After a stunning debut, the Doors made three mixed-bag albums with one or two good songs scattered amid half-baked psychedelic jams lacking both hooks and compelling lyrics, two things they’d once had in abundance. On their next-to-last album with Jim Morrison up front, they recaptured the dark, bluesy heart of their early work. Even the slow songs simmer ominously, but “Roadhouse Blues,” “You Make Me Real,” and “Peace Frog” in particular are fucking jams, featuring some of Robbie Krieger’s most snarling guitar and John Densmore’s most hard-driving funk-rock beats. Meanwhile, “Indian Summer” condenses the best qualities of “The End” (eerie psychedelia, sustained mood) to two and a half minutes, and no dramatic monologuing!

– Phil Freeman