Album Review: L.A. Woman – The Doors

 

L.A. Woman stands as a raw, electrifying swan song for Jim Morrison and the original lineup of The Doors. Released in April 1971, just three months before Morrison’s untimely death, the album captures the primal spirit of the band while signaling a shift toward gritty blues-rock — a far cry from their earlier psychedelic excursions.

From the opening shuffle of “The Changeling,” the band wastes no time asserting a darker, more muscular groove. Ray Manzarek’s keys are as hypnotic as ever, while Robby Krieger’s guitar tone is swampy and urgent. But it’s Morrison’s voice — growling, haunted, and blues-soaked — that anchors the album. He sounds both weary and wild, as if he’s aware of the shadows closing in.

The title track “L.A. Woman” is arguably the album’s centerpiece: a nearly 8-minute urban odyssey that pulses like the city itself. It's Morrison's love letter to Los Angeles — seductive and dangerous, shimmering and rotting at the edges. When he chants “Mr. Mojo Risin’,” an anagram of his own name, it’s less a boast than a desperate invocation.

“Riders on the Storm,” the closing track, takes the listener on a ghostly ride through a rain-slicked soundscape. It’s hauntingly beautiful — part noir poem, part existential blues — and contains some of Morrison’s most evocative lyrics. That eerie combination of whispered vocals and jazz-inflected keys creates a mood that’s lingered in rock consciousness for decades.

Elsewhere, tracks like “Love Her Madly” and “Been Down So Long” showcase the band’s tighter, more conventional blues chops. There’s less mysticism, more dirt under the fingernails. The Doors seem less concerned with pushing boundaries here than they are with digging into the roots of American music.

Overall, L.A. Woman is a fitting farewell. It’s raw, urgent, and unfiltered — capturing The Doors at a creative crossroads, on the edge of something new, even as the end loomed. Morrison’s death soon after its release turned the album into a kind of mythic artifact — but even without that tragic context, L.A. Woman endures as one of the band’s most consistent and soulful statements.