We are thrilled to review Jimi Hendrix's new album for 2010, Valleys Of Neptune. But what is especially thrilling is to come right out with the startling fact that one of the best albums of 2010 was recorded 40 years ago.

Painstakingly curated and produced by engineer/producer Eddie Kramer, John McDermott and Janie Hendrix, Valleys Of Neptune includes more than 60 minutes of music never commercially available on a Jimi Hendrix album, and it's a vital addition to the artist's astonishing catalogue.

To listen to Jimi Hendrix is a sensation that never gets old. As it is in all art forms, or even sports for that matter, witnessing fantastically gifted people, wound up and at the peak of their powers and displaying feats of magic that we can only marvel at, fills the senses with all kinds of possibilities.

Hendrix was one of those such people. He caressed his guitar strings with the same flair that Picasso wielded a paintbrush, and even when his attack was intense and brutal, he had a way of making every note seem like inspired improvisation. In his hands, a guitar was a shape-shifting instrument of change, and Valleys Of Neptune proves this from beginning to end…