"I had a great time making that record," Templeman told The Washington Post's Geoff Edgers, "and Steven was one of the most amazing guys.

"[3] "Let the Music Do the Talking" was a rerecording of the title track from the first album by the Joe Perry Project, with altered lyrics and melody.

According to Chuck Eddy, Aerosmith's version is tougher than the original, "while still appropriately letting Joe's guitar talk–like an elephant, no less-–while Tyler discussed somebody being his 'brand-new drug'.

"[4] The music of "The Reason a Dog" have been compared to the Police's "Invisible Sun" (1981), while its lyrics espouse "tail-wagging canines teaching male-nagging spouses life lessons".

Elsewhere, "Shela" is a syncopated song which, according to Eddy, "almost goes disco, at least in the mid-1980s, ZZ Top sense of the word", while "Gypsy Boots" rides an AC/DC-esque riff until a switch to bass vamps near its conclusion.

[4] However, they would revive their career in 1986 with a landmark remake of 1975's "Walk This Way" with hip-hop group Run DMC, followed by an album that would eventually go 5× Platinum – Permanent Vacation – in 1987.

[14] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that, given the "bad records" Aerosmith had made in the preceding decade, he did not expect to enjoy the "touching reunion" of Done with Mirrors, but praised it "against all odds", saying: "if you can stand the crunch, you'll find more get-up-and-go on the first side than on any dozen random neogarage EP's.

"[15] Also reviewing it for The Village Voice, Eddy considered it superior to other then-recent comeback albums by Tina Turner, the Clash, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and John Fogerty.

[4] Rolling Stone reviewer Jimmy Guterman wrote that unlike the best heavy metal albums, Done with Mirrors is "the work of burned-out lugheads whose lack of musical imagination rivals their repugnant lyrics."

[16] Colin Larkin, in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1997), called the album "a tentative first step" for Aerosmith, following the classic lineup's reformation but prior to Tyler's and Perry's drug rehabilitation programmes and the success of "Walk This Way" and Permanent Vacation.

He finds it superior to Rock in a Hard Place (1982), its predecessor, because Done with Mirrors is "almost entirely the guitarists' and the rhythm section's record, all big, fat chunky funky boxy boogie riffs.

Believing the record was the only mid-1980s musical 'comeback' that lived up to its hype, he highlighted the chaotic opening song where Perry's guitar works similarly to a horn section, "My Fist Your Face" for its "hyperbolically misogynous rap about teenybop hookers and Betty Boop", the AC/DC, Police and ZZ Top touchstones on the succeeding songs, the belated "show-offy" ending of "Gypsy Boots", and the "Chuck Berry-gone-heavy danceability" of "The Hop".