Review
Opener "Gasoline" "hints heavily at Neutral Milk Hotel," and that gravitational pull toward beloved American folk antecedents runs through much of The Mirror, Buck Meek's fourth solo record. Where his Big Thief work operates at the center of a band's electric charge, here he moves firmly inward — framing love songs "through his subject's unfamiliarity." Beats Per Minute finds that Meek "outlines the sharp edges of love and how it forces one to reconcile with the self," and the range of critical response bears that reading out: Far Out Magazine calls it "an album of confrontation," while The Fire Note hears "a warm, lived-in record that finds Buck Meek sharpening his songwriter's eye."
KLOF Mag flags the "Worms" opening as "redolent of Basement Tapes era Dylan," a lineage Meek wears with evident ease. Hot Press zeroes in on how "Meek's high register belies some of the bleaker lyrics," the voice carrying lightness even when the words go dark. DIY's verdict — "at points raw but more often joyful" — probably lands closest to the prevailing consensus: a record that turns inward without turning heavy.
