The Doors
Full Circle

The Jim Morrison Band
without Jim Morrison ?!?!

A couple of days ago I was rummaging through my father's old vinyl records. Naturally, among the vast collection, the legendary The Doors couldn't be missing.
I scan the titles: "The Doors," "L. A. Woman," "Strange Days". . . "13" and "Full Circle."
Discarding with utmost respect the titles of which virtually everything is known about their life, death, and miracles. . . I focus on the only two I don't know.
The first one I pick up is "13." You can see the classic group photo (of course, Morrison's image is prominently highlighted), while on the back the titles of Light My Fire, Roadhouse Blues, Wild Child. . . so it's yet another compilation. Nothing particularly interesting.

I move on to the other perfect unknown, "Full Circle".
The illustration on the cover already presents some significant variations: for example, The Doors' traditional logo has been replaced by the infinity symbol. Moreover, the image we can observe is a fine drawing, with a circus-like atmosphere, representing the cycle of life.
I open the LP and realize I don't know a single song.
My eyes then fall on the credits. . . and it is here that I am absolutely bewildered:

THE DOORS
Robby Krieger: Guitars and vocals · John Densmore: Drums · Ray Manzarek: Keyboards and vocals
THE OTHER VOICES
Clydie King · Venetta Fields · Melissa Mackay

. . . and not a trace of Jim Morrison!
Well, yes. . . the remaining three Doors decided to strike while the iron is hot and, after the death of their leader, they released two albums: "Other Voices" (late 1971) and "Full Circle" (early 1972).

Momentarily setting aside all kinds of prejudice, let's try to examine the album. . .
The first track we encounter on side A is titled Get Up And Dance. . . the title is clear: we are faced with a composition created specifically to be danceable. We can immediately notice the opening entrusted to a traditional bass (for "Full Circle," various sessionmen were called in, and Manzarek no longer plays the synth-bass) followed by a piano melody. . . furthermore, Ray sings aided by a good number of backing singers.
Despite the lyrics being as far as possible from Morrisonian poetry. . .
"Oh people, get up and dance
The new day's comin', it's the end of the trance
The future's ours if we just take a chance
So come on people get up and dance"
. . . the result is anything but unsatisfactory.

The next track, 4 Billion Souls, comes off as a poorly executed attempt to blend psychedelia with easy listening: three uninspired and rather monotonous minutes. . . however, it is salvaged by those few moments where the track changes rhythm (practically a constant after the chorus) and everything gains a rather playful air.
After this moment of wavering, Manzarek temporarily finds himself again. . . and remembers he still had that organ in the basement (or the garage?) that made the sound of the real The Doors unique. It is with this instrument that the good blues of Verdilac is launched, a way to partially reconnect with the sounds of "L. A. Woman".

Also very pleasant is Hardwood Floor, which mixes the carefree themes previously seen in Get Up And Dance with a slight touch of saloon country-western: we can indeed see Krieger tackling the harmonica, a fairly typical instrument in country compositions.
The last composition on the first side is titled Good Rockin'. It is a standard rock'n'roll/rockabilly piece that wouldn't be so bad. . . but both its forcibly retro nature and its insistence on winking at the listener ultimately penalize it a bit.

Side B opens with The Mosquito, made quite enticing thanks to the brutal juxtaposition of "siesta" Mexican rhythms and glimpses of psychedelic jams. Even the lyrics are bordering on ridiculous (simply talking about an annoying mosquito), yet it remains one of the best moments of the entire "Full Circle".
"No me moleste mosquito
Let me eat my burrito
No me moleste mosquito
Why don't you go home?"

With The Piano Bird, we reach the album's masterpiece. . . an excellent blend of psychedelia, progressive, and pop that closely resembles the more cultured side of contemporary Fleetwood Mac from "Penguin" or "Bare Trees". An excellent flute line can also be heard, which manages to seamlessly amalgamate all the other instruments.
The trio, after giving their all, plays the nostalgia card again with the skewed blues of It Slipped My Mind. . . a (very) poor imitation of Love Me Two Times!
The album closes with the decent The Pecking King And The New York Queen, which, for a pop song with not too many pretensions, goes on really excessively.

In conclusion. . . it is really difficult to judge this album without prejudice.
Compared to any Morrison-era Doors production, this "Full Circle," apart from a couple of tracks, is zero on all fronts. On the other hand, if taken on its own, it barely manages to pass.
The biggest flaw, besides a certain compositional flatness, lies precisely in continuing to use The Doors name. . . if it had been released under a different name, probably today, instead of being considered one of the most useless albums in history, it would be a gem for fans and enthusiasts of the band.

To listen to, more than anything, out of pure curiosity. . .