Jimi Hendrix's third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix's original musical vision at its absolute apex. When revisionist rock critics refer to him as the maker of a generation's mightiest dope music, this is the album they're referring to. But Electric Ladyland is so much more than just background music for chemical intake. Kudos to engineer Eddie Kramer (who supervised the remastering of the original two-track stereo masters for this 1997 reissue on MCA) for taking Hendrix's visions of a soundscape behind his music and giving it all context, experimenting with odd mic techniques, echo, backward tape, flanging, and chorusing, all new techniques at the time, at least the way they're used here. What Hendrix sonically achieved on this record expanded the concept of what could be gotten out of a modern recording studio in much the same manner as Phil Spector had done a decade before with his Wall of Sound. As an album this influential (and as far as influencing a generation of players and beyond, this was his ultimate statement for many), the highlights speak for themselves: "Crosstown Traffic," his reinterpretation of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," the spacy "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)," and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," a landmark in Hendrix's playing

A1        .... And The Gods Made Love
A2        Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
A3        Crosstown Traffic
A4        Voodoo Chile
B1        Little Miss Strange
B2        Long Hot Summer Night
B3        Come On (Part I)
B4        Gypsy Eyes
B5        Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
C1        A Rainy Day, Dream Away
C2        1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
C3        Moon, Turn The Tides...Gently Gently Away
D1        Still Raining, Still Dreaming
D2        House Burning Down
D3        All Along The Watchtower
D4        Voodoo Child (Slight Return)