Tracks:
1. And the Gods Made Love: 8/10 this one kicks off with... I don't even know what it is, just a crescendo of non musical sounds. It's cooler than it sounds though.
2. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland): 8/10 a little slight, but it's the spot on mixture of instrumental style and lyrical substance which the earlier Hendrix songs didn't always get right.
3. Crosstown Traffic: 9/10 heavy, brilliantly mixed and delightfully chaotic, this beautifully recreates Manhattan's traffic congestion.
4. Voodoo Chile: 10/10 Guitar Heaven would have been a more appropriate title. 15 minutes of one of the best guitarists of all time unleashing a relentlessly energetic, endlessly brilliant and euphorically enjoyable guitar extravaganza with some brilliantly insane lyrics. You can't really fault this.
5. Little Miss Strange: 8/10 a little bit of a comedown, but still highly entertaining and very well played.
6. Long Hot Summer Night: 8/10 it's a bit bewildering, but if you just focus on the guitar playing it's still a highly entertaining song.
7. Come On (Part One): 7/10 a slightly less successful song but it's full of awesome guitar riffs.
8. Gypsy Eyes: 8/10 another very good song although again it doesn't make your jaw drop.
9. Burning of the Midnight Lamp: 9/10 with melancholy psychedelic lyrics and an incredible baseline, this song is Jimi Hendrix and his guitar on fire.
10. Rainy Day, Dream Away: 7/10 quite well done, but out of the 4 verses, I couldn't hear 2 of them at all which prevented me from engaging with this one as much.
11. 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be): 9/10 not as good as the album's other epic, but still pretty darn excellent with an excellent lyrical section followed by a long, stripped back yet still hugely entertaining instrumental section. Hendrix continues to write better lyrics than ever before for this album.
12. Moon, Turn the Tides... Gently, Gently Away: 7/10 a superfluous but interesting interlude.
13. Still Raining, Still Dreaming: 8/10 repetitive but brilliantly played and mixed.
14. House Burning Down: 8/10 it refuses to make any sense like many of the songs on this album, but this one follows all those other songs in being epic, ferociously played and masterfully crafted.
15. All Along the Watchtower: 9/10 a true legend of a song. A musical thunderstorm if there ever was one, Jimi's relentless, ferocious guitar solos might be his finest instrumental achievement and Bob Dylan's typically brilliant verses translate surprisingly well to Hendrix, who is a very different artist.
16. Voodoo Child (Slight Return): 9/10 a fantastic and fittingly heavy finale.
Best song: Voodoo Chile
Worst song: Rainy Day, Dream Away
Summary: I'd started to grow into Jimi Hendrix more recently, and this album shows why he's so popular. A psychedelic epic with endlessly dazzling guitar work from the master, combined with the best song writing he's ever done and a brilliant mixture of guitar wizardry and lyrical excellence, Electric Ladyland is a true treat and unquestionable Hendrix's masterpiece. While a bit too long, every song delivers in some form and since there are 16 songs, that's pretty impressive. Jimi and his guitar are on fire throughout this album. Think the flaming guitar dude from Mad Max Fury Road. Jimi is probably the best guitarist of all time and it's truly tragic he died so young.
Final rating: 9/10
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