Alice In Chains

[Ars Magna]

I don't know... it just feels like cheating. It's the reason I didn't even listen to the last album. Perhaps I need to give the post-Layne era music a chance.

Totally understand. I was apprehensive when I learned that Layne was being replaced. I had heard all this great stuff about the live replacement, but I never saw them. Then I heard there was an album coming. I was a little like WTF, that is some bullshit. Layne is my favorite vocalist of all time, I couldn't see him being replaced and I still can't...and he wasn't.

I wasn't planning to pick up Black Gives Way to Blue but I heard a track on the radio in a sub shop while on lunch break one day. It sounded cool and it sounded heavy and I thought fuck it. That night I picked it up. Within a minute of the first track I was so happy that I picked it up...it felt like old times for a bit.

Hope, a new beginning
Time, time to start living, like just before we died

Then the swell of the music with these lyrics...

There's no going back to the place we've started from

I mean come ON!!! Still gives me a lump in the throat listening to it now. There are so many places in this record where you can hear Layne...you just know he's there. Fucking crazy.

haha okay now THAT is a good comparison. Every time I revisit Black Gives Way to Blue I like it more and more, but once it's over... so am I. Does that make sense? Perfectly B- material, just not as nifty as the OG Gangsta stuff. I'll probably pick up the new one anyhow, why not?

I do agree that the newer stuff doesn't have the same impact but, again, I say that's just a lack of Layne. The material is strong as hell and there are some tracks I find myself thinking about or that can get an emotional reaction out of me.

Above and beyond all else, their post-Layne material is still better than just about anything comparable.

And while on the topic, I seem to in the minority in that I always thought Facelift was every bit as good as Dirt. Completely different albums, that are equally good in their own right.

Oh, and one last thing... Nirvana sucks ass.

I'm with you on Facelift...solid as hell. It's more raw than Dirt...so damn good. And Nirvana was crap.

 

[NAD]

Yeah the first song on Black Gives Way to Blue is really god damn awesome.

Listened to it again last night, and like always, I enjoy it more each time.

I think my biggest gripe about the album is that Degradation Trip was better.

SHOW OF HANDS: Who loves Dirt but never listened to Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2?

I'm tellin' you people, Cantrell's writing peaked in 2002:



but at half speed really.

 

[einride]

i bought black gives way to blue and i regret it

it's not very good

there's nothing obviously wrong with it but it's hella boring

 

[General Zod]

Hope, a new beginning
Time, time to start living, like just before we died

Then the swell of the music with these lyrics...

There's no going back to the place we've started from

Granted, that's an absolutely brilliant way to commence their return.

I do agree that the newer stuff doesn't have the same impact but, again, I say that's just a lack of Layne. The material is strong as hell and there are some tracks I find myself thinking about or that can get an emotional reaction out of me.

I think part of what made AiC, was you knew the lyrics were deeply personal. You knew he had lived it. You had a sense that what you were listening to was an autobiographical depiction of someone's struggles. It magnified the intensity of everything surrounding it. Now, despite Jerry's original style and immense talent, I can't help but feel like I'm listening to an impostor. And in much the same way that Layne's presence amplified it, his absence muffles it. Truth be told, I wasn't even some rabid AiC fanboy. But for whatever reason, I'm mentally hung up on the fact that it's not Layne.

 

[Ars Magna]

I think part of what made AiC, was you knew the lyrics were deeply personal. You knew he had lived it. You had a sense that what you were listening to was an autobiographical depiction of someone's struggles. It magnified the intensity of everything surrounding it.

There's certainly no arguing the deeply personal nature of their lyrcis but, at the same time, a great deal of those lyrics were written by Jerry. Many people think 'Would?' was written by Layne about his drug use when it was actually written by Jerry about someone in Mother Love Bone. Jerry was responsible for at least half (if not more) of the lyrical output.

I completely agree that Layne left a massive hole in the band and, on the surface, they simply aren't the same. But if you give it the time it deserves, I think you'll find that AiC is still alive. BGWTB is a grower.

 

[dorian gray]

Listening to Facelift right now. "Sunshine" kicks my dick in

 

[NAD]

I woke up this morning with I Can't Remember stuck in my head. Pretty neat.

Facelift is a surprisingly good album today that 20 years ago was merely okay.

 

[dorian gray]

I need to get it on cassette

 

[dorian gray]

put you down down down
gonna put you down down

 

[NAD]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alice-In-Ch...326123?pt=Music_Cassettes&hash=item3f2288bc6b

 

[dorian gray]

awesome

 

[Krilons Resa]

AIC were a GREAT band. The best of that so-called "grunge" scene and the one of the very few high marks of the 90's. There is no reason I see as to why you, Erik, shouldn't really enjoy this band seeing how you love Katatonia, Deadboy, et al.

"Very few high marks of the 90's" LMAO...what an idiot.

Anyway, I finally bought Degradation Trip after all these years of NAD waxing poetic about it. I'm about to listen to it in a lil bit.

 

[NAD]

Oh wow. Did you get the double album version? It is vastly superior to the single disc release. The track order and extra songs (which are mostly better than the initial songs [that never happens]) make it all come together into magical perfection. Pig Charmer was on repeat in my life for about 3 years in a row at one point. I probably talked about that song 40 times in this thread already.

Dirt remains a highlight of my existence. Degradation Trip volumes 1 & 2 isn't that far behind really. I also enjoy the newer Layneless AiC stuff, but it's not the same. I finally saw them live right when Ranier Fog was released. It was probably the most positive crowd I have ever been in, bunch of old school dudes just being polite and rocking out. I spent a good portion of that show hanging out with Scott Reeder and his wife, by complete chance.

Pretty drunk tonight.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Naa, just the single disc version.

Dirt is one of the best albums of all-time, imo.

 

[NAD]

If you dig it at all, I strongly suggest the two disc version. The track order is different and it has 11 more songs. They aren't B-sides. At all.

Put it this way. On the single disc version, the "hit" is track #3, front-loaded just like a radio friendly unit shifter. On the double disc version, it's track #21 and by the time you get to it you sort of fall apart in this wash of angst and fear and happiness and holy fuck man I can't even describe it.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Color me intrigued. You have a way of selling teh chit.

 

[SonOfNun]

I had Facelift and Dirt back in the day and they ruled. Probably need to pick those back up. Freakin' Rooster man.

 

[Krilons Resa]

I actually hate that song. Probably 'cuz it always around. Enough already.

 

[SonOfNun]

I've never heard any AiC song unless I put it on.

 

[Krilons Resa]

I've never heard any AiC song unless I put it on.