There’s a very particular type of optimism that can only be sustained after so much of it has been exhausted. “MIRROR BALL,” Ryan James Monroe‘s new glam-rock single, is more or less a prayer to the notion that the years somehow make you less appealing.
The track reimagines the well-known image of a disco ball into something hopefully more functional than a mirror to gaze at as you wait for the DJ to play something decent. Its hundreds of reflective shards become a symbol of potential, ever present: there are infinite, alternate worlds you can become and while you can’t control the time and place in which you find yourself, you can choose how to find them.
Enter Monroe’s constant refrain of “We are young; still young,” which is more than just a nostalgia line. The song isn’t really suggesting that we shouldn’t have age. Of course we age. It suggests that youth is a stage you just don’t abandon, like a painfully stupid haircut.
Instead, he presents it as a state of mind that can exist even while you grow up. ‘MIRROR BALL’ is thus not so much about reflecting backwards as about not letting the past be a constraining factor in the future. The song is working on a whole new, much bigger level, aiming for an epic, arena-sized glam-rock vibe that would have felt right at home bouncing around Madison Square Garden. It’s got a sense of showmanship to it that echoes Monroe’s core image of wanting to make something that felt like the final gasp of summer before everything shifts once again.
This ambition makes perfect sense when you factor in the career trajectory of Monroe. The New York-based artist has been chasing that dream of becoming a rock star since he was 3 years old, and “MIRROR BALL” feels like that youthful proclamation has found its grown-up body.
It leaves behind the cabaret persona that’s been present in many of his previous releases. Influences run from Josh Groban and Sam Smith to Adam Lambert; the rockier elements are inspired by Heart, Pat Benatar and Journey. The end result is less concerned with a delicate approach to reinvention and more about staking a claim and declaring “we’re doing this now”.
Sometimes you shed an identity before you’re entirely sure what is replacing it. Sometimes the only thing you can do is shrug off the awkwardness and get out on the dance floor. And Monroe? Well, that dance floor appears to be a rink.
And the mirror ball is already spinning.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
