Mar 03 2023
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5
Look, I’ve been pretty hard on some of the “classic”, “greatest-of-all-time” records that appear on this list and there are very few that I plan on giving five stars. It’s not without good reason…a lot of those “classic” records, we’re just supposed to accept they’re classics because they sold a lot of copies or we’ve been told by the music press for decades that they’re important. I don’t think Rumors is a 5 star record…shit, I don’t even think Sgt. Pepper’s is a five star record. They both have their flaws to me and I’m not going to ignore them because everyone else thinks they’re perfect.
Now I’m going be a little hypocritical.
Are You Experienced? is not a perfect record, but it is a 5 star record.
Why, you ask?
Well, and here’s where I’ll be a little hyperbolic, it’s because no one on earth, since Jimi Hendrix, has had as much of a long lasting impact on music. This is a record that changed the world and continued to change the world for many decades after its release.
There is rock music before and after Hendrix. He is the line in the sand, so to speak. He completely changed the way the guitar is played and used in rock music. The man basically created a new language for everyone else to learn and figure out. He is without a doubt the greatest of all time.
You can track his influence all over the music that was released in the years, decades, half century following his debut.
As an example, go ahead and listen to “Third Stone from the Sun” and try and tell me you can’t draw a straight line to the guitar squall and experimentation of Sonic Youth.
Or listen to Eddie Hazel’s solo on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” or his playing on their ‘74 record, “Standing on the Verge of Getting it on”
Or Stevie Ray Vaughan
Or J Mascis
Or Prince
Or John Frusciante
Or read about how Eric Clapton walked off stage the first time he saw Hendrix play. I believe “Is he really that fucking good?” was Clapton’s response to Chas Chandler right after he left the stage.(TBH, Jimi gets 5 stars just for knocking Clapton down a peg)
Jimi Hendrix was so influential that Miles Davis started playing his trumpet through a wah pedal.
I mean, I could keep naming musicians here, but you get the point, right? There is a pretty good chance that whichever guitar player you like wouldn’t be the player they are without Hendrix.
I don’t think an album with the wealth of influence that Are You Experienced? left behind deserves anything other than 5 stars.
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Feb 11 2021
View Author
5
Sometimes you just gotta toss your 5 stars to the wind and let Jimi take over. Genre-bending, passionate, energized, psychedelic. Incredible album from a powerful trio. Fantastic drumming, impeccable guitar work. If I wasn't wading through clouds of drywall dust while feeding a baby and keeping a barking dog at bay I'm sure I could opine for hours on how much I enjoy listening to this album. It never gets old.
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Jan 13 2021
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5
The songs are still brilliant. It is easy to get caught up in Jimi's excellent guitar work but the other pieces of the band are just as great. There is a rawness to the guitar though that is so difficult to replicate that I once described as a imprecise precision. Jimi never misses a note and you get the feeling that he hits everything just as he wanted and yet there is a feeling of searching in the melody, like an artist sketching out a drawing. I once listened to someone play a Hendrix song and commented while they played well, that they played too well. Their cover was too clean and it lost the energy of the original. That is on no better display than on this album.
The album contains some of my favourite Hendrix songs including The Wind Cries Mary and Are You Experienced. However, the songs do form a random collection of tracks and lack a sense of cohesion to tie them together which I think is a missed opportunity.
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Apr 22 2021
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2
I imagine Hendrix sounded amazing when he arrived on the scene, unlike anything else. Now though, so many people have done so much better. He's obviously a legend and all, can't dispute that, but I struggle to listen to him for too long without finding it annoying. A couple of tracks here are fine, a whole album is too much for me.
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Oct 31 2021
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3
Ce que j'ai reproché au précédent album de Jimi à propos de l'emplacement de ses "tubes" dans la chronologie du projet n'est pas tombé dans l'oreille d'un sourd, et c'est une bonne chose.
Vous savez probablement que j'ai fêté la semaine dernière le premier anniversaire du jour où je me suis fait licencier de mon premier cabinet d'avocats. Je vous dois la vérité sur cet épisode.
Alors que je m'y rendis un matin avec le même entrain qu'habituellement, ma tutrice me convoqua dans son bureau. "Ferme la porte" me dit-elle une fois que j'eus franchi celle-ci. Je m'assis en face d'elle et c'est alors qu'elle débuta son laïus truffé de reproches :
- Robserpillère, cela fait maintenant trois semaines que tu travailles chez nous et plusieurs de tes agissements nous poussent à nous interroger sur ta présence ici.
- Quoi ?!
