5 Essential Jimi Hendrix Albums

Are You Experienced?
The best place to start with Hendrix is his first album with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a band put together by original Animals bassist Chas Chandler to showcase Hendrix’s talents as a guitarist. Hendrix, who had been languishing as a backup guitarist for various R&B groups, was all too eager to have some creative freedom, and his exuberance is very much on display here. This album is loud and raw, but also focused in its blend of blues, soul, and experimental jazz. “Purple Haze” went on to become one of Hendrix’s most memorable songs, and everyone remembers “Foxy Lady” from Wayne’s World (among other things), but less celebrated jams like “Manic Depression” demonstrate that the Experience was something special, too.

Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix fans, and rock music fans in general, absolutely need to own Electric Ladyland. It’s heavier, groovier, noisier, and weirder than just about everything else released in 1968, and it has “Voodoo Chile,” “Gypsy Eyes,” and his cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” on it—three of the best rock songs ever recorded. It’s worth owning for those three songs alone, let alone the awesome deep cuts like “Burning of the Midnight Lamp.” Not only was Electric Ladyland the band’s most ambitious album, it was also their most commercially successful, reaching number one in the charts a month after its release and holding on to that position for two weeks. Sadly, it was also Jimi’s final album with the Experience, but there’s no better swan song in rock ‘n roll than this record.

Miami Pop Festival
Released just two years ago, this album is a recording of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s performance at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (so it’s not just a clever name). Eight of the tracks are from the band’s evening performance, and the final two tracks were recorded during their afternoon set. While a lot of live albums suffer from any combination of bad recording, bad mixing, or bad playing, this album paints a very clear picture of what a dynamic live performer Hendrix was. He and his band play loose and relaxed, but not sloppy; these guys knew where they were going and how to get there, so they weren’t afraid of taking liberties with their material. Along with their better-known songs, “Tax Free” and “Red House” are must-listens.

Band of Gypsys
Hendrix’s sound was stripped down to a three-piece band (consisting of himself, bassist Billy Cox, and Buddy Miles on drums) for this live album, recorded during a performance at the Fillmore East and released in 1970. It would be the last full-length album Jimi released before his death, and while it got mixed reviews from critics at the time, it ended up being a huge influence on the funk music that dominated the 1970s. Not to mention, the anti-violence anthem “Machine Gun” is one of the best songs Hendrix ever wrote, hands down. Without any psychedelic distractions, Jimi’s soul/blues influences come out strong here (especially in “Who Knows”), and his guitar work is much more aggressive thanks to the leaner, nastier rhythm section of Cox and Miles.

Cry of Love
This album, released after Jimi’s death in 1971, is the first of many posthumous Hendrix albums and compilations, and by far the best. At once an album and a tribute, Cry of Love consists of songs Jimi had been working on and recording just prior to his death, and they range from the driving rhythms and tough-guy riffs of “Ezy Rider” and “Astro Man” to the rhapsodic, honey-toned “Night Bird Flying.” These songs are great on their own merits, but they also hint at where Jimi’s music was heading: simpler, less heavy, but also more sinuous and warm than his work with the Experience. For that, it’s a must-own album, and completes the listener’s journey through Hendrix’s creative output. It’s a bittersweet album, but it captures how good Hendrix always was, and where his brilliant career might have headed.