Release and Reception
Mirror Ball reached number five on the Billboard 200 album chart. Mirror Ball has been certified gold by the RIAA.
NME gave Mirror Ball a nine out of ten. In the review, Mirror Ball is called "another fine Neil Young album....the record's sound is...big, woolly, live and booming." Rolling Stone staff writer J.D. Considine gave Mirror Ball four out of five stars, saying, "Though Young is clearly the dominant partner—it's his concept, after all, his songs and his album—it's Pearl Jam who ultimately end up determining the music's shape and feel, providing a level of input and energy that goes well beyond the normal purview of a backing band." Spin gave the album eight out of ten stars. The review said, "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." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A-. Browne said that "the album has a spontaneous, bang-it-out casualness that is, to say the least, extremely rare for a rock veteran." However, Browne criticized the album's lyrics, calling them "mostly jumbled rehashes of standard Young imagery." Time reviewer Christopher John Farley said that "Pearl Jam serves as an extraordinary backup band on the new album." Farley added that the album is "one of the most consistently rewarding works of Young's long rewarding career."
Allmusic staff writer William Ruhlmann gave the album three out of five stars, saying that "Mirror Ball is typically uneven." Critic Robert Christgau said that Young "was born to lumber, and Pearl Jam wasn't." Blender gave the album two out of five stars. The review said that "it could have been better. The fault is less with Pearl Jam, who thrash so awkwardly they make Crazy Horse sound like Steely Dan, than with Young’s unmemorable songs."
"Downtown" and "Peace and Love" had accompanying music videos. "Downtown" was the most successful song from Mirror Ball on the rock charts, reaching number six on the Mainstream Rock charts. "Peace and Love" also charted on the Mainstream Rock charts. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, "Downtown" received a nomination for Best Rock Song and "Peace and Love" received a nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Mirror Ball received a nomination for Best Rock Album.
In Australia it peaked at #4 on the ARIA charts on July 9, 1995, making it Young's highest-charting album in Australia.
Read more about this topic: Mirror Ball (Neil Young album)
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)