Mirror Ball
Neil Young
Mirror Ball is the 21st studio album by Canadian rock legend Neil Young, released on June 27, 1995 through Reprise Records, and reissued on vinyl on May 22, 2026. The album was born out of an unexpected but inspired collaboration with Seattle grunge titans Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar), Jack Irons (drums), and Eddie Vedder (backing vocals and vocals on "Peace and Love") — recorded across just four days in January and February 1995 at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, produced by Brendan O'Brien. Due to label complications with Pearl Jam's home at Epic Records, the band's name was omitted from the album cover, though their presence is unmistakable throughout. The entire record was recorded with remarkable spontaneity: Young wrote most of the eleven songs during the same four-day stretch in which they were laid down, and the result is raw, loud, and live-off-the-floor in feel. Young himself jokingly called it "a techno buzz beat record," though it draws more accurately on acid rock, 1970s punk, and 1990s grunge in equal measure.
Thematically, Mirror Ball is a wide-ranging and characteristically uneven Young record, touching on abortion and religious conflict ("Song X," "Act of Love"), counter-cultural nostalgia with name-checks of Hendrix, Lennon, and Led Zeppelin ("Downtown," "Peace and Love"), and quieter, more introspective moments via two brief pump-organ fragments ("What Happened Yesterday," "Fallen Angel"). The album's centerpiece is the epic seven-minute "I'm the Ocean," while the grinding, eight-minute closer "Scenery" showcases the full-throttle chemistry between Young's wild guitar style and Pearl Jam's muscular Seattle sound. Young used Pearl Jam much as he had long used Crazy Horse — as a vehicle for feel and spontaneous energy rather than polish — and the pairing paid off commercially as well, making Mirror Ball his highest-charting album since Harvest in 1972, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 and earning gold certification in the United States. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1996.
Mirror Ball is the 21st studio album by Canadian rock legend Neil Young, released on June 27, 1995 through Reprise Records, and reissued on vinyl on May 22, 2026. The album was born out of an unexpected but inspired collaboration with Seattle grunge titans Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar), Jack Irons (drums), and Eddie Vedder (backing vocals and vocals on "Peace and Love") — recorded across just four days in January and February 1995 at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, produced by Brendan O'Brien. Due to label complications with Pearl Jam's home at Epic Records, the band's name was omitted from the album cover, though their presence is unmistakable throughout. The entire record was recorded with remarkable spontaneity: Young wrote most of the eleven songs during the same four-day stretch in which they were laid down, and the result is raw, loud, and live-off-the-floor in feel. Young himself jokingly called it "a techno buzz beat record," though it draws more accurately on acid rock, 1970s punk, and 1990s grunge in equal measure.
Thematically, Mirror Ball is a wide-ranging and characteristically uneven Young record, touching on abortion and religious conflict ("Song X," "Act of Love"), counter-cultural nostalgia with name-checks of Hendrix, Lennon, and Led Zeppelin ("Downtown," "Peace and Love"), and quieter, more introspective moments via two brief pump-organ fragments ("What Happened Yesterday," "Fallen Angel"). The album's centerpiece is the epic seven-minute "I'm the Ocean," while the grinding, eight-minute closer "Scenery" showcases the full-throttle chemistry between Young's wild guitar style and Pearl Jam's muscular Seattle sound. Young used Pearl Jam much as he had long used Crazy Horse — as a vehicle for feel and spontaneous energy rather than polish — and the pairing paid off commercially as well, making Mirror Ball his highest-charting album since Harvest in 1972, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 and earning gold certification in the United States. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1996.
Mirror Ball
Neil Young
Mirror Ball is the 21st studio album by Canadian rock legend Neil Young, released on June 27, 1995 through Reprise Records, and reissued on vinyl on May 22, 2026. The album was born out of an unexpected but inspired collaboration with Seattle grunge titans Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar), Jack Irons (drums), and Eddie Vedder (backing vocals and vocals on "Peace and Love") — recorded across just four days in January and February 1995 at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, produced by Brendan O'Brien. Due to label complications with Pearl Jam's home at Epic Records, the band's name was omitted from the album cover, though their presence is unmistakable throughout. The entire record was recorded with remarkable spontaneity: Young wrote most of the eleven songs during the same four-day stretch in which they were laid down, and the result is raw, loud, and live-off-the-floor in feel. Young himself jokingly called it "a techno buzz beat record," though it draws more accurately on acid rock, 1970s punk, and 1990s grunge in equal measure.
Thematically, Mirror Ball is a wide-ranging and characteristically uneven Young record, touching on abortion and religious conflict ("Song X," "Act of Love"), counter-cultural nostalgia with name-checks of Hendrix, Lennon, and Led Zeppelin ("Downtown," "Peace and Love"), and quieter, more introspective moments via two brief pump-organ fragments ("What Happened Yesterday," "Fallen Angel"). The album's centerpiece is the epic seven-minute "I'm the Ocean," while the grinding, eight-minute closer "Scenery" showcases the full-throttle chemistry between Young's wild guitar style and Pearl Jam's muscular Seattle sound. Young used Pearl Jam much as he had long used Crazy Horse — as a vehicle for feel and spontaneous energy rather than polish — and the pairing paid off commercially as well, making Mirror Ball his highest-charting album since Harvest in 1972, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 and earning gold certification in the United States. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1996.
Mirror Ball is the 21st studio album by Canadian rock legend Neil Young, released on June 27, 1995 through Reprise Records, and reissued on vinyl on May 22, 2026. The album was born out of an unexpected but inspired collaboration with Seattle grunge titans Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar), Jack Irons (drums), and Eddie Vedder (backing vocals and vocals on "Peace and Love") — recorded across just four days in January and February 1995 at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, produced by Brendan O'Brien. Due to label complications with Pearl Jam's home at Epic Records, the band's name was omitted from the album cover, though their presence is unmistakable throughout. The entire record was recorded with remarkable spontaneity: Young wrote most of the eleven songs during the same four-day stretch in which they were laid down, and the result is raw, loud, and live-off-the-floor in feel. Young himself jokingly called it "a techno buzz beat record," though it draws more accurately on acid rock, 1970s punk, and 1990s grunge in equal measure.
Thematically, Mirror Ball is a wide-ranging and characteristically uneven Young record, touching on abortion and religious conflict ("Song X," "Act of Love"), counter-cultural nostalgia with name-checks of Hendrix, Lennon, and Led Zeppelin ("Downtown," "Peace and Love"), and quieter, more introspective moments via two brief pump-organ fragments ("What Happened Yesterday," "Fallen Angel"). The album's centerpiece is the epic seven-minute "I'm the Ocean," while the grinding, eight-minute closer "Scenery" showcases the full-throttle chemistry between Young's wild guitar style and Pearl Jam's muscular Seattle sound. Young used Pearl Jam much as he had long used Crazy Horse — as a vehicle for feel and spontaneous energy rather than polish — and the pairing paid off commercially as well, making Mirror Ball his highest-charting album since Harvest in 1972, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 and earning gold certification in the United States. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1996.