VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE

In this day & age, the marvels of modern business enterprise give the dedicated fan a treasure trove of heretofore unknown recordings from our musical idols. DVDs, concerts, box sets, many provide a music fan like me with new music from my idols who no longer record or tour, or exist for that matter.

Unfortunately, that also means releases like Valley of Neptune. Alternate versions, out-takes, incomplete recordings finished up & filled out with overdubs many years later .

Even the recent series of "new" Jimi releases give pause to the many of his fans. First the titles all seem to play on the man's "psychedelic shaman mystic" image - Voodoo Soup, First Rays of the New Rising Sun, South Saturn Delta - they seem creations of a marketing dept rather than an inspired artistic phrase.<>

But, these concerns are irrelevant to the music. Except that the music itself comes across just as tired, and it's not hard to see why Hendrix didn't put out much of this stuff while he was alive. Yes, the unfinished songs are interesting, but the finished product can not be said to fulfill the guitarist's vision. Because he ain't here to say or do so.

Soooo ... if you're among the hard core of Jimi's fans, this will interest you. And you can rest assured that there's still more to come. But if you're like me, you didn't need to hear very inferior versions of songs like Stone Free or Fire that add nothing to the original , not musically or historically. And you don't need to hear the unreleased stuff that makes you think a great artist like Hendrix wrote and sang more crappy music than good or great. As a comparison, The Beatles anthologies did so. This album, Valley of Neptune does not.<>

And in the end, I play this music, and I'm left thinking that if you look at Jimi's whole output, the quality has been tilting wildly to the bad . Please , to those who run his estate, a higher level of quality control, and less artistic license (re-recordings, adding parts by other musicians) is what you have to look at if you say you're looking after the Hendrix legacy and reputation. And this release is not something that elevates Jimi's standing as a great musician. <>

Stay away unless you can't get enough of him. For the rest of us, the old albums are worthy of our time. <>