ALICE IN CHAINS — Jar Of Flies (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Jar Of Flies album cover EP · 1994 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Stooge
Alice In Chains continues what has been a rather successful pattern of releases: heavy studio album (Facelift), unplugged and mellow EP (Sap), back to a heavy full-length (Dirt), and once again a more laid-back EP with Jar Of Flies.

As a bass player myself, I am impressed by Mike Inez on his first album with the band. His playing in particular on “Nutshell” and “No Excuses” is very tasteful and compliments the songs to great effect. Opener “Rotten Apple” sounds like it was written around Inez’s repeating riff. Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell share lead vocal duties as they often do, with their voices meshing the greatest on “I Stay Away” and “No Excuses”. “No Excuses”, which also features rather inventive drum patterns by Sean Kinney, and “Nutshell” are my personal favorites on this EP.

I like the Cantrell-lead tune “Don’t Follow”, which has a slight western vibe with Layne’s somewhat twangy backing vocals and nice use of harmonica courtesy of guest David Atkinson. It sounds like a more appropriate closing track than “Swing On This”. Much like the fifth track on Sap, “Swing On This” comes across as more of a novelty song (though much less extreme than the so-called "Love Song"). At least it sounds like they had a blast playing it, and at least they didn’t hide the track this time ‘round :).

A great release by Alice In Chains, though I’d give Sap a slight edge as the superior EP.
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