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The Doors albums ranked

This list is based entirely on my personal opinion. I will not be including [i]An American Prayer[/i] on this list, as I never considered it a proper Doors album. It's Jim Morrison featuring The Doors, it even says so on its album cover.

[center][b]8. Full Circle[/b][/center]
The band's second album without any involvement from the late Jim Morrison whatsoever. [i]Full Circle[/i] marks a drastic departure from anything The Doors had ever done before as the band experimented with jazz fusion, funk and Latin music. The aim of this was to show that the band could evolve musically without Jim Morrison. I think it had the opposite effect, however, as it only resulted in the least Doors-sounding album that makes [i]The Soft Parade[/i] sound like vintage Doors. It does have a few moments that bear some semblance of the group's former glory, but [i]Full Circle[/i] shows that by this point, they weren't even the same band anymore. It was for the best that they disbanded not long after its release.

[center][b]7.Other Voices[/b][/center]
The first album from The Doors released after Jim Morrison's passing. Some criticize the remaining members for releasing another album so quickly after Morrison's death, but to be fair, many of the album's songs were recorded before Morrison died and the rest of the band were hoping he would return to finish them. [i]Other Voices[/i] has the remaining members doing what they can but they're never able to recapture the strength they had with their late frontman. Ray Manzarek does do a decent job of emulating Jim Morrison's voice on his tracks, but sounds more like a Morrison-lite, if you will. Many fans like to overlook The Doors' post-Morrison albums, understandably so. But this one isn't that bad. It actually starts off pretty decent for the first half before devolving into generic roots rock and boogie music toward the later half. It's safe to say this was about as good as The Doors were ever going to get without Jim Morrison.

[center][b]6.The Soft Parade[/b][/center]
The most ambitious album from the band that sees them experiment with brass and strings to explore jazz and classical music elements. Normally musical experimentation is a good thing, but in this case, not so much. [i]The Soft Parade[/i] is widely considered the worst album from The Doors' Morrison-led era. Perhaps this is due to it hardly being led by Morrison at all, who had become unreliable with his alcoholism and other personal issues. This forced Robby Kreiger to write half of the songs and even do co-lead vocals on one. But the biggest reason for this album's poor performance was the band having been touring relentlessly for two years. They were exhausted and their creative output suffered because of it, which makes their decision to experiment all the more questionable. [i]The Soft Parade[/i] does have its moments where it shines well enough, but most of it is just mediocrity that one would be perfectly justified for overlooking.

[center][b]5. Waiting for the Sun[/b][/center]
When production for this album began, The Doors had little new material to work with. They had used up most of the content from Jim Morrison's notebooks where they drew inspiration for their first two albums. Consequently, they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for unfinished material to form a new album and that's what much of the end product ends up sounding like. As their third album, [i]Waiting for the Sun[/i] has a noticeable shift in tone from their first two albums. It's considerably mellower and many songs are more pop-oriented and ballady. Which, compared to the rebellious nature of their first two records, feels like a bit of a sell-out on the band's part. But it does have a few excellent songs that are some of the band's best. Interestingly, those songs are also the ones that revisit the dark, trippy sound from their earlier music. Overall, [i]Waiting for the Sun[/i] isn't necessarily a bad album, but it's one of the band's weaker efforts during their classic years, for sure.

[center][b]4. Morrison Hotel[/b][/center]
This album was a much-needed return to form for The Doors after the sharp decline in quality from their third and fourth albums. Where their earlier albums were more psychedelic, [i]Morrison Hotel[/i] saw the band start transitioning toward blues-rock - a transition that would be integrated fully into its successor [i]L.A. Woman.[/i] It's divided up into two parts, the first half being titled "Hard Rock Cafe" and the second half "Morrison Hotel". The "Hard Rock Cafe" section is aptly titled, as it contains some of the edgiest, hard rock-laden tracks the band has ever done, while the later "Morrison Hotel" portion contains more laid-back, poetic soft tracks. Though it ended up falling short on many popular hits, it was still a great comeback for The Doors that steered them in the right direction. Albeit, a short-lived direction.

[center][b]3. Strange Days[/b][/center]
The follow-up to their debut that lives up to its title by being stranger, darker and more rebellious than its predecessor. Most of the songs on [i]Strange Days[/i] were actually written around the same time as the songs featured on [i]The Doors,[/i] but were left off that album because they were deemed unsatisfactory by the band's record label. But now that they were riding high off the tremendous success of their first, The Doors took the opportunity to stick it to the man. [i]Strange Days[/i] sees the band take a few things from their first album up a notch. It's trippier, has a stronger blues-rock presence and even more of Jim Morrison's chilling poetry. The music is somewhat derivative from their first, but it's not bad for an album that was meant as a kiss-off to their record company than anything else. While it does succeed in being weirder, it doesn't succeed in surpassing their first album. All the same, it still manages to be a worthy follow-up.

[center][b]2. L.A. Woman[/b][/center]
The final album recorded with Jim Morrison before his untimely death. [i]L.A. Woman[/i] is the most blues-oriented record from The Doors and only bears slight traces of their original psychedelic sound. But this was a welcome change as it gave us one of the band's greatest records, second only to their debut. It sees the group nearly back at their best from their early years. Morrison in particular really pulled himself together for this album after facing several personal and legal troubles. The end result was one of Morrison's finest performances. [i]L.A. Woman[/i] has some of the band's most iconic songs and serves as a captivating swan song from the legendary Morrison. We'll never know where they would have gone from here if Morrison had lived, but if the music here is anything to go by, we may have just seen more of The Doors producing their best.

[center][b]1. The Doors[/b][/center]
This band made more fantastic music after their debut, but they never made an album that quite surpassed it. How could they when they set the bar so high from get-go, it became impassable? The Doors' self-titled debut almost plays off like a greatest hits record in that it's packed with their most popular songs. It established The Doors as one of the few American bands who could stand up to the British invasion by being just as musically and culturally significant as the artists of that movement. They weren't just a challenge to the British invasion, but to the whole psychedelic rock movement as well by providing a darker, more philosophical and rebellious alternative to the groovy, vibrant music that dominated the scene. If [i]L.A. Woman[/i] is best of The Doors' blues-driven material then their first marks the best of their psychedelia-driven music. It is best characterized by the eerie melodies of Ray Manzarek's organ that drives much of the album, but also by Jim Morrison's imposing but captivating voice and prophetic poetry. The Doors' debut is a testament to the group's musicianship. It's one of the greatest debut albums of all time and is unequivocally their best.

Feel free to share your thoughts below, be they in agreement or disagreement with this post.

Thanks for reading!
lovelywarpedlemon Best Comment
tbh i don't even consider the doors albums doors albums without jim. lol but i'm particular about this band. i simply won't listen to them without jim. also i don't like the popular opinion that the soft parade was bad. i think it's one of their best bc they tried something no one wanted. lol anyways it's interesting read nonetheless. :)

You did such a great job on this post. I appreciate the time and effort put into it.
Iwillwait · M
I love your post!
uncalled4 · 56-60, M
I just picked up the Strange Days 50th Anniversary CD set, which features the album in both stereo and mono. I have a few albums of theirs, but I am not a die hard fan. Still, I heard this album recently and decided that it MUST be in my collection. The first album couldn't be surpassed, even with a Greatest Hits package.

 
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