On 3/31, Rhino is dropping the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Doors' eponymous debut album. The new set, packaged in a hardcover book, contains a 180-gram vinyl edition; complete CDs of both the stereo and mono versions of the album (which originally appeared on Elektra); a live CD finding the band performing most of the debut's songs at San Francisco's The Matrix; and a lavishly detailed booklet with a rich gallery of photos and notes by David Fricke. As is typical of Rhino, it makes a compelling case not just for physical product in the age of streaming but for outright commodity fetishism.

Then there are the songs: "Break On Through (to the Other Side)," "Soul Kitchen," "The Crystal Ship," "Twentieth Century Fox," "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)," "Light My Fire," "Back Door Man," "I Looked at You," "End of the Night," "Take It as It Comes" and "The End." It's still hard to believe, 50 years on, that this band came so fully formed on their first release. But their inimitable sonic blend of blues, psychedelia, jazz, cabaret and Latin Grooves, powered by the singular machine that was the Manzarek-Krieger-Densmore chemistry, was probably never better represented. That, paired with Jim Morrison's sexed-up, kaleidoscopic, apocalyptic visions, still conjures a fever dream unlike anything in pop music history.