THE DOORS BOX SET

It contains four disks: compiled studio material (both official, that is, taken from the regular studio albums and some demo and never released recordings) and live material.

Live recordings could be described as THE DOORS desperately trying to be a jam band - performing ten minutes long blues pieces and so forth. This is certainly not their best released live material, both performance wise and sound wise. But, if you are DOORS fan you probably know that, because thee are much worse live compillations around. But every fan will always hold a bit of hope in his/hers heart. However, live recording(s) (yes, a big plural) are sometimes interesting, sometimes entertaining, but rarely below par. Of course, there's a bunch of blues covers, an attempt of psychedelic jam and regular Doors' tune workouts.

As for the rest of the material, my attention was caught primarily because of studio recordings: this is where the strength of this box set lies. An excellent (acoustic) alternate take of 'Hyacinth House' and great, great ballad Who Scared You and stomping, masculine, 'Whiskey, Mystics and Men'. These two paved the way for the musical direction of the band in the forthcoming years, alas, they never took that part for known reasons. It's interesting to imagine how the band would sound in the seventies (I mean the band+Kim alive and well), because right on this point they started changing their sound - for good, and for better. Mandolins and accordions inWhiskey. Hammond instead of Vox; bold guitar solo instead of fuzz. What a pity.

The last disc is just a regular compilation of band's tunes, so I would be happy to have this box set without it - and for a fraction of the price, hopefully. However, this compilation disc itself is not bad - the songs were cherry-picked from the bandmembers themselves. At least it's not a hit focused one - there's no 'Hello, I Love You' or 'Touch Me'. Thankfully, we can find 'Peace Frog' (finally!), 'Land Ho!' and 'Shaman's Blues'. Yes, that's THE DOORS we know and love.

In conclusion, this is worth your attention - if you can find it cheaper, which is highly unlikely. Three stars. Perhaps three and a half.

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