Rock rarely sounds this good, I mean it, like RARELY. There's nothing clean about it, it's just an absolute cacophony of varied guitar tones, highly complementary backing players, and dizzyingly abstract and hazy lyrics (that are very much reflective of the time). Calling Hendrix a great guitar player is useless, you can't describe this shit, you just have to listen to it. The thing is I've listened to this before, and maybe I was just an idiot, but I didn't get it. Actually, I can say for a fact I was an idiot. Maybe it was because Jimi Hendrix was hyped up to be such an incredible guitar player that when I heard this (And the equally incredible "Are you Experienced") initially, I didn't get the aficionado, lightning-speed guitar playing my naive ears expected. Instead what I get here is pure electricity, numbing and fuzzy guitar tones that are so sharp and piercing. Distortion and feedback are the name of the game here with chords and sounds that blend seamlessly. The entire album has this insatiable live energy to it. I can't stress enough how much the dustiness of the rougher recording here works to this album's benefit. The song "Voodoo Chile" is this album's early masterpiece. The organ is so absolutely piercing and the drums pack such a deep punch. The song goes the distance in terms of length. It's like the band is trying to start a fire by solely using the friction between their instruments. It's like throughout its runtime, the fire blazes and then calms and goes out only to be ignited again. It's this up-and-down sequencing that makes this one track such a masterpiece. While this monster of a track is more than worth a mention, the shorter and more immediate tracks bring all the same fire. "Crosstown Traffic" is insanely hard. I love the syncopated singing and guitar line. At least that's what it sounds like and if that's not the case, then paint me even more impressed. "Little Miss Strange" has one of the most loveable basslines by Noel Redding. It's just worth mentioning that with each one of these "small" tracks, Hendrix's guitar playing takes on a new form. "Long Hot Summer" is laid back to the core and it's these songs that shine a light on the more psychedelic, pot-smoking, sounds of this album. I enjoy the vocal effects on Hendrix's vocals in the latter part of the drug-induced love song "Gypsy Eyes". This is one of my favorite-sounding songs, the strange panning and cutting must've been mind-blowing for the time (and kind of still is). The following "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" manages to sound like a horrifying inebriated fever dream while also sounding utterly serene. I love the chord progression on the organs during the little rifts in sound. The bassline and psychedelic guitar pairing in the middle of "1983..." perfectly capture the feelings of escape that Hendrix yearns for on this track. It also subtly matches the sub-aquatic theme the song hints at. "House Burning Down" is probably the most immediate and catchy song here. I have to mention "All Along the Watchtower", the Bob Dylan cover that introduced me to Hendrix. I always found the song's apocalyptic depictions of uncertainty to be mesmerizing. I always pictured the two characters here standing on a rampart (or watchtower I guess) of a large castle gazing into the oncoming danger in the distance while bickering about it rather than taking any sort of action. Hendrix does this song more than justice, with an incredible psychedelic passage nearing the end and an explosive finish. It's one of the greatest songs ever. I can't put into words how much I just adore the sounds of this album. Hendrix's talk-sing vocals complement the noisier moments here. The way his vocals get drowned out on a song like "Voodoo Chile" only makes everything seem more explosive. I think this album's cover perfectly sums up what you get here; a grainy, blurred, skin-peeling fire-red experience that you'll never forget.