardboard box and the toms sound like the glovebox in my Corolla — but that doesn’t mean Mitch Mitchell isn’t whooping ass back there. He’s all over the kit with his jazzy touch. He’s not laying down a foundation as much as he’s tossing clumps of cocaine-laced sand into the wind…

…And the wind! … Cries! … Mary!

Sorry, got carried away for a second. That song’s a treasure, though, for real.

Axis: Bold as Love

1967
8 fiery green gowns sneering at the grassy ground out of 10

Once we’re through hearing a silly skit where Jimi pretends to be an alien monster and takes off in his Marshall double-stack UFO, followed by a quick groove-jazz ditty, this album reveals itself to be the most “rock album” album Jimi and the guys produced. The whole sound is thickened up — boomier drums and smooth bass — and the songs mostly stick to logical rock structures. Sometimes they wander off into jams, but those go on for bearable lengths before finding their way back onto the path.

Does any of it sparkle with precious greatness like on the last album? No. But are all the songs catchy and enjoyable? Also no. Most of them are, though, and there’s of course plenty of wicked cool guitar work going on. Listen close and you can easily get lost in the sonic layers to supplement your acid flashbacks, big daddy!

“Spanish Castle Magic” is smashing and blasting. “Wait Until Tomorrow” sails along with summery warmth. “If 6 Was 9” pounds out strange but welcoming rhythms. “Castles Made of Sand” is on valium, teasing a foray into distorted rocking but repeatedly calming down into easygoing grooves. The prettiest songs are undoubtedly “Little Wing” with its airy guitar licks, and “Bold as Love,” full of ooey gooey tastiness and radically shifting sections and a big fat uplifting ending.

It’s a fucking good album, but I’m always stumped whenever I see someone touting it as Jimi’s best.

Electric Ladyland

1968
8 giant pencils and lipstick tube-shaped things out of 10

There are classic albums and there are “classic albums” and this is one of those, you dig? No? Sorry, I smoked a tiny bit of weed to make sure I wasn’t selling this album short, but what I’m saying is that it’s not great. It’s good! Sure. But not great. Am I making sense? I mean, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” is classic, I mean “classic,” no wait I mean classic. That’s a fucking monster riff, man, and wild distortion, just perfect, man. Don’t confuse it with “Voodoo Chile,” which is alright but 15 minutes long, real jammy and long, like a lot of this album. I guess that’s what’s so great about it, but it’s just “great” not great. Pardon me. Like, lots of long stuff. “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” has super nice-sounding stuff in it, smoothy groovy, man, ha ha, but fuck, dude, it’s like 13 minutes or something. It’s not epic, you dig, it’s just long. There’s a difference. I love that song, but I’m just saying. “All Along the Watchtower,” I mean holy shit, it beats the hell out of Bob Dylan’s version. I can tell you that much. You know what else, there’s a few of these other songs that kind of suck. Like, there’s a British guy singing on a couple of them. Like, what the hell? I heard Jimi was too controlling and stuff, you know, I heard he re-recorded bass parts and stuff, but man, he let one slip on that. Why’s that British dude singing? I guess he sang a song on the last album too and I let it slide, but fuck, dude, this album is 75 minutes? Is that for real? Let me check Wikipedia. Yeah, almost. 73 minutes. Spotify added two minutes. Weird. Or maybe that’s just the moments of silence between songs. But man, nobody talks about “Still Raining, Still Dreaming.” That song’s cool, man. Got some organ in there. It’s like a soul song, but Jimi, you know? I kinda think this whole album sounds like rain, like, it feels like dudes having a long jam session on a rainy day, because they can’t go outside anyway, and they’re like, “Let’s just stay in the studio, man.” When was this recorded? July 1967 to January 1968. Well, it probably did rain some of those days. Yeah, I bet it was raining.

Smash Hits

1969
9 bad, bad feelings out of 10

Don’t get too excited, folks. This is a compilation, and a pretty lopsided one, containing a whopping NINE songs from Are You Experienced, two from Electric Ladyland, zero from Axis: Bold as Love, and the previously unreleased “Red House,” which indeed kicks asses big and small with its delicious whining guitar lines over a nice simple blues beat.

Why DID they release this anyway? Let’s check Wikipedia…

Ahh, okay, makes a bit more sense now: The best songs from Are You Experienced weren’t on the British version, so this is like a neat and tidy “best of” album for those wankers. Goddamn British/American release nonsense! Are we done with the 60s yet? (Yeah, just about.)

Anyway, it’s a fine listen, so if some punkass insists on putting this on instead of a more “proper” Jimi Hendrix album, don’t bother arguing with him.

Band of Gypsys

1970
5 old house dogs out of 10

How long can you listen to Jimi and his new buddies jam over a simple blues riff? Find out by listening to Band of Gypsys, a 6-song, 45-minute live album with Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles (hey, he’s literally a buddy!) on drums. I have reservations going so low considering you could randomly choose a 10-second excerpt from this and hear Jimi’s individual brilliance screaming at you, but that’s how I feel, okay?! I simply don’t enjoy this all that much.

It all feels like leftover blues songs pulled out of a dusty stockroom, except the couple that are a bit more rocking. That’s not to say it doesn’t sound good (it does!) or that there aren’t a few cool moments. But man, Jimi robbed his concert audiences of “Hey Joe” and “Purple Haze” for THIS?!

The Cry of Love

1971
6 forgotten teardrops out of 10

It’s the first studio release after Jimi’s death, an unfinished version of what was going to be the next album, with Mitch Mitchell and a couple producers polishing it up for release. Given that, it’s a letdown, but it’s an interesting letdown.

For starters, a good chunk of the songs are more straightforward rockers than anything else in the catalog, almost biker rock. Another chunk of songs are the blues. Not “bluesy” or “blues-based,” but straight up blues. Nothing on here has the same magic of the earlier hits. The closest we get is the ballad “Angel,” and I’m pretty sure there’s a better version of it somewhere else in the catalog. “Drifting” is also quite a nice, easygoing song.

The sound quality is, technically speaking, better than earlier records, with more balance between each instrument. But the end result is kind of damp and underwhelming. It’s hard to believe Jimi would have allowed this to be released without his guitars blaring over the other guys.

Once I was over the letdown, repeated listens revealed the album to be fairly enjoyable. It’s still got delicious guitar leads, some nice grooves, and a few sing-along moments.

Rainbow Bridge

1971
5 red hot mommas out of 10

It’s a bit of a hodgepodge release, leftover recordings and unfinished stuff that was meant for a new album. The stuff I like on here is pretty sweet. “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)” has super cool, unique licks. “Pali Gap” is weird and droney with a salsa feel. Jimi is letting loose on the party-vibed “Room Full of Mirrors” and playing guitar like Santana. “Hear My Train a Comin’,” recorded live, is groovy and jammy.

But man, “Dolly Dagger” just sounds stupid. Are we sure Jimi wasn’t just joking around when he recorded that one? There’s a rendition of “Star Spangled Banner” (not the famous one from his Woodstock performance) with cheesy, synthy sounds. Huh? “Earth Blues” and “Look Over Yonder” aren’t offensive per se, just pretty unmemorable.

You know something… I read in articles that Jimi was sometimes controlling and difficult in the studio, a perfectionist who frustrated producers and bandmates. Guess what? Good! Maybe that’s one reason those early albums are so much better than the ones released without his oversight.

So, anyway, this album is half and half, and the good half isn’t great or anything, so there’s a reason people don’t talk much about this album.

Published October 2021