RATING: RRRR
LABEL: Sony Music
Review By: Martien Koolen
Jimi Hendrix was and will always be the BEST guitar player ever, no guitar picker ever reached or will reach his level of guitarplaying. I have almost all his albums, legal, illegal, bootlegs, you name it and I have it; so I was really looking forward to this "new" album, as I really loved his 2010 album Valleys Of Neptune. People, Hell and Angels is Jimi's "new" album, featuring twelve never before released studio recordings and showcases Jimi's work outside the original Jimi Hendrix Experience.
As a Hendrix afficianado I already know seven of the twelve songs and that is one of the reasons that I am a little bit disappointed in this album. Songs like Earth Blues, Somewhere, Hear My Train A Comin', Bleeding Heart, Izabella, Crash Landing and Hey Gypsy Boy (which is in fact Hey Baby) can already be heard on albums like War Heroes, Crash Landing, Cry Of Love and Rainbow Bridge. I must admit that the versions on this album are not the same as on the beforementioned albums, but still, the best version of Hear My Train A Comin' can still be heard on the superb live album Band Of Gypsys. But the unknown songs on this album are really worth buying this album anyway. Especially Easy Blues, an almost six minutes long instrumental track shows Jimi at his best, but Inside Out is also a rather unkown but magical Hendrix song; while the last song Villanova Junction Blues is just too short (1:48) to really enjoy.
Sadly there are also two missers on this album, or should I say Hendrix unworthy... Namely Let Me Move You, a funky soul track which is completely ruined due to the saxophonesolos of a guy named Lonnie Youngblood! In my humble opinion Jimi's breathtaking guitarplaying do NOT mix with saxophone solos!! The other rather redundant song on this album is called Mojo Man, featuring singer Albert Allen, while the song also contains piano and horns!!! Again this is a combination which I cannot really appreciate in Hendrix's music. But overall I am quite happy with the album, so that the music of the best guitar player ever will never seize to amaze its audience. Best song without any doubt: Easy Blues, and play at maximum volume, please!!
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