The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix, THE rock god, put out his final studio album with The Experience in 1968. It is a massive blend of experimental rock, folk, jazz, and blues that achieved both critical and financial success. Rightfully so. This album is whimsical, floating, and jarring all at the exact same time. The record features never before heard guitar work, heavy looping, and wild studio production. It carries a general sense of massive accomplishment while being essentially the brainchild of one man. This was the first time Hendrix officially took over the producer role from his manager Chas Chandler. He finally had no governor installed, allowing him and his bandmates to create whatever their hearts desired.

Tracks like "Have You Ever Been" and "Little Miss Strange" float along like something made for an intimate, late night listening session. Yet, they are still grandiose enough to fill a live venue packed with thousands of people. It is a testament to the album's collaborative spirit that a quirky track like "Little Miss Strange" was actually written and sung by bassist Noel Redding, proving the band was experimenting with every possible angle.

Then you have tracks like "Crosstown Traffic," the iconic Bob Dylan cover "All Along the Watchtower," and the epic fifteen minute jam session "Voodoo Chile" that rock like absolutely nobody's business. Especially for the 1960s, this was boundary pushing at its absolute finest. The heavy blues riffs sitting in the background of these tracks can still be felt today. You can hear the DNA in modern guitarists like Gary Clark Jr., Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, and anyone else worth their salt in the genre.

It is a long double album clocking in comfortably over seventy minutes. That means they are not all winners. But with this much variety, it is incredibly easy to just skip whatever does not float your boat.

The production value is slightly suspect, even for the time period. The mix feels a bit muddy and too quiet, but it is still clear enough to ENJOY. It feels almost like you are listening to it underwater. That actually works perfectly for the psychedelic nature of the record. Hendrix and his engineers heavily utilized experimental studio effects like flanging and phase shifting to get that exact swirling, aquatic sound. Interestingly, modern remasters have not done much to clean it up, proving that hazy, thick mix was maybe intentional.

The album represents an uninhibited and deeply spiritual journey of artistic expression. It is a massive departure from standard pop structure toward a much looser, jam heavy way of playing. It does not always work flawlessly, but it simply would not be the same historic record if it had been overseen by a strict corporate producer. The album is wonderfully imperfect and pure. It came directly from the heart and mind of one of the greatest rockers of all time, and it has aged significantly better than most outputs from the entire decade.