Posts Tagged ‘Jimi Hendrix’
Album Review: Jimi Hendrix – “Valleys of Neptune”
Jimi Hendrix’s career was an incandescent flash of light that was snuffed out too soon. His life as a guitar god, from the release of his first album in 1967 to his fourth in 1970, lasted a mere four years before his death at the age of 27.
And yet there have been nine studio albums of Hendrix material posthumously released. In an era where musicians can take upwards of four or five years to release a single album, Hendrix was churning out one a year, with enough unreleased material still in the vault to warrant another release in 2010 – forty years after his death. That is astounding to me, and it really highlights the intense work ethic that drove him throughout his life in music.
Valleys of Neptune is billed as a “brand-new, completely unreleased studio album,” which may be technically true, but in reality, versions of many of these songs have appeared elsewhere, though usually of lesser quality and not easily accessible. To most listeners, these tracks will indeed be new. Valleys was assembled by Experience Hendrix, the estate led by Jimi’s stepsister Janie, and the company deserves credit for not toying with the archived material, but rather presenting it more-or-less how it sounded when it was recorded several decades ago.
Some people have begun to declare that rhythm-based video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are on the way out.
And while it’s no doubt true that they aren’t nearly as popular as they were just a few short years ago (market supersaturation surely hasn’t helped; LEGO Rock Band, seriously?) I can attest that they still offer that same fun experience most people remember about them. Getting two or three buddies together for a night of rocking out with plastic instruments is still a pretty enjoyable evening in my book.
The latest trend in this genre has been the artist-specific titles, like Guitar Hero: Metallica and The Beatles: Rock Band. Well, now Jimi Hendrix, the iconic “guitar hero” himself, will be getting his own pixelated avatar and game this year.
This news comes from Hendrix’s stepsister, Janie Hendrix, who controls Jimi’s estate. She said the Hendrix game will be a Rock Band title and it will be released by the end of this year (my guess would be around Christmas).
Hendrix has music that was made for games like this – classic grooves, killer solos.
It’s also a bit funny that Rock Band managed to land Hendrix, since Guitar Hero has always included the character Xavier Stone (pictured), who in his later incarnations was definitely a Hendrix doppelganger.
-Sam
New Jimi Album
“Look man, you can listen to Jimi, but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference man. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him.”
As we relived the discussion between Sidney Deane and Billy Hoyle in White Men Can’t Jump, we learned about an upcoming Jimi Hendrix album featuring a slew of unreleased studio material.
The new Jimi Hendrix album is slated to be released on March 8th, 2010. It will be titled, “Valleys of Neptune.”
The album will hold some new renditions of previous Jimi tracks, but we’ll also see some covers thrown in there, too. We’ll hear Jimi’s cover of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ by Cream and ‘Bleeding Heart’ by Elmore James.
The track-listing can be found after the jump. continue reading