The third album is always the killer. Look at a number of bands through time and you will see the third album often heralds a change of direction, maybe a new lineup results, or perhaps the total dissolution of the band. Of course when I picked this up back in high school (on CD, with hard earned money) I just thought of it as the natural continuation of the first album and Strange Days. However, with repeated listening, it's clear that this was the album that nearly prematurely destroyed the Doors. The tendencies of the first two albums were stretched about as far as possible and the old song catalog was exhausted. Initially the idea was to do an epic performance of Jim Morrison's "Celebration of the Lizard" but the recordings went nowhere and the only mention of a lizard king is in the jarring "Not to Touch the Earth". That track and the closer "Five to One" attempt to harness some of the energy of old "megatracks" like "The End" and "When the Music's Over" but far pretty short and stick out awkwardly. Where the album really succeeds is in the mellow department. I could see Sinatra or some crooner turning in convincing performances of most of these tracks, accompanied by a lone piano. However that's not what the Doors are known for. People wanted the crazy, shouting Jim Morrison, and future albums would deliver heavily on this, culminating in the sheer brilliant drunkenness that crowned their final Morrison-era album, L.A. Woman. So, while Waiting for the Sun may not be their finest moment, an uneasy document of a band in transition, it still holds up, best served with a fine wine and comfortable surroundings (well, for about 7 of the tracks anyway).
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