Daily Staff Writer

“Liberation”

The Doors

“Liberation” consists mostly of unused studio takes from the Doors’ previously released albums. However, there are some surprises in store, including three unreleased studio tracks.

Most of the alternate studio takes sound muffled and rather raw. This problem plagues “Wishful, Sinful,” “The Soft Parade” and “The End.” Several songs are barely in their infancy. “Wild Child” is one of them, with its studio chatter and bickering between Morrison and producer Paul Rothchild on how the song should start and finish.

Then there are songs sounding drastically different. “The Soft Parade” adds a section which sounds disco-inspired. “Love Me Two Times” is not quite as fast-paced as the released version and has several absent guitar and organ riffs. “Alabama Song” is heavily stripped of organ and drums. It also doesn’t have the circus-like atmosphere.

The most drastic changes occur in “The Unknown Soldier” and “Not To Touch The Earth.” The former is a tamed-down version downsizing the execution scene. The result is much less dramatic.

The latter has the lyrics of “A Little Game” with a stripped-down sound that almost sounds like swinging jazz.

The three new songs on the CD are absolutely horrible. It is no wonder they were ditched. There is just nothing very appealing about this release. That is a crying shame, especially since the long-awaited boxed set has been postponed once again.

2 stars out of five.

— Ben Jones