MORRISON HOTEL

Apparently this album is being dealt a bit of a disservice. In my (highly personal) opinion the finest album The Doors ever produced, Morrison Hotel is a massive, boiling pot of music that easily transcends the admitted lull the band was experiencing with their previous two albums. Here the band sounds reinvigorated, lush and experimental, drifting closer to a mainline blues aesthetic while delving into fresh psychedelic territory. Roadhouse Blues, The Spy, Maggie Mcgill, and Blue Sunday all hint at the band's gradual transition from brief pop/psych balladry to the unequaled rasp of blues on their final release; Peace Frog, Waiting for the Sun, Ship of Fools, and Land Ho! are pure experimental delights, delving into haunting imagery, unusual time signatures and featuring some fantastic lyrical compositions by both Krieger and Morrison. Looming over the album is Jim's voice, arguably in better condition here than on any other Doors release: seasoned without being broken, impassioned without any sense of affectation. Despite the immense tensions the band was experiencing at the time, jazz, blues, psychedelia, and pure rock have rarely combined to form such a satisfying whole.