Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains (1995)^{Release ID: 143}

By the time they came around to this album the strain was showing on AIC.  Stayley had relapsed and as a result the core song topic of drugs just got replaced by utter nonsense.  Not even Cantrell could rein back in the discordant nature that had seeped into the lyrical content as the song structures and compositions themselves suffered from an equally chaotic and at times downright messy arrangement.  Often this left the listener with a sense that any harmony in the band was now as obsolete as the form of the tracks and album as a whole suggested.

Things start off well as opening track “Grind” just seems to effortlessly pick up where the previous record left off.  Like some bonus track offering of a continuation of “Jar Of Flies” it offers real promise that sadly dies almost immediately with “Brush Away”.  As the album continues only “Heaven Beside You” stands out as being anything like memorable, albeit more for the fact of how underwhelming it is.

If you can bring yourself to sit through all twelve tracks then it is hard not to feel weary post-listen.  Somehow the flat and stale air of the record lingers in the sense of a real fatigue that sits like a heavy meal in your stomach that was largely devoid of flavour even in the form of garnish.

The year earlier the band had a billboard number one with the same line up,FFS!