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— The Analog Vault // Essential Listening —

Electric Ladyland, originally released in 1968 on Reprise, stands as Jimi Hendrix’s most expansive studio statement and the final Experience album. Stretching across a double LP, it captures Hendrix at the height of his experimental powers, moving from psychedelic blues and funk to studio soundscapes layered with tape effects and overdubs. “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and “Crosstown Traffic” bristle with guitar fire, while his reimagining of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” became the definitive version.

At its core is “Voodoo Chile,” a 15-minute jam with Steve Winwood and Jack Casady that pushes improvisation into cosmic territory. Blending control and chaos, Electric Ladyland rewrote the possibilities of rock albums, cementing Hendrix’s legacy as both virtuoso and visionary. — The Analog Vault

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Jimi Hendrix's third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix's original musical vision at its absolute apex. When revisionist rock critics refer to him as the maker of a generation's mightiest dope music, this is the album they're referring to. But Electric Ladyland is so much more than just background music for chemical intake.

What Hendrix sonically achieved on this record expanded the concept of what could be gotten out of a modern recording studio in much the same manner as Phil Spector had done a decade before with his Wall of Sound. As an album this influential (and as far as influencing a generation of players and beyond, this was his ultimate statement for many), the highlights speak for themselves: "Crosstown Traffic," his reinterpretation of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," the spacy "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)," and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," a landmark in Hendrix's playing. 

With this set Hendrix once again pushed the concept album to new horizons. — (via AllMusic)

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Label: Sony Music, Legacy, Experience Hendrix 
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, 180 Gram, Gatefold
Reissued: 2015 (EU) / Original: 1968
Genre: Rock, Blues
Style: Electric Blues, Psychedelic Rock

File under: TAV Essential Listening
File under: School of Rock
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