The Doors – Other Voices + Full Circle (1971,72)(2015) 2CD

There are some who say that The Doors ended on July 3, 1971, the day Jim Morrison died, and fair enough, everyone's allowed their own opinion. The fact of the matter, though, is that those individuals are making a statement which is factually inaccurate: the band very much remained an ongoing concern beyond that fateful day in Paris, issuing two further albums which are - for the very first time - available together in a two-CD set.

1971's Other Voices initially began as an album on which the aforementioned Mr. Morrison was intended to sing, with the recording process kicking off while he was still alive and well and living in France. In the wake of his death, The Doors eventually opted to continue recording the album, although they did wait three months before doing so, and when the album - which featured the single “Tightrope Ride” - hit stores, it certainly wasn't a commercial failure: it made it to #31 on the Billboard Top 200, with the single hitting #71 on the Hot 100.

Despite bearing a title that screamed, “We're bringing this thing in for a landing,” 1972's Full Circle did pretty well commercially, too, hitting #68 and spawning two minor hits, one in the U.S. (“The Mosquito”), one in the UK (“Get Up and Dance”), though neither escaped the lower reached of their respective top-100 singles charts. That said, however, the B-side to the latter track, “Tree Trunk,” has been added to the reissue of the album as a bonus track, so if you're one of the fans who picked up the original 45, this is your lucky day.

It's also your lucky day if you were hoping that the albums were getting the 180-gram vinyl treatment, because they are, but there's one little catch: unlike the CD set, the vinyl reissues of Other Voices and Full Circle are being done individually…not that there's anything wrong with that.