The Mirror is probably Dream Theater's most relatable song if you ask me. Instead of having a fantasy-like storytelling, this song is very direct with its lyrics, but still vague enough that you can make it fit whatever struggles you yourself have had in life.
The delivery of the lyrics is also quite different from a lot of Dream Theater's other work, and I really like this style which combines a broad range of notes with a broad range of distortion. It really makes it feel personal.
Regarding the instrumentation, it's quite rhythmically interesting. The same sort of grouping of three notes is played by the guitar over and over again throughout most of the song, but it speeds up and slows down and sometimes goes "out of sync" with the drums, and it really makes the guitar part interesting even though playing three of the same note over and over again would not be interesting.
I also love the keyboards that Kevin Moore plays on this song. They sound dramatic, tense and full of emotion, in contrast with most of the "video game-like" stuff that Jordan Rudess does. At times, Moore does quick runs with a sound that's quite similar to modern Dream Theater, but I feel like the keyboards in this song stick to the context of the song much better.
There are only a few things that bring this song down for me. The first is the clips of spoken dialogue. I never really liked it in any song. I want the music to speak for itself, and often it feels like spoken words simply can't fit into a song. But with how limited the usage is in this song, I'm alright with it. The second thing is that there isn't really any catchy riff. Don't get me wrong, the rhythmic guitar riff is really interesting, and some of the keyboard parts and the short guitar riff at the end are a bit catchy, so it's still a really good song. But those two facts together prevent it from being a 9/10 or 10/10 for me personally.
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