STRANGE DAYS

After the outstanding success of THE DOORS' debut album, the record company wasted no time capitalizing on America's answer to the hugely successful British invasion that The Beatles exported. Luckily there was plenty of material to create a hugely awesome followup as the tracks on both albums were all written in the 1965-66 years and were merely sorted out to be released as two albums. I have to admit that in this case Elektra Records did a very good job in segregating these tracks as to provide some sort of momentum from the first album to the second. STRANGE DAYS continues the unique psychedelic rock started on the debut and as with that album continues the excellent poetic talent of Jim Morrison with the fan-damn-tastic arrangements of Ray Manzarek and his unique keyboard runs, Robby Krieger's creative guitar motifs and John Desmore's accompanying percussion. As with the debut Manzarek continues his piano bass but they do include Douglas Lubahn on bass on several tracks making him an unofficial fifth member here replacing Larry Knechtel from the debut.

Like the debut album STRANGE DAYS is just one addictive track after another with zero weak tracks on board. For me there is no difference between the excellent singles "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times" and the other less commercial tracks as "Horse Latitudes" and the proto-prog behemoth "When The Music's Over." All these tracks have the musical mojo to fully captivate me and cast their spell over my listening experience. Although this album failed to perform commercially to the levels of the debut, time has been kind to STRANGE DAYS by allowing it to slowly sink in over the decades. In my book it is the musical equivalent to the debut and could possibly just slink in ever so slightly a notch above it. Since all the material is pretty much of the same caliber and it was all written simultaneously it is really difficult to differentiate it all but on a personal level i just find the material on STRANGE DAYS a pubic hair more satisfying than the debut. There really isn't a lot i can say about THE DOORS as they remain one of the most popular bands in all of rock history. I can only offer my continued praise and admiration for this spectacular band as a music lover who wasn't around at their time. Timeless music this is and i for one cannot foresee a day when THE DOORS and STRANGE DAYS are not every bit as popular and revered as they are now and were at the time of Jim Morrison's living years.