WAITING FOR THE SUN

Oh, how glad I am that such an incredible band as The Doors was finally included here in the Archives. And what better way to make the most of that inclusion that to start writing reviews for their albums? I'll start with an album I consider their third best: Waiting for the Sun.

After the marvelous, amazingly unique and breathtaking voyage that was "The Doors", and the psychedelic journey through the acid worlds that was "Strange Days", "Waiting for the Sun" came as a bit of a stop in all the mind-blowing music that The Doors was providing us. Sure, this album has its share of obscure, dark tracks, its share of narcotic-inducing rhythms, but in a way comes very "light" when compared with the two trip-through-the-unknown records that preceded it.

Musically, the level of playing is, as always, superb, if not as spectacularly innovative and original as in their first two efforts. But that's talking about Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger, for when talking about the band's mastermind (at least in the lyrical and concept department), Jim Morrison, his voice here begins to show sings of decay, his throat starts telling us a lot of alcohol had come through it, the tone of his vocals start to tremble and become unstable. Nowhere is this more evident than in the last track, Five to One, where Morrison's voice seems as if produced right after the worst drinking- night he could have had; but not everything was lost, in regards to that: for many people (me including, if only at times), that "raspiness" in J.M's voice only added another element of ambiguity to the music, and also helped the tracks feel even more "bluesy". We have to acknowledge, though, that, from a purely technical point of view, Morrison's vocals started walking a downhill path, in which his beautiful baritone voice slowly turned into an old-man belch.

Hello, I Love You (8/10), one of the most "pop" tracks by The Doors is also one of the most adictive, especially for the simple-yet-catchy rhythm played by Densmore.

Love Street (10/10), a gorgeous song, the very quiet melody in piano is repeated and sung over by Morrison in the most "I love you and you are MINE" tone. A song about complete and utter infatuation but also about being the owner of that subject of love, at least in the character's mind. Not To Touch The Earth (10/10), a sick, shamanistic, drug-influenced tribal dance that shows a mind completely embedded in a wall of acid, labyrinths, all-colored-lights; it would've been even better had they included the whole "Celebration of the Lizard" in the final album, which of course was imposible due to format limitations.

Summer's Almost Gone (8/10), a lovely little quiet song, a ballad if you like, nothing to write your grandfather about but nothing to forget so easily either. Wintertime Love (9/10), too short, this beautifully crafted song has a "prairie" air to it: it seems, in one of his acid trips, Morrison dreamt of him in the countryside, a cold countryside, thinking of his loved, his owned one.

Unknown Soldier (8/10), a famous song, I like it but not as much as others do. The song, if it was a protest about war (I don't know about that), was not as good at doing that when standing alone, but the video was very effective.

Spanish Caravan (9/10), after a good display of Krieger's acoustic guitar skills, (doing his best flamenco-guitarist-impersonator), the song dwells into a dark, sensual territory; it has an spanish air to it; yes, The Doors were masters: they actually managed to give this track an spanish aura, even though they were as spanish as their music was traditional. Whenever I close my eyes during this song, I see red and black colors, a lady in full costume, a lost man waiting to jump aboard a spanish caravan.

My Wild Love (7/10), nothing more than a drug-songwriting-experiment (it sounds like that), Morrison "sings" (does he?) over acoustic percussion with a rattle-snake-like- effect here and there. The song is no great track but interesting nevertheless.

We Could Be So Good Together (7/10), another pop song but this one not as brilliant as the first one. It just doesn't have true original factors going for it.

Yes, The River Knows (7/10), just as the preceding track, this one is not one of the essential in this album and can be skipped... for your loss, that is, because when it comes to The Doors' music, more is always better.

Five To One (9.5/10), a heavy track (actually truck-heavy when compared to the rest), this hard-rock song gives us one of Morrison's most quoted lines: "no one here gets out alive", which has been used to exhaustion to sell shirts and name biographies. His singing here is in full "drunk mode", with his throat barely reaching the proper heights and giving up a lot of times. But that weird, flawed singing actually ADDS to the song, making it feel more from-the-gutter, more straight-from-the-bar, more jazzy, more unconventional, more rebellious. The guitar and keys solos halfway down the track are really good. A standout track that closes this album in good, if a little bit erratic, fashion.

All in all, a very good album, not up to the level of the two preceding monsters, but a great piece of psychedelic-bluessy-jazzy rock nevertheless. And a must in every good collection.

Recommended for: Everyone. A great album but one of the best bands ever.

Not recommended for: clean-vocals purists: you'll get a lot of "missed" notes here... but hey, what's the problem, is big ol' Jimbo! And I must say, when talking about Jim D. Morrison, I'm ready to forgive it all. Even a few (?) shots (bottles?) of scotch before recording.

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