L.A. WOMAN

The Doors unfortunately finish their career of delivering blues rock with a weirdness and creativity that only they could provide. On the plus side, they saved some of their best for last. Even though Morrison's voice had lost some of it's unique power, the Joe Cocker, puke-your-guts-out technique he utilizes here also works quite well. It shouldn't sound so good, but he just has a way of delivering a one-of-a-kind atmosphere to a song.

The Changeling, Love Her Madly. The straightforward, catchy radio hits are good every time. In The Changeling, The Doors go funky. I could just see Morrison doing a James Brown impression.

Been Down So Long, Cars Hiss by My Window, Crawling King Snake. Here the boys move to blues territory, but each of these tunes has a unique Doors signature, from Morrison's gut-wrenching vocals to Mojo's bizarre "wa-waa" ing to Robbie cutting loose a bit on guitar, respectively.

L'america, Hyacinth House, The Wasp. It's good to see they haven't completely forgotten their psychadelic roots. While good, these aren't terribly memorable in my opinion, but they both add a nice variety to the album and give you another glimpse into Morrison's twisted mind.

LA Woman, Riders on the Storm. Here's evidence that The Doors knew how to properly execute an extended piece (their recent track record left some head-scratchers). LA Woman is a classic rock standby, with the highlight being Morrison's anagram vocal building up to a great guitar line. Riders is a mellow yet intense piece, with just fantastic use of dynamics on the keys and tone- setting vocals. Incredible stuff!

A must-have album, especially for Doors fans and/or classic rockers, though there's not enough top-quality, coherent material to make this a masterpiece.