- Nous t'avons plusieurs fois demandé de décrocher les posters de Hugh Masekela que tu as fixés sur les murs de la salle de réunion, tu n'en as pas tenu compte.
- Mais hein ?!
- Vendredi dernier, alors que j'étais en rendez-vous avec un client très important, tu as allumé ton enceinte et diffusé l'album O.G. Original Gangster d'Ice T dans le couloir. C'était extrêmement inapproprié.
- Ta gueule ?!
- De plus, tu as pris pour habitude de débrancher l'aspirateur de notre femme de ménage car cela t'empêche apapremment d'écouter ton album du jour. Ce comportement est inacceptable.
- Pardon ?!
- Tu es viré, Robgazinière...
Voilà, vous savez tout désormais.
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Feb 17 2022
View Author
5
The 1968 Bob Gibson season of albums. Even in the so-called "Year Of The Pitcher", Gibson having an ERA of 1.12 is just insane. So are 28 complete games and 13 shutouts. It's similar to an original album that contains Purple Haze, Hey Joe, May This Be Love, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, however you want to spell Foxey Lady, and of course, the title song. There will never be another Bob Gibson. And there's never been anyone like Jimi Hendrix.
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Mar 22 2021
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5
It's been a few months since I last listened to Jimi Hendrix. Thus, I'm not sure if my enjoyment of the debut is different because of context or just because it's a better record. This is immediately obvious, virtuosic guitar music of the highest caliber. The vocals are tucked back in the mix, because they aren't the focus of the music. But they also can be there because the meaning is crystal clear with the instruments in front of it. The hour flies by with the album in the background, but each song stands up to closer listening as well. There's simultaneous appreciation of rock history and creative innovation.
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Nov 09 2020
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5
The great tracks we all know and the other great tracks. Nearly loses a point for some of the lyrics.
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Oct 21 2024
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5
Hits right in that sweet spot between blues rock and psychedelic. Are you experienced? You will be after this.
I recommend going for the UK track listing rather than the US, feels more cohesive to me but YMMV. Both digital versions contain the same tracks regardless.
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Apr 21 2024
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5
I'm embarrassed to admit that while I've heard many songs from this album, this is the first time I've listened to the album outright. So, *now* I can say I'm experienced, I suppose. And what a great experience! Not every song can be as contagious or definitive as "Purple Haze" or "Foxey Lady", but even today it's not all that hard to understand how revolutionary the whole album was (or why it was so immediately popular).
The Wikipedia entry for the album is a great read too (even if it's a little too long in the tooth at times). And now I know why Jimi Hendrix's sound is so distinctive on the album, given that he was literally blasting everyone out in the studio (and even causing computers above one of the studios to mess up). I'm really glad to know that Chas Chandler played a significant role in helping Jimi Hendrix bring his genius to the world.
Finally listening to this album in its entirety only makes me even more baffled that the high school in Seattle I went to, and where he (briefly) attended much earlier than I did, had only a small, unlabeled bronze bust of Hendrix buried deep in the high school library, and nothing else to celebrate a brilliant musical artist.
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Apr 21 2024
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5
Fantastic album that blew my mind the first time and still does. Manic depression is one of my favorite Hendrix songs.
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Oct 31 2023
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5
How could you go wrong with Jimmy Hendrix on the experience… Every single song on this album is five stars. It’s blues, rock, psychedelic, everything you ever imagined anymore. Must listen.
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Sep 04 2023
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5
Hey, wait, which of the dozen different versions of this album are we meant to be listening to? Think I'm fine with the 17 tracks on my hard drive, a rare case of the bonus tracks being essential - Hey Joe and Purple Haze feature.
I expected to be torn over this. Many of these songs are foundational to me, my dad inculcating a love for the band, whom he'd seen in Chelmsford as a teenager. Recent dips into Hendrix's work have provided a patchy harvest; Electric Ladyland might be a more challenging assignment. But scanning the track listing, the first five tracks I didn't need to listen to again (though I did) to know they're incredible, and most of the rest is similar.
His guitar never gets dull, and he had the most beguiling singing voice of his contemporaries, a seductive conversational tone.
Misogyny is impossible to ignore, particularly after hearing the bonus track 51st Anniversary. To paraphrase Norm MacDonald, that Joe was a real jerk!
But Third Stone From The Sun! Feel like that’s a path that was never successfully followed, apart from by Right Said Fred, as pointed out by my dad, angry and tipsy one NYE when “ I’m Too Sexy” emerged on Capital Radio’s Listeners’ Best Songs Ever countdown, and my dad furiously sought out his original LP…
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Nov 15 2022
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5
Most people agree, the 1001 ratings scale should top out at 11.
