review by thomas

This dark psychedelic record from the Doors is of extremely high quality; I can’t find one bad moment within it. The Doors were obviously best when in the dark mood, the Doors were dark and strange, the other side of the love and peace singing bands, and this is their darkest album. On “Strange Days” we sometimes find dark and sad issues disguised in a more light musical structure (“Unhappy Girl” and “Moonlight Drive”) so that one can be fooled it’s a song about happiness, or whatever, you’re listening to. It’s not.

Many songs are downright dark and heavy, like the amazing title track (how does Manzarek create that spooky organ sound?) and the 11-minute pure gold song “When the Music’s Over” that is miles better than “The End”. The marimba sets its mark upon “I Can’t See Your Face in My Mind” and of the more weird stuff we find a spoken “Horse Latitudes” complete with background effects and general noise and the Brecht-Weill inspired “People are Strange”, a perfection of the musical style we find in the cover “Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)” from their eponymous debut album by just Brecht-Weill, it’s a kind of theatrical 1920s stage smelling song in just over two minutes. Krieger on guitar often plays his loose “Hawaii-style” on this album, which is better than what you may think, and besides, it’s Manzarek and Morrison who dominate the sound on “Strange Days”, a strange album indeed!

No collection is complete without this early masterpiece of dark psychedelic music.