To be honest, I was surprised that "Morrison Hotel" was suggested to me as part of the 1001 Albums challenge. I keep forgetting about it somehow. Following the overproduced disaster that was "The Soft Parade", however, it signalled a return to the band’s blues roots. Overall, I’d rank it amongst the weaker Doors albums featuring Morrison. Perhaps this is because the debut and the second album outshine everything else, and "L.A. Woman" – as an unintended swan song – is more convincing. However, with 'Roadhouse Blues' and 'Waiting for the Sun', it contains two of my favourite songs by the band. "Morrison Hotel" is good, but perhaps it also shows that the band had reached a musical impasse from which one should never have tried to find a way out with an alcoholic's mind as a band leader. This is why one searches in vain for psychedelic masterpieces such as 'The End', 'When the Music's Over' or 'Riders on the Storm'. At a different time, perhaps they could have made more of a song like 'The Spy'. As I said, it's good, but not outstanding.
