STRANGE DAYS

No such thing as sophomore slump for the Doors - if anything, this is even more confident and assured than their debut. Many of the songs here were considered for inclusion on the first album but held back, and the extra work in that time has clearly served them well. "Strange" is the name of the game here - from Morrison's plaintive cry of "People are strange, when you're a stranger" in People Are Strange to the swirling organ of the title track, weirdness, isolation, and alienation are the themes of the album, and the Doors' dark, brooding sound is the perfect vehicle for that. Morrison's spoken word piece Horse Latitudes as a short piece which shouldn't really work that does, the backing sound effects and Morrison's impassioned delivery building tension brilliantly before the band breaks into the wonderful Moonlight Drive. And Rob Krieger's furious guitar combines wonderfully with Manzarek's driving piano in the furious My Eyes Have Seen You, easily matching Morrison for raw fury.

The album closes with another epic, When the Music's Over, isn't as well-known as The End (probably because it never appeared in Apocalypse Now), but it's no less powerful. Even though it - like the rest of the album - is going over the same territory to some extent, it's enough of an improvement over the band's first attempts to be well worth the second try. The whole album, in fact, accomplishes all the promise of the first album and more besides. Five stars.