Alice in Chains

Drudgy, bleak and at times grim, this album is ultimately revealing, as if the slowed-down tempos allowed listeners to accurately see what lay beyond the blur of drugs, depression beanies and dank hair. There's a winsome quality and a rare innocence in Layne Staley's lyrics and Jerry Cantrell's almost country picking on a song like "Brother," and a sad elegance and foreshadow in many of the songs, especially "No Excuses" and "Rooster." "Sludge Factory" is a wounded animal of a song, and you can see the footprints of Staley's brooding aesthetic in a generation of singers that came after him.

Considering the hard, serrated edges of Alice in Chains' first two albums, it came as a
surprise when the band opted for an understated, semi-acoustic tack on 1994's Jar of Flies
EP. Even more surprising were the subtle dynamics and pensive singer/songwriter airs
stirred up by the band's slowing down and stripping back. With this live set recorded for
MTV, Alice in Chains take their acoustic experimentation to its inevitable, logical... More >