By the time 1968 rolled around, the Doors had established themselves as an excellent classic rock band. Their first two albums, self-titled and Strange Days, had taken the world by storm - THIS was what rock and roll was supposed to sound like! But, Jim Morrison and the boys knew they couldn't go on creating the same album over and over again - so they started the "progressive" phase of their career. And in 1968, Waiting for the Sun, the band's third album, was released. Read on for my review of it.

The band kicks off the album with what would go on to become one of their biggest hits - Hello I Love You. Of all the band's songs, it's probably this upbeat little number that gets played on the radio the most - and with good reason. Although it was the only big hit featured on the album, it was certainly not the only good song. Track two, Love Street, though considerably less popular than the former track, is equally good. It's a melodic pop-styled tune that almost certainly won't fail to please. Even the short (less than two minutes long) track Wintertime Love is excellent. This is NOT an album of hit singles - but rather an album of underrated masterpieces. Other noteworthy tracks include Unknown Soldier, a track that many Doors fans praise as being one of the band's finest, as well as Spanish Caravan, in which the band takes on - you guessed it - a Spanish sound. Although Jim Morrison is the star of the band, his peers also play their hearts out. Robby Krieger is every bit as talented of a guitar player as, say, Eric Clapton, and on this album he establishes that. He's not quite another Hendrix, but he gets the job done. Ray Manzerek (organ) and John Densmore (drums) also play their respective instruments very well.

An interesting little bit of trivia about this album (most die-hard Doors fans already know this) - The album was originally going to be entitled The Celebration of the Lizard, and the title track was going to be another one of the band's many lengthy masterpieces, but they never could quite get it right, so it was ultimately omitted from the album and they changed the name (a studio version of that track has since emerged on the Legacy hits compilation, though.)

Overall, Waiting for the Sun is a great album. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say it's as good as the first two, but it's an excellent one nonetheless, and worthy of a score of four and a half stars. If you like the band, you're going to like this album - no questions asked.
Remastered reissue of the classic album originally released in 1968. Packaged in a miniature LP sleeve reproduction of the original artwork.
Digitally Remastered CD with Original, 1968 Vinyl-Edition Photos and Liner Notes.