Aerosmith
Done With Mirrors

THE REVIEW

"Done with Mirrors" is the eighth album by Aerosmith, released in November 1985 under the Geffen Records label.

This is the album of the band's definitive reunion, returning to the historical lineup with Perry and Whitford on guitars after six years.

BACKGROUND

Both guitarists (Perry and Whitford), shortly after the release of Night In The Ruts in 1979, had left the group due to continuous quarrels among the five members, but also, especially in Joe Perry's case, to pursue solo projects (see the three albums by The Joe Perry Project, namely "Let The Music Do The Talking" in 1980, "I’ve Got the Rock'n'Rolls Again" in 1981, and "Once a Rocker", "Always a Rocker" in 1984). Whitford's solo career, however, lasted the time of one studio album "Whitford/St. Holmes" in 1981.

In 1982, after recruiting the two new guitarists Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, the band released their seventh studio album, the first, and thankfully the last, with these two guitarists. The album's title is "Rock In A Hard Place". An album with great but few episodes, but heavily flawed episodes, hence quite a disjointed album that on one side pumps you up to the max and on the other hand is just a letdown, to be frank. Clearly, this record certainly doesn't bring the band back to the glory of the mid-seventies, as the absence of the two founding guitarists is markedly felt, missing the two fundamental ingredients of what was the explosive mix called Aerosmith. It is clear then to define this album as their worst, although there is the mitigating factor of not having been the true Aerosmith we all know.

REVIEW

At this point, due to the band's negative moment and the not-so-great results of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's solo projects, a rapprochement of the band's historical core occurred in 1984. It was February 14 when Perry and Whitford surprisingly visited the rest of the band after a concert in Boston, leading to a historic and magical reunion.

In the same year, the band left their historic label Columbia and switched to Geffen.

From my point of view, the album appears much more charged compared to the previous album. However, there are still some who claim that this is their worst album, but they are greatly mistaken, probably because they have never listened to it and speak with others' words, thinking this album is lousy because so-and-so told them, what ignorance.

There are some healthy hard rock tracks that I find immensely pumped which make you jump out of your chair during every listen such as:

and other more laid-back but still delightful and catchy tracks nonetheless, such as:

Again, in my view, the album is not far from "Permanent Vacation" of 1987 and Pump of 1989, but it is an integral part of a hypothetical triangle formed precisely by these three albums, which share the common trait of all being released in the eighties, under the Geffen label, and having the historical lineup restored at the highest compositional levels, something that hadn’t happened since Rocks of 1976.

The sound of the 80's Aerosmith is decidedly different from the 70's, which was characterized by a not inconsiderable dose of Blues mixed with Hard Rock, with the hypothetical triangle of the 70s period being formed by "Toys in the Attic" of 1975, "Rocks" of 1976, and "Aerosmith" of 1973, all released by Columbia Records.

With the eighties, in fact, they transitioned to a Hard Rock which I would define as much more commercial and it was precisely this new way of playing that would bring back the band’s global success.

So I would conclude by saying "Done With The Mirrors" is an excellent appetizer that pairs perfectly with the main course "Permanent Vacation" and the subsequent second course "Pump". This is the perfect dinner served by Aerosmith in the 80s. Listening to "Done With The Mirrors" won’t ruin your appetite at all, but rather it will make you even hungrier, and you will devour the next two albums, try it to believe it at "AEROSMITH Restaurant, Via HARD ROCK & BLUES No. 1972, BOSTON (U.S.A.)".

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Thank you all for reading.