This survey says it all.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/92Y86QN
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May 18 2022
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5
So this has easily three of the most powerful and potent Hendrix songs. Not only that, but it is the debut! Fucking nuts.
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May 17 2022
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5
He really is one of the greatest guitarists. This album can’t be overrated.
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Mar 10 2022
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5
Hendrix first album one of the greatest. Can listen to it over and over again. Not a bad song on it.
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Dec 22 2021
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5
An undisputed essential in rock history. In many ways, this is not only Hendrix at his best, but 60s rock at its most far out, psychedelia at its peak, the electric guitar at its most expressive. It's blues, soul, R&B, psychedelia and pop all crammed into a 40 minute package, and I had so much fun hearing it again for the first time in years.
I've gone between the different track listings of the UK and US versions when listening to this album (US adds three singles, including the iconic "Purple Haze", but removes "Remember", "Can You See Me" and "Red House"). For me, the US version wins out on a song-by-song basis, but the UK is structured more comfortably as an album, with more ebb and flow between the hard-edged rock and the lush ballads.
As far as individual tracks, they're all winners, though I'd single out the instrumental "Third Stone From The Sun" as a blissful freak-out, full of guitar effects, feedback and intricate drum patterns, held together by a hypnotic three note bassline. The main guitar riff in this track, vibrato and all, is one of my favourite Hendrix moments on the record.
"Are You Experienced" is another classic, all hinged around one chord, intoxicating marching snare beat and the insistent one-note piano refrain solidifies the band as a force to go down in history.
"Red House" is the most forgettable track for me, leaning too far into a standard mid-tempo blues than the other songs on offer.
There's little else I can add to the heaps of praise already given to this album, other than:
Hendrix's voice suits the songs beautifully- it's bluesy husk is perfect and underrated.
Noel Redding's bassline in "Fire" is exceptional.
The ballads on offer are sublime and deserve as much credit as the rockers: "The Wind Cries Mary", "Remember" and "May This Be Love" all have beautiful melodies that cascade around the guitar lines.
So it's a real classic and essential listening for rock music fans. Some of the techniques used might be dated now (trippy stereo panning, backmasking, wah pedals) but they only serve to capture the Jimi Hendrix Experience as true pioneers in 1967, riding the wave that would ultimately be too large even for them.
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Nov 21 2021
View Author
5
Jimi Hendrix is glaringly the greatest, most charismatic, most talented artist of the 60s, and here we have his debut. In truth, this is not so much structured as an album but rather as an assemblage of Hendrix songs, showcasing what voodoo mojo geetar freakoutery he could do.
But what a showcase! Virtually every moment and every aspect stuns the listener. Since everyone knows Hendrix's guitar virtuosity (he was quite good, apparently), I shall instead talk about his voice. Hendrix himself was rather disparaging about his voice, and was very self-conscious about it. To every other listener, Hendrix's dismay is baffling. His voice is somehow warm and seductive yet simultaneously masculine and fiery. Another aspect perhaps overlooked, though to a lesser extent, is the range of styles Hendrix adopts and mutates into his own; the rock, ballad, blues, raga, soul, R&B and psychedelia displayed here all bend towards Hendrix's star, a process sustained in his later albums. Hendrix had talents far beyond the guitar, and this album is proof. Why aren't you listening to this now?
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Aug 30 2021
View Author
5
Favs: May This Be Love and Manic Depression are personal favorites. The Wind Cries Mary. Fire. Hey Joe. Foxey Lady. Purple Haze.
Mehs: No mehs on Jimi albums. I guess Third Stone From the Sun is my least favorite, but it's still good
Hendrix's guitar work is still a mind blowing display of blues guitar. You get that with Mitchell's great drums, and you still get the clever lyrics: "You can hear happiness staggering on down the street Footprints dressed in red." Great stuff.
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Apr 27 2021
View Author
5
Where modern electric guitar began.
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Feb 11 2021
View Author
5
Hell yes. It's a perfect album. Beautiful soft balllads, explosive songs, trippy arrangements, huge hooks too. Even just they way this album sounds is perfect. The warm tape. It must've been recorded together live rather than track by track. A goddamn masterpiece. At one point I thought, maybe it's too long, but then realized Spotify added 6 songs to the end and doubled the album lenght!
Favorite tracks are the trippiest - Third Stone and Are You Experienced. I had a quintessential stoner moment with that song, just the right slight high and pulled into my driveway and it came on. Sounded so good I put it on repeat, louder and louder, until Rico came outside a bit worried.
