Done With Mirrors (1985)


1.Let the Music Do the Talking
2.My Fist Your Face
3.Shame on You
4.The Reason A Dog
5.Shela
6.Gypsy Boots
7.She's on Fire
8.The Hop
9.Darkness

 

The comeback album that really wasn't. With all the inner turmoil that had been eating up the core of this band for the better part of a decade, the band reformed with its original lineup in the hopes of bringing back some of the long lost magic that had eluded this band for so long. Unfortunately, they fall way short, and as sources would later tell us, the main factor was the band was still abusing drugs at the time. Maybe that was the whole point of the "mirrors" pun?

By the time 1985 had rolled around, there really wasn't anyone that even cared about this band anymore. Those in their prime teenage years were way too young to remember the band's glory days, and it's core group of fans had grown up and moved on to other things. Those things alone are hard obstacles to overcome. Although, they would rediscover their glory in a few years - there's absolutely nothing here to distinguish the band from any of the other cheese metal bands that were starting to materialize. Of course, the kind of music that this band was famous for really wasn't in vogue anymore. With the revolution of music video, it seemed like the only way a hard rock/heavy metal band could survive was to have perfectly manicured long locks of hair along with carefully applied makeup. It became more about what you looked like than what you sounded like. Well, Aersosmith just didn't look appealing at the time.

For the most part, there's nothing special on here. What can you say when you lead off with a track from Joe Perry's recent solo excursion? Were they that void of ideas? When you listen to these songs carefully, real carefully, you can almost hear songs that do have the potential to have been much better had they been better developed. Songs like My Fist Your Face seem to have a hint of talent, but it soon gets muddled down be mediocrity. The band does pick up the pace slightly by the time they get way down the track listing to the catchy She's on Fire and the jammin' - bluesy The Hop, but by then it's way too little, too late. Even the closer Darkness is slightly funky. Why are these songs buried so far down in the mix?

It's not really any surprise that, for the most part, none of these songs would be on any of the multiple compilations that we would be inundated with after the band re-peaked. Overall it's probably just about the least interesting thing in the band's catalog - a big disappointment considering the hype over the band's reunion.


Note: The original album cover and linear notes were printed entirely backwards - so you needed "mirrors" to read what you were listening to. Whatever.

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