Jimi Hendrix – Valleys Of Neptune
by Scott Lyson
Glancing at the tracklisting for “Valleys of Neptune” gave me the impression that this latest release of Jimi Hendrix material might not be worth getting excited about. Familiar songs like “Stone Free,” “Red House,” “Sunshine of Your Love,” and “Fire” comprise nearly half of the 12-track album. Nevertheless, one day I stumbled upon a link to the music video of the title track, quickly clicked on the link, and was instantly impressed with the freshness of hearing a new studio track from Hendrix. Straight away you know this album is about representing some great material. Everyone knows about his ability to play a guitar, but perhaps that overshadows his ability to write tight songs.
The album kicks off with the rolling “Stone Free.” The vocals and guitar keep a constant flow and move the song along nicely until it slows down briefly and the jumps into a short solo, peaks, and then continues to roll on and eventually quiets down and fades out. “Valleys of Neptune” keeps the impression of flowing movement and the track accentuates the fact that Hendrix always had two voices, his vocals and his guitar. Accompanying Hendrix on most of the tracks are just bass and drums. Noel Redding and Billy Cox split time on bass and Mitch Mitchell plays drums throughout. The musicians always provide solid grooves for Hendrix to play with.
After some thick rhythm playing during the Elmore Leonard cover (Bleeding Heart), it wraps with an appropriate bluesy solo, with Hendrix and his band gelling nicely. Things slow down a little bit, but the blues picks up in “Hear My Train a Comin.’” There are moments of scat singing as the lyrics are spread throughout the seven and a half minute song, and the laid back riffs occasionally burst through with some heavy licks. Things continue to move smoothly and before you know it the track is over and it’s on to a swift, rock number in “Mr. Bad Luck.”
The midpoint in the album is the cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.” This version is an instrumental version of the song and is held together by that infamous riff. The song moves around quite a bit. After an intensified opening, Hendrix solos around, including some wah-wah, and then slows down into playing a chunky rhythm in the middle, slowing things down quite a bit. The instrumental slowly builds back up into the riff and after some restrained playing and a brief moment of near-silence, the band rocks the song out very much like the Cream original, with Hendrix adding some wah-wah in the mix. “Lover Man” is the next track and seems a bit extraneous, as it seems like a summation of all the previous tracks on the album. A minute of instrumental intro, a short passage of lyrics, and concludes with some wah-wah guitar. “Ships Passing Through the Night” provides a little variety and “Fire” is what it is, it provides a little kick before what I think is the killer track on the album.
The version of “Red House” I’m most familiar with is not much more than three minutes in length. The version presented here is a much slower, eight plus minutes. It starts slowly but builds up nicely into some passionate blues licks and even at eight minutes the song is over much too quickly. Two instrumental tracks round out the album. “Lullaby for the Summer” is an uptempo piece, whilst “Crying Blue Rain” is much more soft and much more relaxed guitar playing at the start, but builds in momentum, eventually fading out the album.
This release is a fresh-sounding album of work, but it lacks in variety and could use a bit more bite. As a whole, it moves along quite nicely and there is no shortage of great guitar work. There are two more live instrumental performances on the iTunes and Target releases that do provide some of the bite that is missing in the studio tracks. An interesting collection of songs, to say the least, from one of the most influential rock guitarists ever.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
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