ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 304 ALICE IN CHAINS - JAR OF FLIES (1994)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

We go from last week's depressing news to a band who suffered the loss of their lead vocalist way too soon.  Jar Of Flies by Alice In Chains was released in 1994.  It's actually an EP.  It was the first EP to debut in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart (it sold 141,000 albums in it's first week).  It has been certified Triple Platinum by the RIAA.  That's pretty impressive considering that the highest charting single was No Excuses at number 48.  

I will say that I really wish Staley was still alive.  I loved his vocal style and the sound the band got with him and Cantrell both tracking the vocals.  I always say Chris Cornell is my favorite 90's era vocalist, but Staley is right there with him.

Not much else to say.  You can pick the EP up on Amazon for just over six dollars.  Useless nugget here, I bought this and Above by Mad Season on April 14th, 2010 from Amazon.

Tracks:

1. Rotten Apple

2. Nutshell

3. I Stay Away

4. No Excuses

5. Whale & Wasp

6. Don't Follow

7. Swing On This 

[Niels (Mod)]

I was very close, buying this album back in 1994, but for some reason I didn't. I think, it was because it was "just" an EP. Aound that time, I figured, I would want something for my money, and therefore I loved when a CD was 75+ min. Off course the music was THE most important thing, but I certainly didn't like the way Staley sang, or the way 2 people sang lead-vocals at the same time. It sounds soooo depressing.

I ended up buying "Dirt" or whatever it was called in stead of this one, and since I didn't like that much, I never considered buying this again.

Rotten Apple goes nowhere, and I feel depressed now.

In Nutshell, he actually sounds like Scott Weiland. It suits the song, that his vocal isn't "multiplied", or whatever. A leadvocal should be 1 voice alone. But I'm still depressed.

I love the start to "I Stay Away". But it doesn't get better than the start. Worse, in fact. I'm so drepressed.

"No Excuses" and I'm still annoyed by the vocals. I need a fast track. Some rock'n'roll. Wait, I remember this one. Probably from MTV?! Best one so far. I'm getting happier.

After a boring instrumental follows "Don't Follow", which at first reminds me of REM. But it's also slow and boring. It also reminds me of Temple Of The Dog, and it's not good, if you're me, and I am me.

Unless the last track is AWESOME, I'm glad I didn't waste money on this EP back then.

Nope, it's also a boring "twin-lead vocalist"-song. Now I think of Nirvana for some reason, and that's not a good thing either.

Even though, AIC actually released a good album a few years ago, I have to say, that I think they are very much overrated.

[Jon]

I've heard the first four songs quite a few times for some reason. Maybe they were played on the radio or something. It's actually not too bad, and it is quite the departure from their previous full-length album. I like it when they rock, but I must be in a mellow mood because I really can't say anything bad about this. Now, if they were "grunge" then it would suck, but AIC is not grunge and I don't care what anyone else says.

Listening to this made me want to listen to Jerry Cantrell's Boggy Creek. Don't know why?????

[Scott]

never owned an Alice In Chains album, and can recall the new one or two that posted here a couple years back.  Very depressing band.  I'll get to this right after my therapy session...

[Scott]

I realize fans of this band love the vocalist, but he's just not very interesting to me.  I don't get the monotone/depressing quality that comes across, everything is muted, the chord changes are uninteresting and minimal, the beats are slow and plodding.

There is some interesting guitar work in some of the lead and at least they buck trend of 90's no guitar solos thing - whatever that was supposed to be about.  But for this to even be kind of barely interesting it needs for of that guitar work because the guy playing it is really good!  But, overall this is totally not for me, and if I ever hear another Alice In Chains song or album again it will be way too soon.. 

Feel like I need to thrown on some REM Shiny Happy People to combat this depression...