Music and Lyrics
Mirror Ball captures a loose rock sound. The album has a very raw sound to it, with songs ending in feedback and band members talking at the start and at the end of many songs, including Young remarking at the end of Downtown: "Well, we know that one. That's funky." Young wrote all of the tracks for the album except for "Peace and Love", which was co-written by Young and Vedder. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic said " boasts spirited rhythms and dense guitar interplay that Young makes excellent use of in a series of songs built out of simple, melodic rifts ."
On the lyrical content of Mirror Ball, Young said, "There's idealism and reality, the two have got to come together yet there are always major problems when they do. Maybe that's the crux of what I'm trying to say in this new album. It's also a commentary of the differences between my peace and love '60s generation and the more cynical '90s generation." "Song X" and "Act of Love" were written about abortion. "Downtown" includes references to Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. The reference to Led Zeppelin was partly inspired by Young's performance with the band at the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Read more about this topic: Mirror Ball (Neil Young album)
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