Done with Mirrors is the eighth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 4, 1985.
Joe Perry recalled recording in a 2022 interview: "[...] with the rest of the songs, there was a vibe to them where they were just raw and dirty. I still wish I could have maybe polished a few more things or maybe put a couple more overdubs on it, but all in all, I think it did what it was supposed to do. I think it kind of showed me what we needed to do, what we were, and where we needed to be for the next one. I think we had to do that record to get to the next step and really take ourselves out of the usual way we were writing and recording."
"Let the Music Do the Talking" was a rerecording of the title track from the first album by the Joe Perry Project, with altered lyrics and melody. According to Chuck Eddy, Aerosmith's version is tougher than the original, "while still appropriately letting Joe's guitar talk–like an elephant, no less-–while Tyler discussed somebody being his 'brand-new drug'." The music of "The Reason a Dog" have been compared to the Police's "Invisible Sun" (1981), while its lyrics espouse "tail-wagging canines teaching male-nagging spouses life lessons". Elsewhere, "Shela" is a syncopated song which, according to Eddy, "almost goes disco, at least in the mid-1980s, ZZ Top sense of the word", while "Gypsy Boots" rides an AC/DC-esque riff until a switch to bass vamps near its conclusion.
| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
| rev2score = B+
| rev3 = Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal
| rev3Score = 7/10
| rev4 = The Daily Vault
| rev4Score = A
| rev5 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev5score =
| rev6 = The Great Rock Discography
| rev6score = 6/10
| rev7 = Kerrang!
| rev7Score =
| rev8 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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Done with Mirrors received mostly positive reviews. In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that, given the "bad records" Aerosmith had made in the preceding decade, he did not expect to enjoy the "touching reunion" of Done with Mirrors, but praised it "against all odds", saying: "if you can stand the crunch, you'll find more get-up-and-go on the first side than on any dozen random neogarage EP's."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it the finest Aerosmith album since Rocks (1976), saying that unlike its immediate predecessors, Done with Mirrors is "powered by the same smart-assed lyrics and filthy guitars that formed the core of Aerosmith's best songs." He also considers it superior to Permanent Vacation (1987), the album that revived the group's commercial and critical fortunes. Colin Larkin, in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1997), called the album "a tentative first step" for Aerosmith, following the classic lineup's reformation but prior to Tyler's and Perry's drug rehabilitation programmes and the success of "Walk This Way" and Permanent Vacation. Joe Perry was similarly dismissive: "Done with Mirrors, as far as I'm concerned, is our least inspired record. But I've heard fans really like it so I'm not gonna stand there and tell 'em, 'No, it sucks.' We had to do that record to get to the next one so it served its purpose. I just don't think it's up to the standard of some of our others." In 1987, Perry said that "Done with Mirrors was the best record we could do at the time, but it wasn't the best record we can do. We should have had a month with those tracks as they sit on that record, instead of having one week which is what we had." He added: "Rocking too hard for AOR, it died on the charts, and the band got scared", leading to their commercial reinvention on Permanent Vacation (1987).
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Certification
See also
- Done with Mirrors Tour