Jimi Hendrix faced a daunting challenge when it came time to follow up his astounding 1967 debut Are You Experienced, since it was probably impossible to match the ferocious shock and awe of that mind-blowing album. So he didn’t try. Instead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which also featured Mitch Mitchell (drums) and Noel Redding (bass), became mellower, funkier and more playful on Axis: Bold as Love, pointing the way for Hendrix to explore diverse sonic avenues in the future.
Featuring four CDs, plus one Blu-ray, the fascinating Bold as Love shows how Hendrix avoided what could have become a stylistic straitjacket, albeit a lucrative one, leveraging his newfound fame to bring different sounds to his audience. Two of the discs contain the headphone-friendly stereo mix of the album and the less-heard, Hendrix-sanctioned mono mix. The mono version puts the emphasis squarely on the songs, squashing the dynamic playing to spotlight the material. If a few tunes feel underbaked (“Little Miss Lover,” “Ain’t No Telling”), others are glorious, especially the beautiful ballads “Little Wing” and “One Rainy Wish.” The stereo mix is more satisfying, with guitars panning like a swarm of angry bumblebees to make up for the lesser songs, while the multilayered textures are mesmerizing. The jaunty “Up from the Skies” and the spacey closing track “Bold as Love” find Hendrix and company at peak power.
The other two discs offer 40 tracks of studio takes and live performances, 28 previously unreleased. The studio cuts underscore the hard work the Experience put in to get the correct balance of music and noise, with plenty of intriguing guitar that shows Hendrix’s restless quest for the new. A trio of untitled guitar pieces are especially tantalizing. The live tracks draw primarily from the Are You Experienced repertoire, but also look beyond his sophomore album, previewing the future with “Burning of the Midnight Lamp.”
Two of the three studio albums released in Jimi Hendrix’s lifetime (Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland) have now been given the box set treatment. Will Are You Experienced be next? In the meantime, Bold as Love is a winner.