We all know Jimi's considered the greatest guitar player, largely on the back of his soloing. I think more music critic ink needs to be spilled on his rhythm guitar chops. He would curl his thumb over the top of the neck to fret the low E and do these percussive melodies with the other four fingers below the neck. MASSIVE HANDS. A+
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Feb 11 2021
View Author
5
Uhh, best guitar player ever (arguably) and Matt’s favorite drummer playing psychedelic rock, yeah, you’re asking for Matt to hand out his first 5. The album is filled with banger after banger, no bad songs. I’ve always thought of this as a Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic album, now I realize it’s an album where Jimi spans like 5 genres and adds his magicians Psychedelic touch to each of them. I’m hearing R&B, folk, blues, rock, rockabilly, bebop and proto-funk—which is essentially what Jimi Hendrix is, a holy amalgam of skills, experiences and his time and setting spanning these genres to create psych rock. This album sets the stage for so many albums which follow it. This band might just be the perfect 3 piece, an insane guitar player with a really tight rhythm section. Every song has a great lick and impressive groove. Enough has been said about Purple Haze, it’s the single off an album that is made up of singles. The groove on manic depression is incredible. Hey Joe is perfect—misogynist lyrics notwithstanding. Wind cries Mary is perfect. Let me stand next to your Fire bangs. Third Stone is a solid jam session. Are you experienced is Jimi doing a Beatles’esque hippie anthem. Stone free is a great mix of R&B-psych. The only strike on this album, as with many Hendrix songs, there are some egregious fade outs, you want the song to keep going, he’s set the table for a breakdown and it just fades out. Stone Free and 51st Anniversary are the two worst offenders in this, though nothing will be as bad as bad, give you bigger rock blue balls than Little Wing (different album). Love that Hendrix ties it all together at the end with a solid blues cover, paying homage to the forebearers—note the Easter egg fart (distortion blip) at 3:14 on this song. Amazing album, long, love it even though I’ve heard it about 1 million times and it was my first real classic rock exposure at 12, doesn’t matter still tapping my feet to it at 36.
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Apr 09 2021
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5
One of my favourites and first got me into psychedelic music. The bass line and guitar coming in and out on Third Stone is what sold it for me. Foxey Lady is just such a great song
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Jun 12 2021
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5
Been a while since I’ve Jimi’d
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Jul 09 2021
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5
Excellent Album -- Masterclass in electric guitar and blues rock.
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Feb 03 2023
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4
There's some fantastic guitar playing on this album, as you might expect. It really feels like something from ten years ahead of when it was recorded. Jimi changed the way that rock bands did guitar. Most surprising was learning that part of I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred was lifted direct from a riff on Third Stone from the Sun.
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Mar 13 2022
View Author
4
Now Jimi played guitar
Jamming good with Weird and Gilly
And The Spiders from Mars
He played it left hand
But made it too far
Became the special man
Then we were Jimi's Band
Jimi really sang
Screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo
Like some cat from Japan
He could lick 'em by smiling
He could leave 'em to hang
He came on so loaded, man,
Well-hung, snow-white tan
So where were the spiders
While the fly tried to break our balls?
Just the beer light to guide us
So we bitched about his fans
And should we crush his sweet hands?
Oh yeah
Jimi played for time
Jiving us that we were Voodoo
The kids was just crass
He was the naz
With God-given ass
He took it all too far
But boy, could he play guitar
Making love with his ego
Jimi sucked up into his mind (ah)
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed a man
I had to break up the band
Jimi played guitar
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Nov 06 2021
View Author
4
ooOOoo foxey lady
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Apr 17 2024
View Author
3
Always a great album to check out. Not one of my favorites but it is good.
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Feb 27 2024
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3
back in like 2008 I ran across a guy called Purple Haze on MW2 and, being the child I was back then, thought this was one of the coolest names that I had seen in a while and decided to copy it with my own twist. I ended up running with the name Pink Haze for a month or so until my next fad name came around. It wasnt until a decade had passed and I had started to get more into listening to music that was foreign to me that I found out that Purple Haze was the name of a Hendrix song / a strain of weed.
With that said, I don't vibe too much with the album. Unsure if its a 3 or a 2 but since I have heard much worse albums that I have rated a 2 I will give it a halfway rating
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Oct 31 2021
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3
Vous n'êtes pas sans savoir que je possède 3 générateurs pirates en plus du générateur des 1001, afin d'étendre au maximum ma culture musicale. Aujourd'hui, robpenitencière, qui avait déjà réussit le tour de force de s'incruster dans mon aventure des 1001, a réussi à dénicher le lien menant à mon gigantesque fichier Excel proposant ces 3 générateurs clandestins.
