Morrison Hotel - THE DOORS*****

Land Ho/The Spy/Queen Of The Highway/Indian Summer/Maggie McGill/Roadhouse Blues/Waiting For The Sun/You Make Me Real/Peace Frog/Blue Sunday/Ship Of Fools

For their penultimate studio album Morrison Hotel, Jim Morrison and The Doors return to a bluesier rocking sound after a couple of incursions into pop territory. (US:4 UK:12)

"This is one of the band's more rocking efforts with some blues touches that point to later work. Roadhouse Blues is a strong rocker with great harmonica from John Sebastian, solid guitar riffs and bar-room piano from Manzarek. Waiting For The Sun has some interesting keyboard work, Peace Frog utilizes some bass, rare for much of their studio work. The Spy is a more bluesy number, showing the direction the band would go on for their next album."

"The Doors always had some blues tendencies on all their albums but on Morrison Hotel they really show it off on almost all the tracks. Many of the songs feature Robby's awesome guitar, John's powerful drums, and Ray switches on tracks from blues piano to his classic organ."

"A great Doors album, for me this only stands behind their debut as their most accomplished release. The bands just sounds focused here, delivering everything they are known for (which means upbeat tunes as well as more mellow bluesy songs) and doing it very well. I don't think that Morrison's glorious vocals need any introduction, nor the great piano/organ playing. The guitar stands out more in this one above the other instruments, there are some really good riffs in this release."

"It seems The Doors took the criticism of The Soft Parade to heart and decided to make a 'back to basics' album to follow it up with. The result is a shot in the arm for the band; Morrison Hotel includes several excellent songs, with just enough of a progressive edge (especially on the foreboding Waiting For The Sun) to show that they hadn't given up entirely on sonic experimentation. Jim Morrison sounds confident and full of vigour, and the band's sound is greatly improved by the loss of the string and horn sections from the previous album."

"Morrison Hotel opens a new chapter in The Doors history. Gone are the psychedelic trimmings of the first two albums. Gone also was the commercialism of the last two. This one is distinctly stripped down, and edgier."