Published on Aug 13, 1998
For much of their far-too-short career, Alice In Chains seemed
to always want to walk the thin line between heavy-hitting rock act
and introspective acoustic musicians. Think about it: after each
full length album the band did, they released something that had
acoustics at the heart of it.
Facelift spawned
Sap;
Alice In Chains spawned
Unplugged. And, in 1994,
Dirt spawned today’s reviewed release,
Jar Of Flies.
Granted, Layne Staley and crew weren’t completely acoustic on
this release, but it did represent a much different band than the
one which had stomped on people’s eardrums with songs like
“Rooster” and “Them Bones” off
Dirt. The first single off this seven-song release, “No
Excuses” was the perfect track to suck people in. An incredibly
infectious drum beat from Sean Kinney, solid bass work from Mike
Inez (formerly of Ozzy Osbourne’s band), catchy acoustic and
electric guitar work from Jerry Cantrell and great harmonizing
vocals from Staley and Cantrell all spelled one thing: hit song.
This track truely earned its stripes.
And while I could have lived without the wah-wah heavy guitar
work from Cantrell on it, “I Stay Away” is another song that showed
how versatile Alice In Chains really were with their music. They
weren’t afraid to add string sections to their songs, simply
because they
worked so well with the material without compromising Alice
In Chains’s original vision of the music.
In a sense, this is what the whole beginning of alternative
music was about: taking chances.
Jar Of Flies features the band taking some surprising
chances, many of which work. From the surprise inclusion of an
instrumental (“Whale & Wasp”) which allows the texture of the
music to take over in place of the lyrics, to possibly the most
beautiful song the band ever did in their career (“Don’t Follow”) ,
to even a swing-based number that occasionally segued into rock
(“Swing On This”), Alice In Chains make some bold musical
statements here, throwing caution to the wind.
Most of the time, it works on
Jar Of Flies. And while it falls flat on the album’s opening
track “Rotten Apple,” these missteps are thankfully few on this
release. (The one remaining track I haven’t talked about,
“Nutshell,” is a decent enough number, but nothing special to my
ears.)
Complaints? Bet you can see this one coming…
Jar Of Flies is so damn good, but it’s so damn short. While
this was meant to be a project for Alice In Chains to kind of “blow
out the cobwebs” and have some fun in the studio, it also was an
album that begged for more songs like this. While I enjoy the heavy
side of Alice In Chains (I’m guaranteed to blow out a set of
speakers every time “Man In The Box” is played in my car), it would
have been interesting to hear how Alice In Chains would have taken
this style of music had they, at the very least, made this into a
full-length album.
Sadly, it looks like we shall not hear from Alice In Chains
again, what with members like Cantrell doing the solo gig and
Staley being the subject of numerous rumors concerning his drug use
and health. While no one has officially declared it, it’s time to
face facts: Alice In Chains is dead. Fortunately for us, albums
like
Jar Of Flies exist to prove just how good this band was, and
allows us to wonder what they would have done past the last two
albums they had in them.
Editor’s note: After this release ran, Alice In Chains released
their box set Music Bank
, which featured a couple of new songs. But until I see a new
full-length studio album from these guys (and as of August 2000
there isn’t one), I stand by my statement that Alice In Chains is
dead.