This is one of those rare works where both the music and the lyrics stay powerful from the first track to the last. We hear several wonderful pieces familiar to the casual Doors listener like "Love Me Two Times," and "Moonlight Drive."

But the rest of the album isn't just filler. This is one tight and clear selection of tunes that all had potential to be hits. "Horse Latitudes" is a brief but chilling narration by Jim Morrison, and "My Eyes Have Seen You" is --in my opinion-- the most overlooked songs in the Doors repetoire. This song has a surreal flowing beat and dreamy lyrics that gives that personifies that psychedelic flavor that The Doors are known for.

Many feel the songs on "Strange Days" are some of The Doors' darkest imagery. I can understand why they feel that way; but there is such a gentle flow to the music that I actually find soothing, with "Horse Latitudes" being the only pure haunting Guajardian piece on the album. This album is surreal in parts and sweet in others. This CD is one of the most complete albums I have ever heard.

October 1967: The Doors' second album is released.

The first release by the Doors, their self-titled album that contained the increasingly famous "Light my Fire" and the increasingly infamous "The End", had become a bestseller in the few months that passed between the date it was issued and the date the second album, STRANGE DAYS, was first seen in record stores. However, it was a fine distance that existed between the songwriting quality and production on the first release and the quality and production on the second release. The band would never put forth an album like STRANGE DAYS again in their career; filled with ear-catching soundscapes, bizarre melodies, and complex arrangements, not one track on the 35-minute work is a waste of time.

The incredible set of songs present here include the piece-du-resistance, another 11-minute masterpiece entitled "When the Music's Over". While not as gripping as the previous lengthy centerpiece featured on the first work, "Music" is by far more entertaining, reaching climax after climax and driven by a persistant bassline, bluesy guitar, and the usually interesting Morrison-penned lyrics. Unlike "The End", I was able to listen to the entire composition without having to look at the timer on my stereo once. The shorter, more concise demonstrations of brilliance featured alongside the aforementioned work include the catchy, incredible "Love me Two Times", with lyrics by Robbie Kreiger that are forgivable because he's obviously TRYING to emulate classic blues verses. My personal favorite Doors song is the eerie, shimmeringly beautiful "You're Lost Little Girl", which may be the only tune by the group that features a pretty melody. The memorable "Moonlight Drive" is arranged here to the nth degree, but that makes the piece even more effective as the designated "party" song. The two throwaways "My Eyes have Seen You" and "I Can't See Your Face in My Mind" are actually better than the more-cabaret-than-Alabama-Song-but-still-more-convincing-mega-hit "People Are Strange", the latter for being an maddeningly psychedelic, enticing ballad, and the former for being the scariest (and probably most powerful) thing on the entire album. The introductory "Strange Days" lives up to its title, and is an ominous display of the new studio techniques the Doors would heavily employ throughout the record, and "Unhappy Girl" is the absolute pinnacle of entertainingly over-produced excercises. (By the way, they're both stellar tracks). Understandably, the worst track is "Horse Latitudes", but the Residents-esque "music" behind Jim's poetic readings succeeds in creating a grim effect, and daring, dramatic excursions like this are what made Jim Morrison famous--are they not?

All in all, this is by far the best Doors album; it is reccomended you purchase the first record before this, but don't expect to be truly blown away until you put on your headphones to enter the musical carnival of "Strange Days".