Full Circle (The Doors album)
| Full Circle | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Studio album by The Doors | ||||
| Released | August 15, 1972 | |||
| Recorded | Spring 1972, A&M Studios, Hollywood, California using a professional 16-track machine | |||
| Genre | Funk rock, jazz rock | |||
| Length | 40:05 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Producer | The Doors | |||
| The Doors chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | C |
| Classic Rock | 4/10 |
| Record Collector |
(combined score for Full Circle and Other Voices) |
Full Circle is the eighth studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released in August 1972. It is the second album after Jim Morrison's death, and the last they compiled until the 1978 album An American Prayer. The album includes "The Mosquito", the last Doors single to chart.
The band's first album without Jim Morrison, 1971's Other Voices, had reached #31 on the Billboard chart, a modest success for the group considering the monumental shadow cast by the passing of Morrison. The band - now a trio consisting of keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore - chose to record Other Voices at their rehearsal space known as the Workshop, the same two-story building at 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard they had recorded the successful L.A. Woman, but for Full Circle they opted to move to Hollywood's A&M Studio. While Other Voices was, to a degree, an extension of the L.A. Woman sessions (some of the tracks had been worked up before Morrison had left for Paris), Full Circle was a standalone work that saw the band delve deeper into jazz and work with some top shelf session musicians. Bruce Botnick, who had engineered all the Doors albums up to that point and co-produced both L.A. Woman and Other Voices, declined to participate in the sessions. In 2015 he admitted to Uncut's Tom Pinnock that he could not remember whether he was asked to return or not, but maintains he would have turned down the offer, reflecting, "The guys wanted to have a chance to work with some other musicians. As they went into Full Circle they took that extension even further."
The Doors hired Henry Lewy to replace Botnick, who in turn brought in Charles Lloyd and a host of session players. Lloyd would contribute tenor sax and flute to the songs and also play behind the band at Central Park and at the Hollywood Bowl. As with Other Voices, Manzarek and Krieger assumed vocal duties, which were augmented with backing vocalists. Ironically, although both post-Morrison albums are viewed as non-essential to many Doors fans and critics, Full Circle produced a global hit for the band: "The Mosquito." As recounted in Uncut's 2015 profile of both LPs, the song has become one of the band's most enduring tracks across the globe, with the song's author Krieger recalling:
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