Reviews
Ranked #6 in the 1996 Critics' Poll., 3 Stars - Good - "...a rough and ready collection of Young songs, alive with studio ambience and, well, grungy...", "...Part of what makes MIRROR BALL so moving is a sense of being unstuck in time, not so much musically--though the combination of Pearl Jam's uncompromised attack with Young's folk melodicism...suggests the spanning of generations--but by Young's vision...", 8 - Very Good - "...Young, like today's grunge kids, has always seen anomie as sufficient unto itself....MIRROR BALL...suggests another parallel: Sometimes it's easier to string together some...power chords and a few forlorn references to religion, fame and suicide than to actually write songs. And sometimes that's just fine...", "...mostly three-chord stompers, and Pearl Jam seems content to kick out the jams behind him....aims for that anthemic mode of the Neil Young of old, and despite a few muddled chords and even more muddled lyrics, the collaborative magic works..." - Rating: A-, Recommended - "...VS. meets ON THE BEACH at ARC/WELD volume....What gets you first is the throb--the mantra-like whack of the hooks and the circular propulsion of the chord progressions....these aren't conventional songs, they're thunderclap soliloquies, raw grooves set to telegraphic narratives...", Ranked #5 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll., 9 (out of 10) - "...as shabby, as unrehearsed, as rugged and raw as anything he's released. But it is another fine Neil Young album....the record's sound is...big, woolly, live and booming...", Ranked #41 in Nme's 'top 50 Albums of the Year' for 1995.
