The latest CD releases reviewed

THE DOORS The Very Best of the Doors Elektra ****

The Doors' music has been so ubiquitous these past 40 years (yes, it's an anniversary release) that it's easy to forget they were once seen as subversive, shocking and a threat to the prevailing peace, love and brown-rice mood of the times. Light My Fire may be a staple of easy- listening radio playlists, but back then The Doors were rock'n'roll in excelsis - loud, cocky, pompous, pretentious and thrilling. Jim Morrison's sham shaman lyrics may have been 99 per cent bulls**t, but his Blake-Burroughs amalgam of nonsense rhyme was a beacon for many wannabe rock poets to follow, from Ian Astbury to Ian McCullough. While the punch of such tunes as Break on Through, People are Strange, Roadhouse Blues and Hello, I Love You has been cushioned by overfamiliarity, there's still a whiff of apocalypse off Strange Days, Riders on the Storm, Moonlight Drive and The End (the shorter version taken from the soundtrack of Apocalypse Now). www.thedoors.com KC

Magazine were punk's first progressive band, daring to play with synths and musicianship and ignoring the stripped-down aesthetic of the time. Lead Mag-man Howard Devoto had been in Buzzcocks, but his new band would take its cues from Bowie. Real Life was their exuberant debut, featuring the trigger-happy Shot by Both Sides, the epic Motorcade and the rumbling The Light Pours out of Me, but it leant too heavily on Dave Formula's keyboards. With Secondhand Daylight, however, they found a near-perfect balance on such musical stunners as Feed the Enemy, Rhythm of Cruelty and Permafrost. Third album The Correct Use of Soap saw them toying with funk rhythms a la Talking Heads. Final album Magic, Murder and the Weather suffered from the loss of guitarist John McGeoch to Siouxsie & the Banshees, but at least Magazine bowed out with accomplished grace. KC