Another decade, another repackaged Hendrix compilation; but like the Beatles and the Doors, his music has a timeless quality perfect for younger generations to rediscover time and time again. Voodoo Child covers the best of his studio work and live performances recorded over the four years in the run-up to his untimely death in 1970. As with many of the previous "best of" collections, CD 1 (the studio side) is packed heavily with the instant pop hits of his debut Are You Experienced with only a handful of hits from his subsequent two "proper" albums. All the usual big names are here, "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe", "Crosstown Traffic", "Voodoo Child" etc. but tacked on the end are some of his finer low-key moments, such as the soulful funk of "Izabella", the epic theme to his Rainbow Bridge film, "Hey Baby" and the sublime space-rocking car ad "Third Stone from the Sun". CD 2 is collected from his numerous live albums and includes some defining moments in the guitarists brief history such as the passionate political thriller "Machine Gun" with his Band of Gypsies; mammoth blues romp "Hear My Train a Comin'"; the now legendary version of him tearing through "Wild Thing" at Monterey and of course his signature tune, the "Star Spangled Banner" Live at Woodstock. Being such a prolific writer, performer and recording artist it will always be difficult to cram his best work into two discs but Voodoo Child serves as a more than adequate introduction to one of the greatest rock icons in history, with no glaring omissions (apart from the bold decision not to include the studio "Foxey Lady") or unworthy inclusions to upset his many disciples. -David Trueman.

Clapton had already established himself as a guitar legend by the time he released Slowhand. His heroin habit long behind him, Clapton's songwriting mastery was fully evident on the album, particularly in the stunning ballad "Wonderful Tonight". It fully actualised all of the potential hinted at in his earlier "Promises", and Clapton trusted himself enough to slow things down. Some of his most expressive guitar work can be found throughout this album, not just within "Wonderful". Ironically enough, Slowhand is probably best known for the hit "Cocaine"-built upon a simple repeated riff, the song had Clapton's trademark smooth voice with its wear around the edges, and yet another stellar guitar solo. Flashy runs and licks were never the most integral part of Clapton's catalogue, his blues background being the primary source for his sound. Slowhand, with its phrasings, both guitar and vocal, established Clapton as the possessor of one of the most extensive vocabularies in rock. -Steve Gdula.

The Cream of Eric Clapton still manages to raise its head as Slowhand's definitive greatest-hits package, despite umpteen albums and an armful of Grammys since its release in 1987. Opening with one of the most famous rock intros ever, "Layla" has been the envy of bedroom guitarists for the last three decades. Next up is a choice selection of Cream's finest with hits such as "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" plus the breakneck blues of "Crossroads" as a reminder of what Clapton did before his period of substandard covers, such as Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" or JJ Cale's "Cocaine". The latter half of the album is not up to par with the incredible start but does redeem itself with the beautiful ode to love, "Wonderful Tonight" and the chicken-picking "Lay Down Sally", though with its vague chronological order, The Cream of Eric Clapton does slowly regress into the tired ground of a rock dinosaur. -Georgina Collins.

As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced? unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shake-ups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just Hendrix's virtuosic skill as a pure player that was so impressive; it was, even more, the range and scope of sheer sound that he coaxed, cajoled and ripped out of his instrument. "Purple Haze", "Manic Depression" and "I Don't Live Today" filled ears with indelible sonic images and songs like "Foxey Lady" and "Fire" pointed the way toward a new brand of rock-charged soul music. And how about a hand for drummer Mitch Mitchell? -Billy Altman.

Predictably, given the drug problems which preceded its release, Clapton's second solo album proper seems to come and go in an opium haze of its own making. Oddly though, it suits him. As the history of rock attests, if you're going to get into one hard drug then you may as well make it heroin. Whereas cocaine feeds the ego and destroys judgement, heroin sublimates it and allows the artist to regress into his music. Which pretty much describes where 461 Ocean Boulevard is at. Because tracks like "Steady Rollin' Man" and US chart topper "I Shot The Sheriff" sound like they have all the time in the world, they make light work of putting the listener in a similar frame of mind. Best of all though is "Let It Grow", for many the kind of tender, foetal balladry which finds Clapton at his most quintessential. Inevitably, he cleaned up his act and sporadically attained similar heights. But for sheer mood and sense of moment, 461 Ocean Boulevard remains his masterpiece. -Peter Paphides.

Like the guy in Spinal Tap, Gary Moore has an amp that goes up to 11, and at times during the two and half hours of The Best Of The Blues you wonder if it's stuck there. Luckily episodes of thunder and lightning are interspersed with performances like "Still Got The Blues", "Need Your Love So Bad" and "Midnight Blues" on the first disc of this 2-CD set, or "Cold, Cold Feeling" on the second-calmer passages where the storm clouds yield to shafts of silver light. Disc 1 is a selection from four early-90s albums (Still Got The Blues, After Hours, Blues Alive and Blues For Greeny), with guest-spots by Albert King, B. B. King and Albert Collins, plus a concert recording of "Parisienne Walkways". Disc 2 has the same guests (though on different songs) and half-a-dozen of the same titles, but this is all unissued concert material. Live performance only stimulates Moore's tendency to skip the foreplay, producing music that is urgent, active and seething with testosterone. Great stuff for a night in with the lads. -Tony Russell.

Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix's second album, doesn't resonate through rock history the way its gatecrashing predecessor, Are You Experienced? did. In places, it almost seems as if Hendrix is cruising, albeit sublimely. Yet it's nonetheless a vital album, containing some of rock's most molten milestones. There's the fluid psychedelia of "Castles in The Sand", the viciously funky "Little Miss Lover" and the so-beautiful-it-hurts "Little Wing. " Hendrix really hits altitude with "If 6 Was 9", where he waves his "freak flag high" over a tidal wave of guitar and a cacophonous army of Moroccan flutes-and "Bold As Love", based around Hendrix's typically far-fetched hankering for the axis of the planet to be tilted, thereby transforming life on earth. It works up into a head-melting frenzy of distorted guitar, a precursor to the staggeringly expansive leap forward he would take with 1968's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix dreamed the impossible and achieved it on his guitar. -David Stubbs.

If it's true that songwriters have a vision in their head of what their dream album would be, Electric Ladyland was the project Jimi Hendrix hoped would be as close to perfection as possible. No longer content with the rush-recorded psychedelic pop-rock of Experienced and Axis, Ladyland was an exploration of what could be achieved with time, money and experience. Jimi's soul roots from his session days shine through for the first time with the laid-back groove of the title track and the doo-woppy "Long Hot Summer Night" showing a vocal style reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield. It's hard to pick a standout piece as the quality of the album is so high, but the four-part dream segue of "Rainy Day", "1983", "Moon Turn the Tides" and "Still Raining" is a monumental piece of early prog rock continuing the acid-soaked ideal of extraterrestrials, love, peace and war that he started earlier on with "Third Stone from the Sun". However, it's not all spectacular drawn-out blues jams and sublime soundscapes, Electric Ladyland managed to produce Jimi's only UK No. 1 single, "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" plus the timeless classics "Crosstown Traffic" and "All Along the Watchtower" making it arguably the best studio album the Experience produced in their brief career together. -David Trueman.

Clapton caught the "unplugged" trend just at the right time, when the public was hungry to hear how well rock stars and their material could hold up when stripped of elaborate production values. Clapton himself seemed baffled by the phenomenon, especially when picking up the armload of Grammys Unplugged earned him, including Record and Song of the Year for "Tears in Heaven", the heart-rending elegy to his young son, Conor. That song and a reworked version of "Layla" got most of the attention, but the rest of the album has fine versions of acoustic blues numbers such as "Malted Milk", "Rollin' & Tumblin' and "Before You Accuse Me" that make it worth investigating further. -Daniel Durchholz.

After the disorganised and often unlistenable Alan Douglas-produced reissues in the 1970s and '80s, MCA has been releasing the vast Hendrix archives in an intelligent and methodical manner. Blues is a perfect example, making the case that-on top of everything else-Jimi Hendrix was one fine blues guitarist. Combining the fluid lines of B. B. King with the spikiness of Hubert Sumlin and the crying tone of Elmore James with his usual synapse-frying intensity, Hendrix manages to both honour the music tradition while remaining uniquely himself. These studio outtakes and warm-ups (plus one previously released track, the magnificent "Hear My Train a Comin'") include a playful "Mannish Boy", the slow burn of "Once I Had A Woman" and a metallic "Bleeding Heart". -Steven Mirkin.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience only recorded for the BBC over a two-year period, and from the tracks assembled on this two-disc set, it sounds like their on-air appearances were a constant struggle between what the Beeb wanted-for them to play their songs and be done-and what Jimi wanted, which was to mess with whatever it was the Beeb wanted. Sometimes, that took the form of jamming (as on two tracks with Stevie Wonder improbably playing drums); sometimes, it was peculiar covers (like "Day Tripper" and "Sunshine of Your Love"). Jimi's playing is, of course, impeccable, though the sonics of the set leave something to be desired, and it gets a bit repetitive-three versions of "Hey Joe"? -Douglas Wolk.

Tired of the showboating image that his early live performances had saddled him with-and that his black audience viewed as demeaning and degrading to his musical talent-Hendrix dissolved his Experience in 1969 in search of a more terra-firma-grounded, blues-oriented persona. On New Year's Eve, Hendrix, his old Army buddy bassist Billy Cox, and ex-Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles performed a loose, jam-filled set at New York's Fillmore East (completists will want the panoramic though uneven Live at the Fillmore East). Released a few months after his New Year's Eve 1969 concert, Band of Gypsies underscored Hendrix's desired return to basics-even if his basic was at a level most guitarists could never attain in a lifetime of playing. -Billy Altman.