THE DOORS

How exciting it must have been to experience the musical developments in the second half of The Sixties when bands broke with the tradition of the predictable pop and rock songs in the charts and started to experiment with longer compositions, improvisations, extended soli on a wide range of instruments and blending different genres. For me exciting examples are Vanilla Fudge, The Nice, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Pink Floyd and ... The Doors! Their debut album is generally considered as their best effort, it's also the best rated The Doors studio album on Prog Archives. I love it madly because it features the very distinctive The Doors sound at its pinnacle, in my opinion The Doors never succeeded to generate so much excitement on later albums although Strange Days and L.A. Woman are also good ones.

The first track Break On Through is a dynamic, often propulsive blend of rock (raw guitar riffs) and psychedelic (Vox Continental organ play), topped by Jim his expressive vocals and John his adventurous and powerful drumming. Next is the bluesy Soul Kitchen, a song that features the distinctive Manzarek/Krieger interplay and mellow vocals and sexual lyrical references by Jim. Then Jim his most romantic effort ever made, the dreamy and very wonderful ballad The Crystal Ship with a beautiful classical piano interlude by Ray which gives this moving song an extra emotional dimension. The tracks Twentieth Century Fox, Back Door Man, I Looked At You, End Of The Night and Take It As It Comes are basically rock and blues (with hints from CCR, The Kinks and Them) but The Doors made it very special with Ray his swirling organ sound and Jim his crooner-like vocals and primal screams. The Alabama Song contains a cheerful climate with funny piano work and a strong vocal performance by Jim. My favorite composition on this eponymous debut album is Light My Fire delivering a compelling atmosphere, a catchy organ intro and great soli on organ and guitar. But the most acclaimed song on this album is the final one, The End. It's no coincidence that Francis Ford Coppola was struck by the sultry and hypnotic climate and used it for his movie Apocalypse Now: Robby his guitarwork has a captivating Eastern undertone, Jim his vocals sound melancholical and dramatic and gradually the atmosphere turns into an ecstatic climax with mindblowing interplay between organ, guitar and drums with Jim on an almost shamanic level.

To me this albums sounds as one of the best rock album debuts, so dynamic and captivating, this is a masterpiece, an awesome progressive effort!