Search - :: Valleys of Neptune

Only 3 Truly *New* Songs On This *New* Album Chips Away 3 St

Christopher Elliott | Corpus Christi, Texas | 03/27/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Let me first say that I really enjoy listening to this CD. It IS good stuff but the major problem I found was the major false advertising on the part of Experience Hendrix and Sony Legacy. They put a big sticker right on the front of the packaging that says "Over 60 Minutes Of Unheard Jimi Hendrix" when that's far from the truth.



What you *actually* get is 1 new track and 2 new instrumental tracks for a total of 3 tracks that are truly *new.* The other 11 tracks are songs that have appeared on another main Hendrix release in the form of another version. Technically you could say that "Crying Blue Rain" is a new song because Jimi says "Yeah" a handful of times on the song but besides that one word, there are no lyrics.



Astonishingly, Experience Hendrix and Sony Legacy took the liberty of actually re-titling some of the songs just to make them appear *new* but anyone who knows many Hendrix tunes will pick up on these.



Below I've listed the track list with two sets of parentheses. The first set of parentheses tells if the song is an alternate version of a released song as well as clarifies if it was re-tilted and which song it actually is. The second set of parentheses tells which Hendrix album the song appeared on.



1 - Stone Free (Alternate Version Of Song)(Are You Experienced?)

2 - Valleys Of Neptune (New Song)

3 - Bleeding Heart (Alternate Version)(South Saturn Delta)&(Blues)

4 - Hear My Train A Comin' (Alternate Version)(Blues)

5 - Mr. Bad Luck (Alternate Version Of Look Over Yonder Just Re-titled)(South Saturn Delta)

6 - Sunshine Of Your Love (New Instrumental)

7 - Lover Man (Alternate Version)(South Saturn Delta)

8 - Ships Passing In The Night (Alternate Version Of Night Bird Flying Just Re-titled)(First Rays Of The New Rising Sun)

9 - Fire (Alternate Version)(Are You Experienced?)

10 - Red House (Alternate Version)(Blues)

11 - Lullaby For Summer (Alternate Instrumental Version Of Ezy Ryder Just Re-titled)(First Rays Of The New Rising Sun)

12 - Crying Blue Rain (New Song)

13 - Slow Version (Available On Hear My Music From Experience Hendrix/Dagger Records)

14 - Trash Man (Available On Hear My Music From Experience Hendrix/Dagger Records)



Now, I can hear the die hards already saying "This is new Hendrix man, these are studio recordings." I agree with that to an extent. However, regardless is this is "Jimi" stuff or not, false advertising is false advertising.



When you buy "Over 60 Minutes Of Unheard Jimi Hendrix" music, and you've *heard* 11 of the 14 songs on various other Hendrix albums, that's an issue. Experience Hendrix knows much better than doing what they've done with this "new" album, which is demonstrated by their release of the albums South Saturn Delta and First Rays Of The New Rising Sun which really DID include new tracks.



It appeared when they released South Saturn Delta and First Rays Of The New Rising Sun that they were attempting to clean up the scattering of releases that chopped up all of Jimi's work after his passing which I applaud.



Instead of being billed as a new *album*, Valleys Of Neptune should have been accurately billed as *studio sessions & alternate takes* with a couple of bonus tracks to account for the 2-3 new songs. Another accurate way to think of this disc is as if it were one of the discs from the 4 disc, Jimi Hendrix Experience Boxed set which had alternate versions of songs with a couple of new tracks sprinkled on each disc.



Again, I do love this CD. If properly advertised, I would have had no problem giving this release 4 solid stars, possibly 5. I am keeping it and playing the heck out of it...this is great music and is a great disc.



Hopefully Experience Hendrix has a quality control team that reads market reactions such as these reviews on Amazon and will take this information to heart and properly advertise their releases from now on and hopefully we'll get a real album of new material because it does exist."