1st December - The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold as Love

Artist – Album: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love

Released: 1^st December 1967

Sounds Like: Blerggghhh

Urgghhh. Well, the stag do may be over but I’m afraid the hangover has just begun. Blergh. I feel like there was a controlled explosion in my brain. It’s one of those days were you need to put sunglasses on to open the fridge. I’m so sensitive to sound that I can hear the clouds lurching across the sky, the noisy so-and-sos. I am not in a condition to write a blog. At all.

 

So here’s a run down of today’s listening experience: ‘Exp’ confused me. Skip. ‘Up from the Skies’ is too garish. Skip it. ‘Spanish Castle Magic’, now I know that this is belting tune. But it’s too loud for this time in the… afternoon. Skiiiip iiiit. ‘Wait Until Tomorrow’ and ‘Ain’t No Telling’ are fun and harmless, as long as you keep the volume down. ‘Little Wing’, what a beautiful (i.e. quiet) track, this is more like it. -What on earth is going on with this ‘If 6 Was 9’? This is hurting my brain. Skip, skip, skip…

In summary, Axis: Bold as Love is a great album by Hendrix, covering everything from all-out psychedelic jams to gorgeous, down-tempo ballads. It is not, repeat not, recommended for a hangover.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       EXP – 1:55

2.       Up from the Skies – 2:55

3.       Spanish Castle Magic – 3:00

4.       Wait Until Tomorrow – 3:00

5.       Ain’t No Telling – 1:46

6.       Little Wing – 2:24

7.       If 6 Was 9 – 5:32

8.       You Got Me Floating – 2:45

9.       Castles Made of Sand – 2:46

10.   She’s So Fine – 2:37

11.   One Rainy Wish – 3:40

12.   Little Miss Lover – 2:20

13.   Bold as Lover – 4:11

Listen to ‘Little Wing’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZsN6RMmdls

25th October - The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland

Artist – Album: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland 

Released: 25^th October 1968

Sounds Like: Electrical Dylan d (it’s a rubbish anagram!)

Defining cool is not an easy thing to do:

Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool—not caring, right?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?...

The closest anybody ever came to embodying cool was Jimi Hendrix. His recording engineers and bandmates may have disagreed, as they struggled with the hanger-ons and the titanic consumption of drugs, but the flamboyant guitar-God was the coolest of them all and this album just so happens to find him at the very peak of his powers. From the groovy ‘Crosstown Traffic’ (the only Hendrix recording to not feature a guitar solo) to the apocalyptic Dylan cover ‘All Along the Watchtower’ (my vote for the greatest cover song of all time), Hendrix and his Experience come out all guns blazing in one of the most free-wheeling, experimental albums of the 60s. A stoned cold classic.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       …And the Gods Made Love – 1:21

2.       Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) – 2:11

3.       Crosstown Traffic – 2:25

4.       Voodoo Chile – 15:00

5.       Little Miss Strange – 2:52

6.       Long Hot Summer Night – 3:27

7.       Come On (Part 1) – 4:09

8.       Gypsy Eyes – 3:43

9.       Burning of the Midnight Lamp – 3:39

10.   Rainy Day, Dream Away – 3:42

11.   1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) – 13:39

12.   Moon, Turn the Tides… Gently Gently Away – 1:02

13.   Still Raining, Still Dreaming – 4:25

14.   House Burning Down – 4:33

15.   All Along the Watchtower – 4:01

16.   Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – 5:12

Listen to ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smNJQZxZMeA

Also released on 25^th October:

1974: Bob Marley & The Wailers – Natty Dread

12th May - The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced?

Artist – Album: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced?

Released:  12^th May 1967             

Sounds Like: An experience

It almost came down to a coin toss to decide which album was most worthy of today’s blog. It says something that the beautiful and haunting folk of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, released 5 years ago today, was never even in serious consideration for review. Nor was The Bluetones’ Luxembourg, although that was less of a special record... No, today was a straight head to head between the psychedelic blues-rock jams of Are You Experienced? and the druggy, country-tinged haze of The Rolling Stones’ exceptional Exile on Main St.

In the end, it came down to two deciding factors. 1) I haven’t done any Jimi yet, and he was a bloody legend; and 2) whereas Exile... was originally released to mixed reviews before gradually attaining its (deserved) exulted status, Are You Experienced? has always been, and will always be, recognised as masterpiece. Where Exile... is a grower, a charming shambles that rewards repeated listens, Are You Experienced? has the immediacy of one of its many solos and the cocksure bravado and panache that made Hendrix such a enigmatic icon.

From ‘Foxy Lady’ (ten points if you can’t hear it without picturing Garth from Wayne’s World) to ‘Are You Experienced?’, the album is chock-full of rock, blues, pop and soul and guitar virtuosity. It’s also worth noting that its credited to the Jimi Hendrix Experience; they were a band, not just a solo artist. Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding can be proud of the fact that they’re not completely eclipsed by the guitar god here. Check out Mitchell’s changing percussion on ‘Fire’ in particular – quite simply exceptional.

And all this from their debut album. Hendrix may have enjoyed only the briefest of careers at the very top, but the swaggering, passionate and empowering qualities that define his lasting legacy and influence are already on show here.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Foxy Lady – 3:22

2.       Manic Depression – 3:46

3.       Red House – 3:53

4.       Can You See Me – 2:35

5.       Love or Confusion – 3:17

6.       I Don’t Live Today – 3:58

7.       May This Be Love – 3:14

8.       Fire – 2:47

9.       Third Stone from the Sun – 6:50

10.   Remember – 2:53

11.   Are You Experienced? – 4:17

Listen to ‘Remember’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrzVmkU5cps

Also released on the 12^th May:

1972: The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.

Also released on the 12^th May:

2003: The Bluetones - Luxembourg

Also released on the 12^th May:

2008: Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago