Tuesday, January 3, 2012

93. The Doors

The Doors
The Doors
1967

Tracks
1. Break On Through
2. Soul Kitchen
3. Crystal Ship
4. Twentieth Century Fox
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
6. Light My Fire
7. Back Door Man
8. I Looked At You
9. End Of The Night
10. Take It As It Comes
11. End



Amanda:  I was nervous to listen to this album because I was convinced I would be disappointed.  Lately, the recognizable bands have been pretty awful, mostly because we had such high expectations for them.  However, I was very pleased with this album.  The Doors have a really new sound: a mix of rock and roll, blues, and some psychedelia.  Jim Morrison also put in some crooning as a tribute to Sinatra, which I appreciate.  Usually, debut albums are sub par, but I have rarely heard such a strong, defined sound.  I didn't even mind the lengthy tracks; in fact, they might have been the best in the album (with the possible exception of "Take It as It Comes").


RATING: 5/5

Brie: Rock, blues, jazz.... this album has it all. I had always been familiar with The Doors' hits, but I had never listened to a complete album before. I would have to say that this, in my opinion, is one of the most influential albums in rock music. Ever. By no means does it surpass my love for Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, but it was definitely up there as far as quality goes.

Besides the hits, 'Break On Through (To The Other Side)' and 'Light My Fire', I really liked 'The End' and 'Soul Kitchen'. The keyboarding work throughout the album was just captivating and consuming.

I was blown away by Morrison's beautifully dark poetic lyrics. And I have a feeling if Frank Sinatra would have been a crazy rockstar, he would have sounded just like Jim Morrison. The 1001 Albums book ends its review of this album with "Rock theater starts here". Indeed.

RATING: 5/5

1 comment:

  1. This album has some good songs I hadn't heard before, "I Looked at You" best among them. The overplayed singles were kind of a pain, and way too much of that squealy organ. And they overdubbed bass from a session player on top of keyboard bass on several tracks, it doesn't sound good to me. I liked the jazzy drumming though.

    ReplyDelete