Strange Days is the second studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on September 25, 1967 by Elektra Records. Arriving eight months after the successful release of their self-titled debut album, on this record the band started experimenting with both new and old material in early 1967. Upon release, Strange Days reached number three on the US Billboard 200, and eventually earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It contains two Top 30 hit singles, "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".
Despite the album's failure to match the success of its predecessor, it was "arguably the one the band itself most appreciated musically and creatively", according to David V. Moskowitz. Music journalist Stephen Davis considers Strange Days the best Doors album and "one of the great artifacts of the rock movement."
Recording and concept
thumbnail|right|Like the previous record, the album's recording took place at [[Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California]]
Strange Days was recorded during tour breaks between February and August 1967 at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood (the same studio as their first LP). In contrast to the 1966 sessions, producer Paul A. Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick employed a then cutting-edge 8-track recording machine. The protracted sessions allowed the band to experiment in the studio and further augment their sound with unusual instrumentation and sonic manipulation.|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;
Unlike The Doors, Strange Days incorporates various instruments, ranging from marimba
Composition
Strange Days has been described alternately by music critics as acid rock, psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, or simply psychedelia; Barney Hoskyns labeled it as "post-psychedelic pop". Several of the album's songs had been written around the same time as the ones that appeared on The Doors. Two ("My Eyes Have Seen You" and "Moonlight Drive") had been demoed in 1965 at Trans World Pacific Studios before Robby Krieger joined the group; indeed, the latter had been conceived by Morrison prior to his fateful reunion with Manzarek in the summer of 1965. Although the song was attempted twice during the sessions for the band's debut, both versions were deemed unsatisfactory. A conventional blues arrangement, "Moonlight Drive" features a defining slightly off-beat rhythm and Krieger's bottleneck guitar, which create an eerie sound.
The LP's first single, "People Are Strange", was composed in early 1967 after Krieger, drummer John Densmore, and a depressed Morrison had walked to the top of Laurel Canyon. However, Manzarek had mentioned that he never believed he wrote "Horse Latitudes" at such a young age, claiming the words were "too mature". The album concludes with the 11 minute-long epic, "When the Music's Over", whose keyboard part was inspired by Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man". Although the album was quite successful, reaching No. 3 in the United States during a sixty-three-week chart stay in November 1967, its impact was attenuated by the enduring success of the band's debut album, which remained in the Top Ten over ten months after its release during a 122-week stay. According to music journalist Stephen Davis, Strange Days also proved to be the Doors' "worst-selling album" in their career with Morrison.
thumb|Sniffen Court, the location where the album cover was taken
The album cover of Strange Days, photographed by Joel Brodsky, depicts a group of street performers in New York. The location of the photograph is at Sniffen Court, a residential alley next to East 36th Street between Lexington and Third Avenue in Manhattan. Actual street performers could not be located for all of the designated roles, so Brodsky's assistant stood in as a juggler while a random cab driver was paid $5 to pose playing the trumpet. Twin dwarfs were hired, with one appearing on the front cover and the other appearing on the back cover, which is the other half of the same photo on the front cover.
thumb|[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard advertisement, October 28, 1967]]
Critical reception
Apart from its lower commercial performance compared to The Doors, contemporary reviews for Strange Days were generally positive. Rolling Stone opined that the album "has all the power and energy of the first LP, but is more subtle, more intricate and much more effective" and argued that the "whole album, individual songs and especially the final track are constructed in the five parts of tragedy. Like Greek drama, you know when the music's over because there is catharsis." Gene Youngblood of L.A. Free Press wrote a glowing review, describing the Doors' music as "more surreal than psychedelic, it is more anguish than acid." Robert Christgau called the album "muscular but misshapen" in a May 1968 column for Esquire, but went on to write that the Doors had come "from nowhere to reign as America's heaviest group".
Retrospective reviews to the album have been equally favorable. In 2007, on the occasion of the release of the 40th anniversary edition, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine, argued that "while The Doors had more frequent, obvious peaks, the quirky Strange Days is a more ambitious, unified work. There are fewer filler tracks and each song carries as much weight as the one before and after it" and called it "a document of a sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary, and often twisted era of fear and idealism." and the same magazine included it on their 2007 list "The 40 Essential Albums of 1967". Strange Days was placed at No. 20 on Ultimate Classic Rocks list of the "Top 25 Psychedelic Rock Albums", while Q magazine ranked it 35th on their respective list.
Some critics feel it does not quite match up to its predecessor. The Rolling Stone Album Guide wrote, "With the exceptions of hard blues, 'Love Me Two Times,' and the rock tango, 'Moonlight Drive,' Strange Days didn't have the power of The Doors".
Track listing
Original album
All tracks are written by the Doors (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore). Details are taken from the 1967 U.S. Elektra release; other releases may show different information.
Reissues
Personnel
The liner notes for the 1967 U.S. Elektra album and the 2007 Rhino Records CD 40th Anniversary Edition liner notes with accompanying essays by Bruce Botnick and Barney Hoskyns may differ from other sources.
| 88
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! scope="row"| Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)
| 7
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Singles
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Single (A-side / B-side)
!scope="col"| Chart
!scope="col"| Peak
|-
|1967
|scope="row"| "People Are Strange" / "Unhappy Girl"
| Billboard Hot 100
| 12
|-
| 1967
|scope="row"| "Love Me Two Times" / "Moonlight Drive"
| Hot 100
| 25