A peine arrivé, il tente déjà de remodeler le fichier selon ses préférences, alors même que la communauté pirate vivait jusqu'alors dans une parfaite harmonie musicale. Il détruit les classements des uns et les commentaires des autres, ne laissant que fumée et pleurs sur son passage.
La communauté des générateurs clandestins prépare une réponse à cette intrusion, je vous tiendrai au courant dans une prochaine review des avancées de la rebellion.
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Nov 22 2024
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5
I wore that record out! One of the few in my collection on Discogs rated in Fair condition!
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Nov 22 2024
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5
One of the biggest challenges to learning the guitar (or any instrument) is to play with *feeling*. Rather than just hitting the right notes at the right times, you let your emotions, your life experiences, whatever is calling you to play these notes in this moment flow from your heart down your arm through your fingertips and into the instrument. Jimi Hendrix is second to none in playing with feeling.
The soulfulness in each guitar lick, the endearing timbre of his talk-singing style, the stripped-back percussion that embraces the guitar without overpowering, all cultivate a liveliness, genuineness, and intimacy that one finds all too rarely in music. It feels like Jimi is here in the room, singing and shredding for me and me alone.
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Nov 20 2024
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5
Nobody else has ever sounded like they can conjure an earthquake at a whim like Hendrix does.
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Nov 20 2024
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5
My contrarian nature makes me reluctant to give a Classic Rock Classic full grades. But I have to speak my Guitar Guy truth.
Nobody does it like Hendrix, to the point that I’m not sure I even consider him Influential in the way that we like to call some guys Influential. Has anyone ever really figured out how he did what he was doing and built on it? I don’t think so.
It’s hard to imagine hearing this when it first came out. But it’s even kinda hard to imagine hearing it for the first time now, ya know?
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Nov 17 2024
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5
I am experienced. No one has ever been able to catch the sound these 3 had. It’s Made unique not just by Jimi’s electric and idiosyncratic guitar style but also by the thunderous and cloudy backdrop of the rhythm section. It was a sound so just represented by these 3 musicians that anybody making music or playing guitar in a similar way is immediately identified as a copy.
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Nov 16 2024
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5
I am happy to have this experience, the tracks are each well-crafted musically. Hendrix earns his position as one of the greats.
Favorite track: "Purple Haze"
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Nov 13 2024
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5
This may be too bold to say, but Jimi is decent at playing the guitar. Possibly underrated!
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Nov 08 2024
View Author
5
And so it seems that The Hendrix Experience finally clicked with me *today* - after just 45+ years of digesting and playing rock music....
I grew up on guitar-based music, have played professionally for decades, etc, I just never got into JHE songs at all. I honestly do think my dislike was heavily based around the lousy mix and the hits I know all too well immediately sound so much goddamn better than they ever did on ~Rock101 back in 1982 - holy hell.
With this album having been remixed/remastered (which is too-often nothing at best and a shitty overly-compressed money grab at worst) it feels like I'm hearing it all for the first time, even though 5 or 6 of these songs have been big hits since before I was born.
Not much else to say - it's awesome, the *band* were great, and there really was nothing like this before 1967 to prepare the world.
It's not my favourite music of all-time but my all-time favourite music would not have been made without this. Ergo it has to be a 5...
9/10 5 stars.
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Nov 05 2024
View Author
5
¿El mejor debut de la historia? Posiblemente. ¿La mejor banda de la historia? Seguramente. ¿El mejor guitarrista de la historia? Sin duda.
¿El mejor disco de Hendrix? En absoluto, ese puesto se lo dejo a Electric Ladyland aunque este Are you experienced está a grandísima altura.
Are you experienced presenta a Hendrix en estudio, en directo ya había causado estragos (que se lo digan a Eric Clapton, encerrado en el aseo con ataque de pánico al verle en tocar vivo).
La lista de temas es impresionante:
Hey Joe, el comienzo de todo (una canción ajena que ha tenido cientos de versiones desde Love a The Byrds pero esta de la JHE es la mejor, sin duda)
Purple Haze es una obra de arte, con esa distorsión deliberada que tuvieron que proteger para que no se la borraran en la masterización.
The wind cries Mary, en una sola toma, es otra maravilla.
Thrid stone from the sun es una alucinante viaje...
Are you experienced otro aún mayor.
Foxy Lady, Manic Depresson, Fire... cualquier tema por simple que parezca (May this be love es una joya) está a años luz de la mayoría de temas de cualquier disco.
La producción de Chandler y sobre todo de Kramer convierte el disco en una referencia de la época uq esigue plenamente vigente aún.
