Experience Hendrix - The Best of Jimi Hendrix

iTunes Review

There are a great many Jimi Hendrix collections available. With the Hendrix family now keeping a watchful eye over Jimi’s legacy, the releases that have been coming out in the 2000s have been an improvement in every way. This 2010 collection, a 20-song distillation of Hendrix’s short but expansive career, is a solid introductory look at the man who redefined the electric guitar for rock n’ roll and all of its many offshoots. The album focuses on the three albums he recorded with the Experience while he was alive – Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland – and the album he was working on upon his death, which features stellar Hendrix tunes such as “Freedom” and “Dolly Dagger.” Hendrix’s wild interpretation of “The Star Spangled Banner” from the 1969 Woodstock Festival is also included. From psychedelic rockers (“Purple Haze,” “Manic Depression”) and out-of-this world blues (“Red House,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”) to sensitive ballads (“The Wind Cries Mary,” “Castles Made of Sand”), it’s all here.