Axis: Bold as Love

The guitar of course is immaculate, it being Jimi Hendrix. Some of it is like the jazzy end of soul, some just blistering rock guitar. And of course there are a couple of great, familiar songs, “Little Wing” and especially “Castles Made of Sand.” This is good road trip music - just buzzing along the highway, the drums rolling along with the wheels.

No sé si será su disco más tranquilo, pero no tiene ningún bombazo rock. Aún así se disfruta bastante y creo notar influencias en mil bandas posteriores que igualmente me gustan. Me guardo: Wait until tomorrow, Little wing, Castles made of sand y One rainy wish. Es un 3,5.

Hendrix made a lot of great songs, but unfortunately very few of them are on this album. For me, Axis too often falls into the worst excesses of psych rock where the band are just jamming out with little care for any kind of structure, but also not coming up with anything particularly interesting musically to make it worthwhile. It's the sort of album where everything between the highlights quickly vanishes from your mind the moment you finish listening to it. The highlights here are pretty good though, at least.

Favourite Tracks: Little Wing, Spanish Castle Magic, If Six Was Nine

Couple hits and misses. Jimi was ahead of his time.

not as much of a Hendrix fan as I though I was....

Ik geef 4 sterren omdat Axis niet zo sterk is als AYE en Electric Ladyland. Het is gewoon wat inconsistent vergeleken met die twee andere platen. Bold As Love is wat mij betreft wel absoluut het beste Hendrix nummer, een ongelooflijke afsluiter.

album feels a bit clunky despite the short run time of 39 mins, which is not good for any album. I do enjoy Hendrix's work though but probably my least fav album from him. I prefer his harder rock songs to the softer R&B ones. Still glad I checked it out would rate around 3 to 3.5 stars

lots of jams on this one

I have an aversion to bluesy, funky rock music, even small traces have me coming out in hives. As a result I much prefer the second half of this record, which settles into some very assertive psych-rock. Little Wing, which certainly caught the ear of middle era Pink Floyd, is particularly good. The second half is so much more my thing in fact that I have to go back to the beginning to remind myself just how much I dislike the start of the record in comparison.

the good here is very good, some genuine classics, but it's about half filler. i might have been more impressed if it weren't so prestigious but the curse of high expectations had me feeling a bit underwhelmed. definitely deserves its place on the list for cultural importance but i probably won't listen to the full thing again

highlights: spanish castle magic, little wing, if 6 was 9, castles made of sand, one rainy wish, bold as love. no surprises here

would be an easy 3.5 if we could do half stars

Good album but arguably worse than the one before and the one after it.

Es ist ein Album voller Ideen, aber nicht jedes davon zündet. Hendrix’ Gitarrenspiel ist natürlich überragend, doch die Platte wirkt oft wie ein Übergangswerk: weniger roh als Are You Experienced, aber auch nicht so visionär wie Electric Ladyland. Viele Songs schweben im psychedelischen Wohlklang, ohne echten Druck oder Fokus.

This is an excellent album! I had heard a couple of the songs, but never the whole album. This one doesn't really have any of his more famous hits, like Hey Joe, or All Along the Watchtower, but it equally good in a mellower, more introspective sort of way, if that makes sense. Excellent album, and I'm glad it's on the list.

A decent version of what is not really my thing. Love Little Wing though. Perfect song.

i guess this was my first Jimi Hendrix Album ever. Mostly good stuff

Music I admire more than I enjoy….it should be on this list, but it’s not for me.

My loss I suspect.

3

I had already listened to this album, although I'm not a huge Hendrix fan (at least, not until now). I think "Spanish Castle Magic", "Castles Made of Sand" and, especially, "Little Wing" (greatest guitar intro ever?) are very good. I also enjoyed "Up From The Skies" (especially the lyrics), "Wait Until Tomorrow", "One Rainy Wish", or "Bold as Love". This is a solid 4 star album for me. Actually, 5 stars are not completely out of the conversation.

It would have been fun live. Unstructured and unformed here. Perhaps too soon after previous lp?

Axis: Bold As Love is just an incredibly colorful, fully realised psychedelic trip. It feels like such a huge step up in songwriting and studio experimentation from his debut. Some people might say it gets overshadowed by his other big records or that the jams get a bit self-indulgent, but I honestly think this is his most melodic and balanced album.

The versatility here is just mind-blowing. It swings effortlessly from the heavy, proto-metal riffs of "Spanish Castle Magic" and the funky chaos of "If 6 Was 9" right into the beautiful, soulful vibes of "Little Wing" and "Castles Made of Sand". Sure, some might see the weird "EXP" intro or Noel Redding’s vocal track as a bit of filler, but that barely touches the overall magic. It’s a perfect 40-minute masterclass that shows Hendrix wasn't just a guitar god, but a straight-up visionary artist.

Guitar doesn't get much better than this.