La única pega es que se quedara fuera la versión de Like a Rolling Stone, por problemas de encaje en la banda. Stone free figura en algunas ediciones, la versión británica de Are You Experienced se compone íntegramente de canciones originales de Hendrix, la que suena en la lista de Spotify es la americana.
Aún tuvieron tiempo de publicar en ese mismo año el fundamental Axis: bold as love.
Otros excelentes debuts de ese mismo año fueron los de The Doors, Experience, Scott Walker, Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, y también aunque menores los de Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Bowie, Nico, Electric Prunes o First Edition.
Otras obras enormes editadas ese mismo año 1967:
Sgt. Peppers y Magical Mistery Tour, Forever Changes y Da Capo, The Velvet Underground y White light/White head, Surrealistic Pillow,The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Who Sell Out, Days of Future Passed, Disraelí Gears, Bee Gees´ First, Younger Than Yesterday, Evolution y Butterfly, Safe as milk, I never loved a man the way i love you y Arrives, Something Else, Scott, Bee Gees´ First (en realidad el segundo), Wild Honey, Sunshine Superman o Happy Together...
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Nov 04 2024
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5
Genius - great singing, great playing, wonderful songs, and massively inventive in terms of sound. Still a thrilling listen
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Nov 04 2024
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5
A masterpiecee. A revolution.
And it’s still my 3rd favorite Jimi record.
After listening through for the first time in ages it may move back into second favorite just for Manic Depression and the title track.
One of the things Jimi never got enough credit for was his songwriting and overall contribution beyond his guitar playing. That man wrote some incredible songs.
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Nov 01 2024
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5
an album that makes you feel like a bad B
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Nov 01 2024
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5
Yeah baby, instant feels of groooove!
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Nov 01 2024
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5
Great! Want to listen again
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Oct 31 2024
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5
Modern rock and roll as we know it would
Not exist without Joni Hendrix
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Oct 31 2024
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5
This may not quite hit perfect for me on a continuity and vision side. But damn if it isn't perfect for influence. Jiminy went solo, with this debut and changed the guitar. This sound in '67 blew everyone apart then and for generations going forward. Entire genres were formed because ears heard these sounds. Name one guitarist after this that wasn't influence. Jimi was a force unto himself and made everyone experience this one.
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Oct 29 2024
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5
Great album. Lots of timeless hits on here as well.
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Oct 28 2024
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5
Legendary
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Oct 28 2024
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5
This is probably a 4 for pure enjoyment, but its significance and influence (and being a debut!) give it at least 1 bonus star.
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Oct 28 2024
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5
This album not only broke new ground in exploring the sounds that it was possible to get out of an electric guitar, it pushed the boundaries of rock music genre mashups with the highlight being the sci-fi epic Third Stone From the Sun which veers wildly from acid rock to free jazz noodling to total freak out. Legend has it that Jimi liked to play so loudly in the studio that the neighbours complained about the noise. Another artist who died far too young.
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Oct 28 2024
View Author
5
I am experienced, indeed.
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Oct 26 2024
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5
A personal favorite.
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Oct 26 2024
View Author
5
Apparently there are two versions of the album, an US and UK version. The Spotify album includes both versions' songs, while also adding three tracks not originally on any of the versions. The US version was better, and the review will focus on the original US version.
This was my first time listening to Hendrix, and I've heard so much about his legendary guitar skills. I was blown away, and the psychedelic fused composition was perfect. His themes are both cosmic and very grounded, with great introspection and the use of clever metaphores.
Best song: The Wind Cries Mary
Worst song: Third Stone From The Sun
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Oct 25 2024
View Author
5
I've heard these songs so many times. Still takes me by surprise that is an album, not a compilation. It must have truly blown minds in 1967. The playing is off the scale. I'm listening to the UK version.
May This Be Love stands out on this listen. Truly excellent.
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Oct 24 2024
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5
Now this is the type of album this list was made for.
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Oct 22 2024
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5
I was nervous going into this album because I was afraid it would fail to live up to the legend and even my memory of listening to it with my dad. I should not have feared. It’s brilliant. It was brilliant, and it still is. It’s raw, but precise. It sounds perfectly done without feeling overproduced. It is rock and psychedelic and real blues. I loved every minute.
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Oct 21 2024
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5
1. Is it tomorrow or just the end of time?
2. I know what I want but I just don’t know
3. Where you’re gonna run to now?
4. My heart burns with feeling
5. Don’t ever change your ways, fall with we for a million days
6. Feel like I’m livin’ at the bottom of a grave
7. Will the wind ever remember the names it has blown in the past?
8. Let me stand next to your fire
9. Your people I do not understand
10. You make me wanna get up and scream
12. Not necessarily stoned but beautiful
13. Stone free to ride the breeze
14. You must be losing you sweet little mind
15. In love or war you can lose your glory
16. You better come home like you supposed to do
17. Kiss you for my supper
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Oct 21 2024
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5
All time classic with banger after banger. Great album!
