Mirror Man
by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Mirror Man by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Year: 1971
Overall rank: 5,936th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 90 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1971 (93rd)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (946th)
Award Best albums of all time (5,936th)

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Product Details
Availability

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Mirror Man Sessions by Captain Beefheart & His Mirror Man (CD, 2006)
Condition: Brand New


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eBay
Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band Mirror Man * CD One Way Records 1990
Condition: Very Good


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"The MIRROR MAN Sessions" - Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - CD 1999 - GREAT
Condition: Like New


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Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band bestography

Mirror Man is ranked 8th best out of 31 albums by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band is Trout Mask Replica which is ranked number 266 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,097.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band album bestography « Higher ranked (5,047th)
Ice Cream For Crow
This album (5,936th)
Mirror Man
Lower ranked (9,307th) »
Strictly Personal

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Mirror Man rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 5,936th | 1970s rank: 946th | 1971 rank: 93rd

Mirror Man collection

Mirror Man ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 90 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 90 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 
01/04/2026 09:05 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  9,58370/100
 
100/100
 
12/19/2025 05:52 Leschoses  Ratings distribution  8584/100
 
5/100
 
11/23/2025 07:25 NYAndreas  Ratings distribution  1,43344/100
 
50/100
 
05/19/2025 04:03 brent13  Ratings distribution  1,94068/100
 
60/100
 
02/25/2025 00:23 EyeKanFly  Ratings distribution  8,54465/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 22% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.6/100, a mean average of 72.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.3.

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Mirror Man favourites

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Mirror Man comments

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Rating:  
60/100
From 11/28/2020 13:48 | #261552
An overcompensation for a release Beefheart didn't like. I know a lot of people like mirror man, but I still prefer strictly personal
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 07/15/2020 20:24 | #255636
Mirror Man is an esoteric collection of blues(?) songs that feel like they're about to fall apart at any given second. I've never heard anyone make music like Beefheart does.

That oboe is so funky and weird. It sounds like a wounded animal at times, much like the vocals do.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 06/06/2017 21:51 | #192166
This album is truly brilliant. A magical work of art that is quickly becoming a personal favorite. A truly inventive creative work that inaugurated me and makes me laugh. Beef heart is a true marvel.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 05/31/2015 21:07 | #142757
Great Progessive Album,realy ahead of his time.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 07/31/2011 16:56 | #25346
'Mirror Man' is the sound of The Magic Band at it's most deliberately shambolic and free. Long 'live' rambling jams extend the notion of the Blues standard to its limits. Structurally, the Captain game-plays in the Delta tradition but adds theatrically satirical and infantile elements over a creative carpet of complex rhythms and free Blues arrangements. The result is an extraordinary work of pyrotechnical brilliance. With its combination of a bedlam of guitars and percussion, allied to Beefheart's atonality, 'Mirror Man' was the first album of it's kind to shape an aesthetic of 'anti-music' that was truelly revolutionary. The Captain's artistic vision transcends the superficiality of the acid trip by servicing it to the musical theatre of the absurd. As Scaruffi puts it, "This music is the most faithful expression of the Freak culture, of its marginalization more than its rebellion, of its inexhaustible creativity, of its academic disgust, of its infantile ferocity of its desecrating vision of the world".
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of 1971
1. Untitled (Led Zeppelin IV) by Led Zeppelin
2. Who's Next by The Who
3. Hunky Dory by David Bowie
4. What's Going On by Marvin Gaye
5. Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones
6. Blue by Joni Mitchell
7. Tago Mago by Can
8. Meddle by Pink Floyd
9. L.A. Woman by The Doors
10. Tapestry by Carole King
11. Fragile by Yes
12. Bryter Layter by Nick Drake
13. Master Of Reality by Black Sabbath
14. Aqualung by Jethro Tull
15. Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney
16. Imagine by John Lennon
17. Electric Warrior by T. Rex
18. Maggot Brain by Funkadelic
19. There's A Riot Goin' On by Sly & The Family Stone
20. At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band