1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 128. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968)

Sorry, I didn't use the cover with the naked women. I'm probably obscure enough to escape notice from any censorial types in the Google-verse, but I'm playing it safe.

Although the best known tracks from this album are Crosstown Traffic, All Along The Watchtower (where Hendrix shows the Byrds how a Dylan cover *should* be done), and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), which are all similar in sound to tracks on Are You Experienced, overall this album has a much more mellow sound to it.

Some tracks, notably those parenthesised by Rainy Day, Dream Away and Still Raining, Still Dreaming (muses about becoming a merman) are more like an extended jazz jam that anything Hendrix has done before, while the first Voodoo Chile (not the Slight Return) is a lengthy blues jam (with a drum solo by Mitch Mitchell that just manages to stay within the time boundaries of drum solos before they get merely indulgent and annoying). Little Miss Strange is more like a pop song. 

But within all of that, Hendrix does things with a guitar that haven’t been done before, including heavy use of the wah-wah pedal such that it sounds like a voice, as well as various hammering, distortion, bending and all kinds of things I can’t even tell what’s going on. The sounds are not that unusual listening today, but compared to what’s gone before, there’s a definite pushing of the envelope.

Because of the mix of styles, and perhaps also because of the presence of other musicians, notably Steve Winwood of Traffic playing organ on Voodoo Chile, this feels like a much stronger album than Are You Experienced? (Which itself was pretty good), and manages to be one of those double albums that doesn’t feel too padded with filler. Unless you count two 14-minute jams as filler, but they’re some of the best bits.