Objects in Mirror Appear Greater Than They Are

Stephen Kellogg is a nice, hardworking guy. He’s played over 1,500 shows over the last decade. Named Armed Forces Entertainer of the Year, he’s been invited to speak to students at Columbine High School about social justice. He’s even given a TEDx talk on job satisfaction. A devoted family man, he sings about his wife and four daughters, hard work, forgiveness, hope, and perseverance on the self-released Objects in the Mirror, produced by his friend, admirer, and fellow singer-songwriter Will Hoge.  

Kellogg has said that he wanted to make an album that sounded like the ones he grew up loving from Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Cat Stevens, and Tom Petty. Indeed, the bright production and arrangements of ringing acoustic guitars, organ, pedal and lap steel, accordion, handclaps, and Kellogg’s pleasant tenor check all the right boxes. The lyrics promote optimism, love, and the joy of family. The women in his life are celebrated as well, including a love song to his wife (“Love of My Life”) and advice to his daughters (“Song for Daughters”), and his late grandmother even makes an appearance via soundbite before the title track.

In its best moments, Objects in the Mirrordelivers as intended; the celestial “Orion” – billed as a tribute to Tom Petty – drifts along on gentle acoustic fingerpicking and nocturnal electric guitar fills as Kellogg offers his best Ryan Adams-like vocal. “Right There with You,” the best song here, is a classic-sounding singer-songwriter ballad pledging loyalty – either to a lover or higher power – and featuring swaying accordion weaving in and around lightly-strummed guitars in ¾ time.

On the downside, as well-intended as “Love of My Life” may be, and as radio-ready as the track may sound, digging deeper won’t reveal much more than the surface offers. That’s the problem with much of Objects in the Mirror, everything is played safe. While there is comfort in that, it’s generally not a tactic that demands repeat plays or rewards engaged listening.

The title track is a long, meandering dirge that attempts to tie together, among other events, Kellogg’s birth, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, and Tom Petty’s death. If the song aims for profundity, the result is mere contrivance. “Prayers,” featuring Jon McLaughlin on piano, may at first appear to be an uplifting ballad, is actually just Kellogg telling you to get over yourself. Sample lyric: “I’m not trying to be a jerk / but say your prayers, get off your ass, and get back to work.” Gee, thanks. I feel so much better now.

Musically, “High Highs Low Lows” recalls the heyday of Texas singer-songwriters while lyrically recounting a friendship that apparently went south. The narrator however, seems to place all the blame on the former friend while taking no responsibility himself, resulting in unintended self-righteous posturing.

Though Kellogg’s heart may be in the right place for most of Objects in the Mirror – and you can’t fault a guy for wanting to write songs that for the most part celebrate our better nature – the lyrics never dig quite as deep as the subject matter sometimes warrants, while musically, the album rarely ventures beyond the generic.

A mirror reflects an image without absorbing it. It’s a one-dimensional facsimile. Ironically, in an attempt to make an album that measured up to his heroes, Stephen Kellogg’s Objects in the Mirror is merely a reflection of them.