The Doors

Originally released as part of the completed recorded works 2006 box set Perception, this deluxe edition of the Doors' 1969 fourth album, The Soft Parade, is a double-disc set containing one CD featuring a newly remastered version of the album with bonus tracks and a DVD with a 5.1 Surround mix, bonus video footage, and a photo gallery. Given that the Doors catalog was remastered just seven years before this box, the sonics of these 2006s remasters are noticeable but not radically different -- the kind of subtle remastering that is significant to audiophiles who know this music intimately. This contains a hefty six bonus tracks: two takes of "Touch Me," two takes of the outtake "Whiskey, Mystics and Men," and the outtakes "Push Push" and "Who Scared You." In contrast, there are only two performances in the bonus video footage: two soundstage performances from New York in 1969, "The Soft Parade" and "Tell All the People." None of this changes the fact that The Soft Parade remains a divisive Doors album -- it's a love it or loathe it affair -- but all this bonus material helps make this deluxe edition the best-sounding, best-presented reissue of this album yet. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide