0409. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Axis: Bold As Love

Eager to strike while the iron was hot, the label pushed Jimi and the Experience to record another album after Are You Experienced blasted off. Said and done, Axis: Bold As Love was released just eight months later and it's partially clear that it's a rush-job as both mixing and some of the tracks leave something missing.

The backup semi-falsetto singing in Wait Until Tomorrow and She's So Fine is just off and no matter how classic it is, the flute solo in If 6 Was 9 is a whole bit too jittery (and I know you've been all like "you little whiney ass", but bear with me).

Over all this sounds very much like an ordinairy psychedelia album, with one major exception: where their contemporaries had a lot of "groovy" fillers and one good song the Experience lines up Spanish Castle Magic, Castles Made Of Sand and Little Wing (the latter by the way was covered by Derek And The Dominos a couple of years later). All three are near perfect examples of the group's talent and skill.

On the debut, genious at times overshadowed talent, and here it at times got out-manouvered by PR. If they'd got another six months in the studio it could have been pure magic.