THE CRY OF LOVE

This is the first posthumous studio album from Hendrix and definitely the one that is the closest to what Jimi would have liked to be.

There aren't such overdubbing as during later efforts to revive the memory of this great musician (like Douglas or even his sister will do later on). What we have here is almost the album as it would have been released if Jimi would have been still alive.

Most of the titles were achieved, even if some did receive a small edition work; but nothing exaggerated. Like a new drum play during ''Drifting''. Lots of tracks featured here already had a serious life during concerts and can be therefore considered as totally legitimate of his work (''Freedom', ''Easy Ryder'') and to a lesser extent ''Straight Ahead'' and ''In From the Storm''.

One of my fave track on this ''Cry Of Love'' is the fine rock ballad ''Angel''. Some sort of post ''Hey Joe'' kind of tune, full of emotion during the vocal parts (one of his best IMO) it is all sweetness and peace of mind.

I would recommend this album to any Hendrix fan of course, but not only. It is a good release that fully respect the view of the artist before his death. Mitchell did a lot of work to release this album as such (along with Cramer of course).

This is not a masterpiece (I have already mentioned that I far much prefer the live side from the master) but a good album. It is available for cheap on the second-hand Amazon marketplace. A combined CD version also groups this album together with ''War Heroes'' for a decent price. This is a very good option as well.

Three stars (seven out of ten actually).

Viewed by all experts as the legit album following the Gypsies affair , Cry Of Love was more or less finished when Hendrix' untimely death happened. Dropped is the Gypsies or Experience names, Jimi's band consisted of him and Mitch Mitchell (drums) and sometimes the brain- weak army buddy of Billy Cox, but we know that Jimi recorded the bass many times in the studio in lieu of his bassist, Cox being mostly for concert and gigs purposes. I have no idea whether the strange artwork was to be accepted by Jimi, though. On this album, it is mostly short song format between 3:30 and 5 minutes, which unfortunately doesn't leave much room for Jimi's pyrotechnics, but the mastery is exerted in a different manner as he concentrates on serving the verse/chorus song structure.

Starting with the powerful Freedom, filled with outstanding guitar interventions, but it's followed by the slower Drifting where he phases his guitar dreamily, but the track is slightly soporific. Ezy Rider is bizarrely muffled, no doubt intentionally and for experimental purposes. Songs like Night Bird Flying shows us that Jimi was still writing tracks of the same 60's manner, but in this album, they not only sound dated, but anachronic. Closing on a slow blues called My Friend; CoL is not the superb album that was going to make you forget the superb Electric Ladyland album.

The flipside starts on the promising but heard-elsewhere Straight Ahead, while Astro Man is again muffled , Angel being the equivalent of Drifting on it's a-side.. The wilder (all things relative) In From The Storm is one of the few highlight of CoL, while the closing Belly Button blues is ending the album, much the same way My Friend hazd on the other side of the disc.

It's difficult giving this album more than the average/good rating, because of the normal song structures being given priority over the more daring and wilder stuff. Note that this album's title comes from the tour of the same name that took place some 8 months before, but it's not certain Jimi would've called it that.

This was the studio album Jimi Hendrix was working on at the time of his tragic death. Unlike many of his posthumous releases, this one does have a finished and cohesive sound. While it does not have the fire and fury of "Are You Experienced?", it does have some charm as Hendrix shows off quite a bit of soul, funk, and even a touch of jazz in his songwriting and playing.

The best songs on the album are Angel, now one of Hendrix' more famous ballads, and Up From The Storm, a slightly proggy piece. Astro Man starts out kind of silly, with Hendrix quoting the Might Mouse theme song, but turns into quite a nice jam.

While this isn't as good as either of Hendrix' first two albums, it is still a worthwhile album for the guitar aficionato.