After the self-imposed career suicide that Neil Young partaked in during most of the 1980s (putting out albums focused on everything from rockabilly covers to electronic dance rock with vocoder vocals to jump blues) he finally came to his senses and started sounding like his classic material with 1989’s Freedom. This is especially because of “Rockin’ in the Free World”. Here is Neil and his band Crazy Horse playing it on Saturday Night Live:
Pearl Jam started playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” on their tour for Vs.. This eventually culminated with them performing it with Neil Young at the MTV Video Music Awards:
A long-time series of collaborations was born!
In 1995, Neil Young was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Eddie Vedder joined him for his performance at that ceremony:
It was around this time they decided they needed to record an album together. This album became Mirror Ball which is today’s pick!
Mirror Ball became a commercial and critical success. A lot of this was the momentum built off of the killer single “Downtown”, a heavy stomper of a rock tune that just bulldozes everything in its path:
The longer, jammier “Peace and Love” was also released as a single. I think it’s a better tune than “Downtown”. It’s got it all: crazed Neil Young guitar solo, pump organ, Eddie Veddar’s background vocals and an absolutely locked-in Jack Irons pummeling the drums. Euphoric stuff!
The album starts out with something fresh too that pulls in a listener. “Song X” sounds like a heavy sea-shanty, shuffling along with reckless abandon:
“I’m the Ocean” is another highlight. Along the seven minutes the song keeps barreling downhill seemingly getting faster and more intense as it goes along. The tension reaches a fever pitch by the end.
I also love “Throw Your Hatred Down” which might contain one of my all-time favorite Neil Young solos. He’s absolutely ripping it up here.
Mirror Ball ends on a solemn note with “Fallen Angel” that is just Neil Young singing along to his pump organ. A beautiful way to wrap up the record:
Neil Young’s length discography contains plenty of highs along with the lows and it doesn’t get much higher than Mirror Ball. Thankfully, it has just been re-released on vinyl earlier this month so it is a perfect time to revisit it and play it at maximum volume.
