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Rating:
After the stunning debut for the Doors, it was difficult to improve; in a way, they succeed with “Strange Days”. Certainly, the legendary tracks from the first album are missing, but the quality and cohesion of these new ten songs are incredibly high.
The atmosphere becomes overall more sulfurous, the electric guitar gives more space to the heavy notes of the piano, and Morrison gives free rein to his imaginative strength and paints desolate landscapes with his languid singing.
It begins with “Strange Days”; the piano is the absolute protagonist in creating the hypnosis; the words perfectly fit into the musical fabric giving life to something subliminal; a sort of tide that invades the mind. The track then flows into the classic Doors-style rock. From here, the change of direction is evident; although the first album didn't lack dark moments, it's clear that now darkness dominates everything. The sun has gone out.
“You’re Lost Little Girl” is another moment of dark magic; the exotic guitar phrasing gently embroiders on Morrison's damnably velvety singing. The ballad is splendid, a painful and fleeting crescendo; a sort of fresco on the instability of love.
With “Love Me Two Times”, some of the debut's rock is just retained; the epidermal guitar riff meets an unforgettable melody that travels on well-marked tracks, never as perilous as in the past; more charismatic than vehement.
Then we find a sort of interlude; after the psychic dance of “Unhappy Girl” there's the crazy babble of “Horse Latitudes”, the crowding of disconnected thoughts is at its peak. Both tracks don't sound in the classic style of the band, which proves well-disposed to evolving its sound.
But at the same time, it knows how to maintain all its prerogatives; indeed, “Moonlight Drive” follows, the first lyric written by Jim Morrison, a profound piano sonata, a theater of shifting moods and, simply put, a gorgeous melancholic ballad. The voice is at its maximum potential, capable of drawing the listener's attention entirely to itself, allowing other instruments to swirl around it as they please.
After this delightful decrease in tension, we return heavily to the central theme; “People Are Strange”; loneliness, in the guitar notes, in the singing, in the words, never so clear in transposing life into music. “Faces look ugly when you're alone”. The loneliness oozes from the music, the sky turns gray above us, the mind is trapped by this poetry. True and genuine art.
“My Eyes Have Seen You” and “I Can’t See Your Face” are other moribund meditations, as beautiful as they are difficult to explain.
“When The Music’s Over” is the violent, black finale. If “The End” was the ode to death, this is a sort of renunciation of life, a raging cry of freedom until the end.
“Cancel my subscription to the resurrection” is the emblematic phrase, Morrison leads us to explore the depths of the subconscious, he takes us along the rugged shores of the Styx; this is everything but a song, it is something more, it is a universal language that goes back to the fundamental themes of man. Love and Death merge, giving life to a bacchanal too fascinating to be avoided. The invitation is open to all; this is The End, your only friend…
I advise you not to refuse.
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 Grasshopper
"Strange Days manages not to make us miss its predecessor too much."
"The absolute, breathless despair of 'The End' is replaced by a hard and concrete rage in 'When The Music's Over.'"
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 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).
