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.

Valleys can be considered a kind of follow-up to 1968’s Electric Ladyland.  Most of the songs on this album were recorded in early 1969, when Hendrix was experiencing a lot of turmoil with his bandmates.  The rhythm section changes from song to song, but really, it’s Jimi we’re all here to see (or hear as it may be).

Unsurprisingly, it’s the songs we are most familiar with that come off as the weakest of this bunch, precisely since we’ve already heard their superior versions.  I’m talking about songs like “Stone Free” and “Fire.”  Perhaps most disappointing, though, is Hendrix’s rendition of Cream’s mega-hit “Sunshine Of Your Love.”  He turns it into a seven minute guitar instrumental which stalls out before it ever really gets going.  “Red House” is one exception.  That’s a pretty well-known Hendrix song, and the version here doesn’t disappoint.

Lesser known cuts like the title track and “Hear My Train A Comin’” are the true pleasures of this disc.  The latter of those songs ramps up just like a distant locomotive approaching the station before busting out on arrival.

The beauty of Valleys is that it lets us hear a lot of deep cuts as they sounded at the time of their inception and in better quality than most people have heard.  Would the songs have changed much if Jimi had lived to see them get a proper release?  No one can know for sure.  But it is an intriguing look at the direction his music may have been heading before he died.

There are no standout songs here in the vein of “Foxy Lady” or “All Along the Watchtower,” but Jimi’s coolly transcendent guitar playing is and that’s a pleasure all its own.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Note: Target is selling an exclusive version of this album which includes two bonus tracks – “Slow Version” and “Trash Man”

-Sam

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

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.

The track-listing for “Valleys of Neptune” is as follows: