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Rating:
After a sensational debut like "The Doors," the obvious path was to strike while the iron was hot and attempt to make another album of the same caliber, and indeed "Strange Days" manages not to make us miss its predecessor too much. It's an excellent album, where the hallucinatory tone of certain songs from the first is practically extended to the entire album, even if not always with brilliant results.
It starts off brilliantly: "Strange Days," after the flamboyant organ intro, introduces us to an unreal world, from which emerges Jim Morrison's voice, which already seems to come from remote depths, and is further subjected to an eerie echo effect, without hindering the listening experience of the track, quite the contrary. Immediately afterward, an obsessive and sinister bass line announces the twisted and desperate melody of "You're Lost Little Girl," one of the songs where Jim Morrison gives his best with his now proverbial macabre tone, enhanced by the crisp, sadly metallic resonances of Krieger's guitar, which add much to this splendid track. Then the energy dips a bit, but never too much: "Love Me Two Times" revisits the more classic blues-rock patterns, but with unusual frenzy and ruthlessness, and with a touch of genius like the lightning-fast harpsichord-like central keyboard solo, a true devilry from Manzarek.
"Unhappy Girl" and "Moonlight Drive" (the latter being one of Morrison’s earliest poems, set to music for the occasion) are strongly marked by Krieger's typical, distorted Hawaiian-style guitars, which in the second manage to unleash genuine howls. "People Are Strange" initially seems like a catchy little song, but soon veers into the world of hallucinations, as does "My Eyes Have Seen You," which transforms from simple rock into an angry outburst.
The last part faithfully echoes the first LP: "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" introduces the same surreal world of "End Of The Night," and does so quite well, though without the spine-chilling sensations of the original.
Finally, this album also features an apocalyptic final nightmare, coincidentally 11 minutes long like "The End": it's called "When The Music's Over." A comparison with the sophisticated and sublime torture of the first album is inevitable, but these are two rather different compositions: the absolute, breathless despair of "The End" is replaced by a hard and concrete rage, which from the initial demonic scream to the end characterizes this second (and last) episode of the Doors' musical journey into the unconscious.
The abundant contribution of the drums, the beautiful central solo of the electric keyboards, the predominance of the scream over the dull whisper in Morrison's voice, make this nightmare more realistic but a bit less evocative than the previous one.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
04 Unhappy Girl (02:00)
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
Tell me who
Are you?
I think that you know what to do
Impossible? Yes, but it's true
I think that you know what to do, yeah
I'm sure that you know what to do
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
Tell me who
Are you?
I think that you know what to do
Impossible? Yes, but it's true
I think that you know what to do, girl
I'm sure that you know what to do
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
05 Horse Latitudes (01:35)
When the still sea
Conspires an armor
And her sullen and aborted currents
Breed tiny monsters
True sailing is dead
Awkward instant
And the first animal is jettisoned
Legs furiously pumping
Their stiff green gallop
And heads bob up
Poise
Delicate
Pause
Consent
In mute nostril agony
Carefully refined
And sealed over
06 Moonlight Drive (03:02)
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
Penetrate the evening that the
City sleeps to hide
Let's swim out tonight love
It's our time to try
Park besides the ocean
On our moonlight drive
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
Surrender to the waking world that
Laps against our side
Nothing left open and
No time to decide
We'll stop into a river
On our moonlight drive
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
You'll reach your hand to hold me
But I can't be your guide
It's easy to love you
As I watch you glide
Falling through wet forests
On our moonlight drive, baby
Moonlight drive
Come on baby, gonna take a little ride
Come on, down by the oceanside
Gonna get real close, get real tight
Baby, gonna drown tonight
Gonna drown, drown, drown
07 People Are Strange (02:12)
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
Alright, yeah
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
08 My Eyes Have Seen You (02:29)
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Stand in your door
Meet inside
Show me some more
Show me some more
Show me some more
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Turn and stare
Fix your hair
Move upstairs
Move upstairs
Move upstairs
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Free from disguise
Gazing on a city
Under television skies
Television skies
Television skies
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Eyes have seen you
Let them photograph your soul
Memorize your alleys
On an endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
09 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind (03:26)
I can't see your face in my mind
I can't see your face in my mind
Carnival dogs consume the lines
Can't see your face in my mind
Don't you cry
Baby, please don't cry
And don't look at me with your eyes
I can't seem to find the right lie
I can't seem to find the right lie
Insanity's horse adorns the sky
Can't seem to find the right lie
Carnival dogs consume the lines
Can't see your face in my mind
Don't you cry
Baby, please don't cry
I won't need your picture until we say goodbye
10 When the Music's Over (10:56)
When the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
When the music's over
When the music's over
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
For the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
I got some friends inside
The face in the mirror won't stop
The girl in the window won't drop
A feast of friends, alive she cried
Waiting for me
Outside
Before I sink into the big sleep
I want to hear
I want to hear
The scream of the butterfly
Come back, baby
Back into my arms
We're getting tired of hangin' around
Waitin' around with our heads to the ground
I hear a very gentle sound
Very near yet very far
Very soft yet very clear
Come today
Come today
What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down
I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it
We want the world and we want it
Now
Now?
Now!
Persian night, babe
See the light, babe
Save us, Jesus
Save us
So when the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Well the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Eh? Okay, let's do one more.
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Other reviews
By expresuntuoso
"An atmosphere like a haunted house with a voice that seems to sing through a megaphone underwater."
"When you’re strange, no one remembers your name..."
By joe strummer
The piano is the absolute protagonist in creating the hypnosis; the words perfectly fit into the musical fabric giving life to something subliminal.
‘Cancel my subscription to the resurrection’ is the emblematic phrase, Morrison leads us to explore the depths of the subconscious.
By nikko89
"Strange days have found us, and that’s already saying everything."
"When the music’s over," worthy counterpart of the Oedipal "The End" from the first album.
By Alevox
"Jim Morrison is no longer a singer: he is an angel of the apocalypse."
"Strange Days found them at the height of theatrical and poetic expression, capturing the anomaly beneath the era's surface."
By paolofreddie
Jim is a cursed rock poet, a solitary author who reads books by Blake and writes poem after poem, song after song.
"When the Music's Over," a love declaration from Jim to music (music is your only friend until the end).
