SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (9)
By:
November 1, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… ska records! PLAYLIST HERE. Series edited by Josh Glenn.
People think The English Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom” is about doing cocaine off a mirror, but it’s not. According to composer and vocalist Dave Wakeling, the idea for the song came to him as he was shaving in the mirror. The night before, he’d been out drinking. That morning, he’d discovered his wet clothes on the bathroom floor. “Dave, we don’t have to do this, mate,” he told his reflection. In the mirror, he could see the small latch on the bathroom door. “The door’s locked,” he said. “There’s only me and you. Just me and you here.”
I like the song because it sounds like an insane person is singing it. I mean: the frenetic, pogo-stick-like nature of the bass line alone would be exacerbating the situation were this track to be played in a mental institution. The lyrics bounce between wallowing in modern-day, urban-induced, hyper-narcissism and the toppling of an unstable mind teetering on the brink. Wakeling’s voice is plaintive, strained, and desperate. He seems to want to be saved from his situation but knows it’s too late for him to be rescued or transcend to salvation.
At the time “Mirror in the Bathroom” was released, I was around twelve or thirteen years old and in the seventh or eight grade. I have no recollection whatsoever of hearing this song for the first time. In all likelihood, I listened to it on the stereo in the living room of the house that my father had left not long before. I was a latchkey kid — that is, I spent a fair amount of time by myself in an empty house after school — and I can easily imagine this smaller version of me turning the radio up full blast when this track was on and dancing around in a kind of spastic ritual. The stark loneliness of the lyrics — “Cures you whisper make no sense” — would have been relatable to me.
Recently, I started listening to the song while working on a novel that I’m writing. The book is set in the San Fernando Valley’s adult movie industry, and the main character, who is a man, is mentally unraveling over the course of a single day. Usually, when I’m writing fiction, I listen to, for example, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, or, say, Fleetwood Mac, or, at other times, The D.O.C. Then I discovered that “Mirror in the Bathroom” works well for pounding out prose, too, especially if I loop it and am wearing AirPods so it seems as if the music is being piped directly into my brain. After a while, I feel like I’m going crazy.
SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Lucy Sante on Margarita’s WOMAN COME | Douglas Wolk on Millie’s MAYFAIR | Lynn Peril on Prince Buster’s TEN COMMANDMENTS | Mark Kingwell on The [English] Beat’s TEARS OF A CLOWN | Annie Nocenti on Jimmy Cliff’s MISS JAMAICA | Mariane Cara on The Selecter’s ON MY RADIO | Adam McGovern on The Specials’ GHOST TOWN | Josh Glenn on The Ethiopians’ TRAIN TO SKAVILLE | Susannah Breslin on The [English] Beat’s MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM | Carl Wilson on Prince Buster / Madness’s ONE STEP BEYOND | Carlo Rotella on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET | Rani Som on The Bodysnatchers’ EASY LIFE | David Cantwell on Desmond Dekker’s 007 (SHANTY TOWN) | Francesca Royster on Joya Landis’ ANGEL OF THE MORNING | Mimi Lipson on Folkes Brothers’ / Count Ossie’s OH CAROLINA | Alix Lambert on The Specials’ TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG | Marc Weidenbaum on Dandy Livingstone’s RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU | Heather Quinlan on Fishbone’s MA & PA | Will Hermes on The [English] Beat’s WHINE & GRINE / STAND DOWN MARGARET | Peter Doyle on The Skatalites’ GUNS OF NAVARONE | James Parker on The [English] Beat’s SAVE IT FOR LATER | Brian Berger on The Upsetters’ RETURN OF DJANGO | Annie Zaleski on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ SOME DAY I SUPPOSE | Deborah Wassertzug on The Bodysnatchers’ TOO EXPERIENCED | Dan Reines on The Untouchables’ I SPY FOR THE FBI.
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