The Soft Parade (Rhino High Fidelity) vinyl

The Doors' fourth album The Soft Parade was a remarkable return to form in the milieu of jazz rock and pop rock. This was a bold stylistic move made in seeming response to fan distaste at their third LP, 1968's Waiting For The Sun, an album deemed lethargic by some critics compared to their earliest smashes. And yet despite gruelling tour schedules and tumultuous intra-group dramas, The Soft Parade remains a controversial record, again inciting critical accusations of sellout co-optation by the AOR industry machine in the blue corner, and in the red, curious endearments to the Doors' brachiations in jazz ('Touch Me') and banjo blues ('Runnin' Blues').