Alice In Chains - Jar of flies

1994

Track Listing                        

1. Rotten apple                               5. Whale & Wasp                                                       

2. Nutshell                                      6. Don't follow                                    

3. I stay away                                 7. Swing on this

4. No excuses                                                                         

Band Members:                                                                                                                

Layne Staley - Vocals        Jerry Cantrell - Guitar, vocals      Michael Inez - Bass, backing vocals  

Sean Kinney - Drums, percussion                Produced By:   Alice in Chains       

Notes

Alice chains followed their breakthrough album dirt with a second E.P., Jar of flies.  As their first E.P., this is loaded with great material.  Two of the bands biggest hits, "I stay away" and "No excuses" can be found here.  The stand out track to me though is the haunting "Nutshell", which is the opening track on their MTV Unplugged album.  Listening to it since the passing of vocalist Layne Staley sends shivers down my spine.  I've also seen an impressive live cover of this song by Seether.  Jar of flies peaked at number 1 on the Billboard chart, the first E.P. to ever do so, and the only until 2004. 

Recommendations

A classic album.  Unfortunately there are only seven tracks, but these seven tracks fail to disappoint.  A most own for any music collector.

If you plan on purchasing Jar of flies

You get more of your money's worth with Jar of flies than you do with their other E.P., Sap, but it's still a bit pricy.  The problem here, unlike Sap is that you can not get all of these tracks on their Essential album.  Great tracks such as "Rotten Apple", "Nutshell" and "Don't follow" are left off, making the original 1994 release the version to own.  You can usually find it at your local record store, but if not, give Cdnow.com a try.

If you don't plan on purchasing Jar of flies but want to hear some tracks from it

You will want all of these tracks with maybe the exception of the finale, "Swing on this"  Even the short instrumental "Whale & Wasp" is a must own.  Every time I hear that track I just get so moved by the beautiful sounding orchestra, which goes well with Jerry Cantrell's chilling guitar.  If you're wanting these tracks individually you can purchase them at either Itunes or Napster.  For ideas on making a compilation disc, I also have my ideal compilation for the band on my Alice in Chains Home Page

My Top 5