keepers - 5
keeper avg .454
Morrison Hotel was widely acclaimed at the time, and it's easy to see why when it kicks off with two classics, the hard blues of "Roadhouse Blues" and mysteriously psychedelic "Waiting For The Sun"****, which literally belongs to the earlier era when its recording commenced. While "Waiting For The Sun" is a digression that doesn't really fit with the rest of the album, "You Make Me Real", which drives so fast it seems barely under control, firmly establishes the band's new bar-rock sound, and "Peace Frog"**** drives equally energetically, pausing only briefly for its road fatality horror show bridge. "Blue Sunday" revisits the summer dream sound of "The Crystal Ship", while "Ship Of Fools" closes out the side as kind of a variety show dance number. The second side is predictably mellower, including the pleasantly atmospheric "Indian Summer"****, which begins like "The End" (without the fatalism), and walks further into the light than any Doors song I can think of, to the extent that I can hear elements of the sound in Warner Brothers era-Flaming Lips. While "The Spy" and "Queen Of The Highway" aren't really light, just subdued, the galloping "Land Ho!"**** is about the rock, specifically Krieger's hopping guitar. "Maggie M'Gill"**** returns to the album's starting point, unsettling bar rock, a sound that would continue to drive L.A. Woman.
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