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Oct 19 2024
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5
Of course I’m experienced ! (I say as a LIE 😈)
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Oct 15 2024
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5
Easily the group's best album. Every song is phenomenal, Hendrix has ample space to showcase his incredible guitar playing and his songwriting abilities.
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Oct 15 2024
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5
Goat 🎸🤘🐐
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Oct 14 2024
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5
So cool. An obvious visionary.
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Oct 13 2024
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5
It's a classic what can you say
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Oct 12 2024
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5
You know, I’ve not traditionally been a Jimi guy - nothing against him, he just wasn’t regularly in my rotation - but I’ve really enjoyed both the albums I’ve got from him so far! Obviously he’s an innovator and virtuoso on the guitar, but I think I’ve learned that people also aren’t talking enough about how his music is FUN. These songs are just fun and catchy! It’s good pop music! I loved this album, I listened to it twice yesterday.
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Oct 11 2024
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5
Wonderful 👍
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Oct 09 2024
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5
One of the best albums ever? Yeah probably
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Oct 07 2024
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5
One of the great guitar albums of all time, and well-structured melodies featuring very few musicians but lots of layers.
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Oct 05 2024
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5
One of the best rock albums of the 60s. Jimi, Noel, and Mitch do Ana amazing job ob their debut. Although it is no Electric Lady land, this is still great and a classic for a reason. RIP Jimi, Noel, and Mitch.
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Oct 05 2024
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5
Two Hendrix albums in a week? Not much else to add since it's all great.
I like this album slightly more than "Electric Ladyland", so I'll give it a half-star over that one.
Twenty-eight stars.
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Oct 05 2024
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5
Days after I gave a shockingly low 2 star rating to Electric Ladyland, this album shows up to set the record straight. This one is a genuine 5 star effort.
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Oct 03 2024
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5
Okay, I don't know anymore which album in Hendrix' discography is my favourite. What's important, is that Jimi is one of the best artists from that era. I'm not planning to listen to his records on a daily basis anymore, but he still holds a special place in my heart. Great album, top 10 on this list.
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Sep 30 2024
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5
This is THE album you must hear before you die. I have been experienced, and I believe everyone should be experienced, and I want to be experienced for the first time again.
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Sep 28 2024
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5
One of the greatest to ever do it. I wish we got more. I love the distortion on here.
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Sep 27 2024
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5
Great album
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Sep 26 2024
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5
Three bushy haired men in psychedelic clothing staring through a fish eye lens, blending through a eye catching combination of yellow and purple. Most people's first impressions of The Jimi Hendrix Experience are of this blasting on record shelves amidst all the other colorful album covers of the period it was released, that fabled year of 1967. And I cannot help but wonder what it was like when the needle hit the groove for the first time as the riff of Purple Haze burst out of the speakers. And everything else that followed tumbled outwards. And onto history. Are You Experienced?, perhaps without complaints, could very well lay claim to being the greatest debut album in rock history in large part due to the magnitude of its aftermath, where the world bore witness to the full fledged bombast of a guitarist who wound up changing everyone's game plan. Alongside the equally important (and game) bassist and drummer in Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, respectively, an unforgettable experience in discovering, forming, playing and globe-trotting still reels in the cultural consciousness nearly sixty years on. Are you experienced? Well, I am.
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Sep 25 2024
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5
Half the tracks on this are amazing, the rest are just really great. Jimi is one of my favourites, but I’ve never seen the albums themselves as flawless. Still gotta give it a 5
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Sep 24 2024
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5
Good
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Sep 21 2024
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5
Perfect pedicure soundtrack today, although it was hard to keep myself from dancing.
Can you imagine this being your debut album? Insane.
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Sep 21 2024
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5
Rock. Truly a classic. I love these albums that are essentially a “greatest hits” collection, just so many good songs from beginning to end. Even the songs I hadn’t heard before sounded stellar. Just perfect.
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Sep 20 2024
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5
I listened to the whole record with such ease as I was doing other things on my laptop but found myself constantly going back to replay some songs from the start as I really enjoyed them.
The guitar playing from Jimi is incredible.
Brilliant album!
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Sep 20 2024
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5
Jimi's album of exclusively bangers.
Spotify has the US version, whereas I am more used to the UK running order.
