Jimi Hendrix's unfinished fourth studio album

The American musician Jimi Hendrix intended to release his fourth studio album as a double or triple LP before Christmas 1970. From June to August 1970, he made good progress on the realization of the planned album in his new Electric Lady Studios. Many songs were mixed on 20, 22 and 24 August. Four of these mixes were regarded as definitive versions and were presented at the opening party of Electric Lady on 26 August. Hendrix died on 18 September that year, leaving behind an enormous number of unreleased recordings in various stages of completion. It is impossible to know what Hendrix would have changed and what he actually would have released, but there is some documentation of the album configurations he had in mind. While a good amount of the designated tracks only needed some finishing touches, others only existed as rough recordings, and for some titles no recordings are known to exist. The Cry of Love (1971), Voodoo Soup (1995) and First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997) are officially released attempts to reconstruct the planned album. First Rays of the New Rising Sun is usually regarded as closest to Hendrix's vision, but features a track that was probably never part of Hendrix's plans and omits some tracks that were definitely considered. The 2024 box set Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision contains 38 previously unreleased tracks from the album sessions and a 5.1 surround mix of First Rays of the New Rising Sun with 3 bonus tracks.[1] Most tracks that are known to have been considered for the album have eventually been released in some form or other, except for a few unfinished and unidentified titles.

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