Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
13 tracks, 38 minutes
Spotify · iTunes
Let’s get this out of the way: Hendrix is God tbqfhwy. He’s one of those artists (see also: The Beatles, Robert Johnson) that I know I love, but that I take for granted occasionally for a while until I listen again and get blown away all over again. Every time I listen to Hendrix it just seems to get better and better.
That sort of goes doubly for my relationship with Hendrix, because for some reason I always come to his live albums when I do come back to him, for whatever reason, so the studio albums get left behind. Well, dear reader, don’t make my mistake. This album in particular is just an insane artefact of genius. But you know that already.
It’s not just Jimi’s earth-shattering skill at guitar or the way he presents it, which, considering it’s all over the album, is somehow understated. It’s not the just-the-right amount of psychedelia or blues or avant-garde distortion. It’s not the hundred of takes and retakes and overdubs that somehow sound like you could’ve rocked up at the studio and heard them playing it in one live session. It’s not Mitch Mitchell playing half the album as if he was in a jazz quartet, or Noel Redding’s hilariously terrible singing. It’s not the beautiful (although slightly culturally appropriative) artwork. It’s just all of it coming together, in the right place at the right time – three musicians from different musical and social backgrounds, bouncing off each other perfectly and making magic. Surely the best trio ever…?
Okay, maybe it really is not Noel Redding’s hilariously terrible singing. Leave it to Jimi, come on. Hell of a bass player, though.
If you’ve not listened to Axis: Bold as Love for a while, come back to it and have your mind blown all over again. If you’ve never listened to it…you’re in for a treat.
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