Cry Of Love - JIMI HENDRIX****

Freedom/Drifting/Ezy Ryder/Night Bird Flying/My Friend/Straight Ahead/Astro Man/Angel/In From The Storm/ Belly Button Window

Released shortly after his untimely death Cry Of Love was the last authorised Jimmy Hendrix album. It would be followed by numerous posthumous releases of gradually diminishing quality of material. (US:3 UK:2)

“This album may be regarded as a new step forward, a new experimentalism. What seems to be new is the extent that Hendrix has used overdubs, recording track after track of guitar and laying them one on top of the other. At the best this creates a rich texture of noise where, on repeated listenings, we can follow different strands. But too often the result is a congealed toffee of sound where the different strands just merge into one noise.”

“The Cry Of Love was the first of seemingly hundreds of posthumous Jimi Hendrix releases. We here get a glimpse into what a more mature Jimi Hendrix would have sounded like. The brash, cocky, wiry Hendrix that manifested itself on the three legendary albums with the Experience is largely a thing of the past. Hendrix generally sounds exhausted and perhaps even a bit confused about what direction to take in these recordings. The psychedelic quality of his previous recordings is still present, but minimized. Funky rhythms tend to dominate the proceedings.”

“This was his final legitimate solo album, which was incomplete at the time of his death, and finished with producers and studio musicians. It represents the evolution of this guitar great to attempt more melodic, pop style tunes as opposed to relying mostly on pyrotechnic guitar solos.”

“This is just full of great psychedelic blues. His guitar playing and songwriting is top notch here. If you love Hendrix and all you know are the famous songs listening to this will blow you away.”

“This is a gentler, less frenetic Jimi Hendrix, but he's every bit as glorious as on his previous incarnations. A few of the songs are true gems, such as Angel and Drifting. Overall, the feeling is stoned, trippy, and dreamy, but it's also an album with a lot of heart, one that goes straight for the emotional jugular.”

“This is a much more tamed collection than anything he did before. There is a very dream like stoned quality to the songs, but there is also a fantastic clarity in the music that makes Cry Of Love different to previous releases.”