STRANGE DAYS

Strange Days is the second Doors album in one year. Artists had ambitions in those days. It fully delivers on the promise of the debut and due to its consistent quality and its eerie, melancholic, and alienated feel; it easily ranks as my favourite Doors album. I have something of a circus trauma (not the only one here apparently :) and the album art only makes the experience even more scary and unsettling then just the music.

Strange Days and You're Lost Little Girl have that downcast beauty and brooding intensity that has only been equalled since by Joy Division on songs like Heart And Soul. The Doors were obviously a great inspiration on the estranged post punk generation in the 80's. Love Me Two Times lightens up the mood with a playful harpsichord and attractive blues swing. But the slight twist is short-lived. In under 2 minutes, Unhappy Girl has a great contrast between sad lyrics and almost light-hearted circus music. After a bit of deranged poetry, the sublime Moonlight Drive continues Jim's pensive mood, but the music keeps providing that interesting psychedelic counterweight. In just 2 minutes, People Are Strange is both strange and catchy, gloomy and subtle.

The great thing about this album is that it doesn't falter for one second. Also My Eyes Have Seen You and I Can't See Your Face In My Mind continue the high standard quality of this unique music. The closing 11 minutes When The Music's Over proves their grown maturity since the debut album. They deliver a flawless and coherent epic with a well-timed climax that not only shows where Nick Cave got the inspiration for his gloomy epics but it is also the obvious point of attention for prog heads. Where the The End was little more then a stretched out jam, this track has a decisively more composed structure then other early epics like Rondo or Instellar Overdrive. Of course, the basis of the song is still a repetitive blues lick but coming from 1967, this was a huge leap in proggy directions.

The album is relatively short but with all those beautiful little songs there's more hooks and angles to this album then on many products that are twice as long. A landmark of psychedelic rock indeed.