Mirror Ball

On paper this looks like a great match up, the "Grandfather of Grunge" teaming with his disciples, Pearl Jam. The bad news is that it does not create the masterful one off project that it could of been.

It is hard to put a finger on why this album comes up short, but the most glaring is that the songs are not very consistant. DOWNTOWN, I'M THE OCEAN and FALLEN ANGEL are good songs, but the rest are pretty non-descript. To make matters worse, Pearl Jam tend to play at one pace throughout the album and tend to bulldoze any subtlety out of the material. Cray Horse is not as talented musically as PJ, but they know how to support the boss and bring out his best assets.

This is not a bad work, but I fail to see how it can get 5 stars from anyone. I don't really play this too often, but when I do I can seldom make it through the duration. This appears to have more in common with Neil's inconsistant 80's work than his more inspired 90's output.

8 years later, this CD holds up brilliantly. Young was certainly intoxicated by the breath of fresh, extremely competent and challenging musicianship that Pearl Jam offered him, much as he was by the power trio of the FREEDOM CD. How much Crazy Horse can one man take? In any case, as a band, not just a leader with a pack of bungling sidekicks, Young and Pearl Jam deliver one of the best CDs of his career. There are some truly great numbers here: "Peace and Love", "I'm the Ocean" (which would resurface on GREENDALE as "Be the Rain"), "Throw Your Hatred Down" (which resonates more profoundly given the current geo-political crises) are absolutely classic Young songs on a level with "Hurricane" and "Powderfinger". The throwaway cut here is "Downtown," which at the time was the "hit." He needs to lay off anything that might even suggest Danny Whitten.
The rest is amazing stuff and seems to suggest that in the effort to somehow validate ourselves via the fetishization fans embrace for rock stars, or for that matter any icon of the cult of personality, we lose sight of what is so precious about our own lives, become tranfixed and mesmerized by the glittering lights bouncing off the mirror ball. Extend that to a national scope and it becomes a pandemic of nationalistic narcissism, which of course begets the cultural wars fed by isolationist persecution complexes.Well, maybe I'm reading a bit into this. Truth is, there was a time Young could inspire you to think. Anyway, for those who just want to rock and roll, this will do it for you. Young would find additional inspiration in his return to Crazy Horse, although his return to CSN would actual deaden his focus. The guy who eschewed the pop stardom of HARVEST, would somehow seek it out at the end of the nineties. At this point, though, Neil was firing on all burners and this is a great, great testament to a songwriter justifying his reputation.

This is a good Neil Young album but there doesn't seem to be anything new or exciting other than the backing band. I don't like the mixing on the CD because you can hardly here Neil Young singing. Not that he has the greatest voice, but you've got to be able to hear the vocals. Notable tracks are "Downtown", "I'm The Ocean" and "Peace and Love" (co-written by a certain Mr. Vedder)