THE SOFT PARADE

Generally considered as the weakest studio album by THE DOORS, "The Soft Parade" is really unessential. Major change in production style and introduction of orchestral and brass arrangements did not help the album's success. Although it did contain two mega hits, "Touch Me" and "Wild Child", this album is largely dismissed even by die-hard Doors fans. However, there are two highlights: Morrison's lyrical obsession with shamanism paired with wonderful Krieger's slide guitar licks in "Shaman's Blues"; and prog-oriented lengthy multi-part jam "The Soft Parade" which is a must listen for prog fans. Those familiar with an obsure German-based American hippie band SWEET SMOKE (present on PA :-) will notice that a part of this title track was sampled on the first album "Just a Poke" of these India-inspired psychedelic jazz rockers. Now, from the Doors collector's point of view I would give this album only 2 stars, but since it contains a strong "proto-prog" reference, add another half and round it to ***.