264. ELECTRIC LADYLAND by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

It's taken me until now to feature a record by Jimi Hendrix, one of my favorite guitarists, probably because he only released three true studio albums and they're all great - how does one choose? Well, I finally bit the bullet and decided on 1968's Electric Ladyland, Jimi's last record. This double album (listed as being produced solely by Jimi, but that's debatable) spans multiple genres including slow blues, psychedelic rock, rock and others. Most of the tracks are Jimi originals, though there are a couple covers, one of which I'll be recommending below. Jimi's production is all over the place and I think that's one of the reasons that drew me to covering this record over his other two.

First off, I'd suggest listening to Jimi's cover of Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower.' Is there any other song where the cover is so much better than the original? Next I'd move on to the also familiar to millions track 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return).' This and the Dylan cover have probably received the most radio play (and streams) off this album over the years. For my final two suggestions, I'm sorry not sorry for putting '1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)' and 'Voodoo Chile' on this list, the reason being that this just bought you an additional 29 minutes of listening spread over just these two tracks. But, they are a must listen so that you can get a sense of Jimi's range of styles, from the psychedelia of the former to the absolute blues masterpiece of the latter. Fun fact - 'Voodoo Chile' features Steve Winwood (at the time part of the band Traffic) on organ and Jack Casady (from Jefferson Airplane) on bass.