The Soft Parade review

Round 4 of The Doors. This is mostly considered their worst studio album with Jim Morrison, but it's The Doors so it can't be that bad.

Tracks:

1. Tell All the People: 6/10 this is a bit dull in many ways, but it's exuberant enough to get a pass.

2. Touch Me: 8/10 far better than the opening track, this song shows The Doors firing on all instrumental cylinders with a brilliant use of brass and strings.

3. Shaman's Blues: 6/10 it's perfectly good but doesn't have enough substance or impact to sustain itself for 5 minutes.

4. Do it: 4/10 half-hearted in every sense, this is the worst Doors song I've reviewed to date.

5. Easy Ride: 5/10 they're trying a tiny bit more here, but in this case by trying they're being really pretentious so things aren't much better.

6. Wild Child: 6/10 the unique and entertaining instrumental keep an otherwise forgettable song afloat.

7. Runnin' Blue: 6/10 this starts well with a tribute to Otis Redding, before becoming very average.

8. Wishful Sinful: 6/10 perfectly OK but nothing memorable at all.

9. The Soft Parade: 6/10 admirably ambitious and it improves considerably towards the end, but what on earth is this song? Who knows? This just doesn't make a hint of sense. Still, the band were apparently tripping while recording this song so that might be why.

Best song: Touch Me
Worst song: Do it

Summary: This is definitely the worst Doors album to date. It's also their most experimental. I love the organ based rock of the earlier albums and nothing was broken so why fix it? Sometimes being really experimental works and sometimes, as is the case here, it doesn't. The instrumental experimentation is good, but not that good, while in terms of the actual songs it feels like they weren't trying. Certainly not a terrible album, but the only truly worthwhile track here is Touch Me.



Final rating: 5/10