The Doors last album of the 60s, The Soft Parade, is a mixed bag of sorts. Combining their Californian take on the blues (“Shaman’s Blues”) and lengthy album closer (“The Soft Parade”), the band add orchestration and a nostalgic feel to their sound. The story goes that singer Jim Morrison hated the Robby Krieger penned opening track, “Tell All The People”. Still, Morrison turns in a solid vocal performance on the somewhat schmaltzy track. Not coincidently, this is the first album by The Doors where songs are credited to individual writers instead of the band as a whole.
Much better is the top 3 US hit, “Touch Me”. The organ and drumming of John Densmore build up before the song bursts into a showtune. A sax solo later appears as Morrison croons, “I’m going to love you/Til the heavens stop the rain”. One of The Doors finest songs. While mostly inessential, “Do It” sounds like it could have been released in the late 80s during the second coming of love with it’s swirling organ and groovy bass. The band give a nod to Otis Redding who had recently passed away on “Runnin’ Blue” and throw a few good guitar licks on “Wild Child”.
The aforementioned title track reaches for greatness like previous album closers, but instead goes all over the place then ends up nowhere. The album went top ten in the US but did inexplicitly neither “Touch Me” nor the album charted in the UK. One of the lower reaches of The Doors career but still turns in a few fine performances especially the drumming of Densmore.
7/10
The Light Appears 