Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune //

I finally got a chance over the weekend to listen to the recent posthumous release from Jimi Hendrix.  In an article last month in The New York Times, Anthony DeCurtis set it up as the next logical step after Electric Ladyland. The album has some alternate versions of Hendrix classics like “Stone Free” and “Hear My Train A Comin.’”  But there are also never before heard gems, like the title track (which you can listen to above) and the devastatingly beautiful (almost) instrumental final track “Crying Blue Rain.”

There are a lot of bloated Hendrix collections out there, with rare outtakes and demos.  Valleys of Neptune is not another greatest hits collection.  It’s a full blown album that just might make you rediscover Hendrix and imagine what might have been had he lived beyond the age of 27.

-MW