MORRISON HOTEL

After the apt title The Soft Parade, The Door's flaccid mojo needed some risin', thus the band ditched the horns, strings and epics for a more streamlined rock effort. So the band cranked up the volume a bit and pumped this puppy out in a relatively short time. Armed with a strong opening track, the band got their groove back, if not completely. Jim's ramblings embraced sex, love, drugs, violence and traveling on the road, but the results weren't exactly the film Easy Rider. They were more like Fritz The Cat. In fact, Jim himself came across like Fritz, waxing poetic street philosophy while thriving in debauchery and occasionally losing control of himself and the events around him. Still, there's some seriously good material to enjoy here.

"Roadhouse Blues" alone displayed a renewed vibrancy to the band, more muscle and tighter with a cool Krieger solo to boot. Jim's vocals are alive and animated, being the sort of subject matter he knows about all too well. Nice work by that Lovin' Spoonful guy on harmonica as well. It remains an FM staple for good reason, and its aged better than a lot of their material.

"Waiting For The Sun" is a different animal, but no less excellent. It's a throwback to the album of the same name with its psychedelic flavor and fuzz-toned guitar. This song actually should have been considered for Waiting For The Sun. Bump out the bland "We Should Be So Good Together" and tack this one in and the results would have greatly improved their third album. It balances out the gorgeous mellow verses with acid rock quite well.

The album heads south in quality a bit for "You Make Me Real", which is a decent if average blues number. It does have some energy to it keep this ship afloat.

"Peace Frog" brings back the greatness with its hard funky guitar (love the way the guitar solo begins, sweeeeet) strumming and driving pace. Jim's lyrics are particularly dark here, which continues that funny aspect of The Door's matching depressing lyrics with bouncy happy music ("People Are Strange" being the prime example). The song suddenly segues into "Blue Sunday", which is a pretty enough ballad but in the end hurts the previous track by being literally attached to it.

"Ship Of Fools" and "Land Ho!" are fun songs that again combine the dark with the light, forming two interesting tracks that may not be 'prog' as such, but certainly have creativity and fine musicianship.

"Spy" was a grower. I used to find the song too long and somewhat a bore, but I eventually realized just how creepy this song was, and admired it as a slinky stalking snake of a tune. It's an eerie number with a sense of danger to it.

"Queen Of The Highway" is unfortunately a dud with its corny lyrics and music that screamed 'filler'. Jim sounds a bit tired, battling ennui and generally awkward for this number.

"Indian Summer" is better, an ethereal trippy ballad with a production and Eastern guitar inflections that would have suited their first album quite well. Atmospheric and capped with a top notch vocal delivery, this is one of those little Doors gems I don't hear often but appreciate.

The album ends with "Maggie McGill", another straight up blues rocker with a weathered Jim howling out his "gettin' it on' musings. It's good, but easily the least impressive final cut off any of their albums, which tended to be epic and bombastic.

Morrison Hotel is not their finest moment, but I do consider it one of their better releases, and an important one at that since it gave new life to the band, if for only a short while.