Cosmic America 35: The Soft Parade by The Doors

07/30/18 • 38 min

Back we are, tackling the fourth (and easily most controversial) album in The Doors' canon. The Soft Parade, released in mid-1969, represented a pretty big departure from the band, and...well, the critics didn't dig it. Like, at all. They hated the horns and strings on some of the songs, they hated the lyrics in places, and they seemed to have a significant amount of Morrison fatigue going on, after some of Jim's on-stage and in-press shenanigans over the previous couple of years. So the critics slagged the album and that was that. Or was it? Was this album really so problematic, or just a victim of bad timing and bitchy music journalism? We dive in and go song-by-song through the entire album.

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Cosmic America 34: Waiting For The Sun by The Doors – PLUS bonus review of Celebration of the Lizard

On our 34th episode, we reach the midway point of The Doors discography, reviewing 1968's "Waiting For The Sun". Significantly different in character from the previous two albums, this piece of work is a bit less coherent, a bit more muddled, yet still shines through with several excellent tracks and an intriguing departure from the sound they'd developed to this point. We also take a listen to the infamous studio version of "Celebration Of The Lizard", the whole-side would-be epic that garnered so little traction among the producer and band members not named Jim that they decided to shelve almost the entire thing.
Cosmic America reviews artists and their records, and we do it by going album-by-album through their careers. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

Next Episode

Cosmic America 36: Morrison Hotel by The Doors

We've entered 1970, and The Doors are back in the critical spotlight with their penultimate album, Morrison Hotel. Both a critical and fan favorite, this album saw The Doors moving (mostly) away from the pop and psychedelic sounds that dominated their last couple of albums, in favor of a rawer blues-influenced rock and roll sound. We take you track-by-track through the album, from the rollicking opener "Roadhouse Blues" through the ending of "Maggie M'Gill".
Cosmic America reviews artists and their records, and we do it by going album-by-album through their careers. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.