Morrison Hotel is a come-back album. The Doors had gone through a 'dry' spell before releasing this, their second last, record. Prior to the release of Morrison Hotel, The Doors were exploring different sounds (the previous Soft Parade featured strings and horns), and Jim Morrison was doing little song writing, leaving it almost completely up to the guitarist, Robby Krieger. Jim had been drinking. A lot. So much so that he couldn't come up with many good lyrics for the songs. He had lost all interest in creating music. This album is in retaliation to that. Jim took his position back as the chief song writer for the band. While Krieger did write songs that sounded like Morrison for Waiting for the Sun and The Soft Parade, it wasn't Morrison himself. This album is the best one since their second release, Strange Days, and they returned to their roots with it. It sounds us much like their first, self-titled album as any other of their albums ever did.

There aren't a whole lot of 'huge hits' on this album as far as most people are conserned. The only really popular Doors song on Morrison Hotel is Roadhouse Blues, a song that just about everyone has heard. Other than that, though, this CD is full of really great songs that many people have never even heard of, due to the fact that if you aren't a huge Doors fan, the only CD of theirs that is in your collection is a Greatest Hits compilation. Roadhouse Blues is the only song that appears on any Greatest Hits CDs.

The tracks on this album are:

1. Roadhouse Blues - many people have heard this one. Sounds like a song you might hear being played at a smokey Blues concert

2. Waiting for the Sun - sounds like a tribe of chanting shamans summoning the sun

3. You Make Me Real - a catchy little tune with a piano to add variety. Some people say that it's the closest that the Doors ever came to sounding like the Beatles... I don't know about that, though.

4. Peace Frog - up-beat, with fast guitar licks and catchy lyrics -- this is a pretty strange one... "There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles..."

5. Blue Monday - a beautiful, dreaming song about love

6. Ship of Fools - a comment on society... a ship of fools... old style Doors that gets into your head

7. Land Ho! - sounds like a bunch of sailors chanting as they approach land

8. The Spy - this one sounds like something you'd hear from a lounge singer... slow, gentle, a song about love

9. Queen of the Highway - also sounds like something that could have been off of their first album. Morrison praises his girlfriend Pamela. The drums are heavy and the organ is beautiful


10. Indian Summer - my favorite. That most beautiful love song I've ever heard

11. Maggie M'Gill - the guitar in this song is great! Strange lyrics and meaning

Each song has that great classic 'Doors sound' that I love so much. The organ in each song is strong, Jim's vocals are loud and haunting, and it's good to hear his words again. If you love the Doors' self-titled debut album, you're sure to love this one. The lyrics are powerful, meaningful and catchy, the music dances around these fantastic words and they play wonderfully off of eachother. I would recommend this album to everyone, especially if you have a Doors Greatest Hits album or The Best of the Doors -- you're missing out on some really cool songs by not owning this album!





Recommended: Yes