Got to say the US one works so much better. Red House, Remember and Can You See Me are by no means bad songs, but well, Purple Haze, Hey Joe and the Wind Cries Mary. I mean need I say more. Not just that but it simply flows, waxing and waning at the right time. The UK version has one too many noodley-woodley songs in a row instead of interspersing them with punchy snatches of rock, which has the effect of elevating both.
The US cover art is miles better also.
Sequencing is important!
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Sep 19 2024
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5
Not sure if it's a coincidence to get this one on the anniversary of his death. Incredible album he really is in a totally different level. Purple haze still hits so strongly, as for deep cuts I loved the Wind Cries Mary. Even when the songs blur together it's a really incredible record
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Sep 19 2024
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5
My mind is in a Purple Haze after that Experience. It was Fire.
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Sep 17 2024
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5
Hot take: "Manic Depression" is the greatest waltz of all time.
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Sep 17 2024
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5
Come on man. Giving this anything other than a 5 would be insane. Still not sure if it’s better than electric ladyland (they’re both amazing), but nonetheless it is a GREAT album. Where else can you get such terrific songwriting, guitar playing, and lyrics from one person at such a time? George Harrison, although great himself, could never be on the same level, both guitar-wise and (arguably) lyrically as Hendrix. Eric Clapton did have the guitar prowess but not the same emotional capability of Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix was a huge inspiration to so many and a well respected artist, but still took the time to give a story in every album. Every song. It was personal, and it was inspirational. He took the medium in places few saw possible and ways aspired to be replicated for decades. He was open about drug problems and personal issues up until his death, may he rest in peace. This record specifically is classified as one of the best of all time for a reason. Not a single miss here, though The Wind Cries Mary and Highway Chile are personal favorites. And this album was such a splash in the rock landscape at the time, though psychedelic rock wasn’t unheard of. The likes of the Beatles and Pink Floyd had already played around with it before Hendrix debuted. But there’s a difference: Hendrix kept it alive and fresh. He wasn’t doing it for the sake of something cool, he wanted to challenge the norms of classic rock and make defining statements in music history to be written. The psychedelic rock genre today would be nowhere without Hendrix’s willingness to shape culture in an expertly done way. And that’s what it all comes back to. Sure he changed rock. Sure he checked the artists around him. Sure he made award winning albums. But what it all comes down to is how he did it. Not boastfully, but with the technical mastery and patient skill of a band front runner musicians across all genres and decades would only expect from hundreds of years of experience. So in that sense I guess, Hendrix answered his own question. Are You Experienced? Hell yeah, more experienced than a life time could give.
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Sep 17 2024
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5
My fav so far 💦💦💦💦💦
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Sep 17 2024
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5
Great album - includes classics like Foxey Lady and Purple Haze. Amazing guitar, lyrics, and beats throughout.
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Sep 16 2024
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5
whew that guitar is HAWTT
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Sep 16 2024
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5
This album rocks. Classic albums can be overrated but this hits.
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Sep 13 2024
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5
What a first studio album this is!! It could easily be a greatest hits album. You won’t see a better opening than purple haze, manic depression and Hey Joe. Just brilliant.
So many hits that remind me of going out when I was 18-21 and are the reasons, I love music. Stone Free being the biggest. I love it. Its a 5/5 easily
Favourite song: Manic depression, Stone free
Least favourite: None, all songs are fantastic
Album artwork: Perfect album cover
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Sep 13 2024
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5
How can you give this anything but 5 stars? It’s an iconic album, and top to bottom filled with great songs. As a Seattle Mariners fan, “Fire” will always make me smile since it’s played after every home win. But “Purple Haze” and “Hey Joe” are also fantastic, plus “Are You Experienced?” ends the album on such a different note, while possibly being the most brilliant song on the entire album. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop now and give it 5 stars.
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Sep 12 2024
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5
So many hits on this album, how could it not be a 5?
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Sep 11 2024
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5
his best album 8/10
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Sep 10 2024
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5
A landmark album...
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Sep 09 2024
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5
I am experienced, Jimi!
There's nothing I can say about this album that it can't say for itself, though I would remind people that he was 23 when this album was written and 24 when it was released. Unrivaled.
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Sep 08 2024
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5
I knew sweet FA about Jimi besides Purple Haze and Along The Watchtower, and I'm glad I sat down with this one. Great lyricism and the band as a whole works great while Jim shreds, I Dont Live Today stuck out to me as an album favorite.
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Sep 07 2024
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5
Excellent album. Banger after banger. What a great listen. This is undoubtedly a 5.
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Sep 06 2024
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5
Who do you think I am to say something about this album?
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