Review Summary: This review might be a little hard to follow, please give your comment after you've read it. :P thanks
There can be many words that can go into describing this album-or, for that matter, the Doors. Haunting, raw, bluesy, unique etc. Although this may be true, there is one for sure fact about the Doors; there will never be another group like the Doors. From there revolutionary first album that rocked the world, to their last album L.A. Women.
However, their second to last album, Morrison Hotel, stands out. It stands out of a collage of all their influences and their iconic sound. ''Roadhouse Blues'', the opening track, shows the side of the band that Morrison favored, the bluesy one. A hard rocker to the end, ''Roadhouse Blues'' is considered one of their best songs. It starts to transition to a keyboard-synthesizer twined ''Waiting For the Sun''. To be honest, Morrison was probably high when he wrote this, I'm not sure...but I'm guessing. It's a song that has a very childish theme. However, the way Morrison makes you perceive the meaning of the title almost sound like a inspired ritual. Or, it could be just Morrison's creative or drug induced mind, we may never know. The first side of the Morrison Hotel is called the Hard Rock Cafe. As well as including the songs ''Roadhouse Blues'' and ''Waiting For the Sun'', this side includes: the uptempo ''Peace Frog'', a sort of charming song ''You Make Me Real'', the original ''Blue Sunday'', and ''Ship of Fools''.
All of these songs contribute to the Doors sound. Whether it be Morrison's deep, raw, masculine vocals. Or Krieger's simple, breezy guitar. Manzarek's keyboard providing the improvises a bass in a different form. All of these instruments contribute to the Door's sound. The guitar and vocals are cream-ish in certain ways, but then the keyboard jumps in and then you know it's not cream.
The second side of the album is known as the Morrison Hotel. It includes the loud and boisterous sound ''Land Ho'', to the blues-rockish ''Maggie M'Gill''. Some o f these songs are more unique to the Door's sound than others. ''Land Ho'', ''Indian Summer'', and ''the Spy'' are an example of songs that are more or less the Door's sound. However, ''Maggie M'Gill'' and ''Queen of the Highway'' are more in the range of a British Blues-Rock sound such as Cream or Savoy Brown.
This might seem confusing, and I apologize, but what I'm trying to say is that the Doors like any other musicians, have roots. These roots are can be clearly seen on this album. A brilliant mosaic of the shows how they got from here to here, and it shows it well.
