When you have a collection as vast as the Pierce Memorial
\nArchives (if any more musicians die, we’re going to set off the
\nfire alarm due to the memorial candles), sometimes I don’t always
\nget the opportunity to give an album a second chance. I’ll listen
\nto it a few times, then file it away, digging it out only when I
\nhave a desire to listen to it or to review it.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for me, readers like Trent Nakagawa help to refresh
\nmy memory. In a recent e-mail volley we had, Trent raised the
\nquestion why we hadn’t reviewed anything by Alice In Chains in our
\n13 months on-line – and asked me to take another look at
\nFacelift<\/i>, their 1990 debut album.<\/p>\n
It took some digging, but there it was, next to the Poi Dog
\nPondering and Dire Straits (don’t ask… I gotta stop letting Wild
\nMan Fischer categorize my tapes). And, while
\nFacelift<\/i> has some very solid moments, it mostly captures a
\nyoung band still feeling out where they wanted to go in the
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
One of the harder bands to come out of the Seattle scene, Layne
\nStaley and crew proved themselves to be worth our attention when
\nthey released a three-song EP
\nWe Die Young<\/i>, an album which had me slamming my head into
\nthe walls when I was in college radio. “We Die Young” is an
\nincredible track, featuring the crunching guitar work of Jerry
\nCantrell, Sean Kinney’s trap work and a solid bass line provided by
\nMichael Starr.<\/p>\n
These days, however,
\nFacelift<\/i> is remembered for “Man In The Box,” a song which
\ncombines the best elements of funk, rock and metal and whips ’em
\ninto a whole new flavor of its own. Kinney’s drumming often throws
\nin flashes of thrash with subtle double-bass work, while Cantrell
\nproves himself to be one of the most promising guitarists of this
\ndecade. (I think the term “guitar god” went out in the ’70s with
\ndisco, but if someone were looking to resurrect the term, he’d be
\nan ideal candidate.)<\/p>\n
One of the more telling songs, at least in retrospect, is the
\nalbum’s closer “Real Thing,” the story of a junkie who seems to
\nwant to break free from his addiction. If we had only known that
\nthis could have been Staley’s cry for help, the band’s present-day
\nstatus might have been different. It’s a little sad and painful to
\nlisten to today, seeing that the band has splintered apart due to
\nStaley’s recurrent drug use – but at the time, this cut could have
\nbeen a very poignant picture of a life of addiction.<\/p>\n
There are other solid performances on
\nFacelift<\/i>, notably “Sea Of Sorrow,” “I Know Somethin (Bout
\nYou),” “Confusion” and “Bleed The Freak”, where the band’s talents
\nclearly come across. Maybe the reason we don’t know some of these
\nas well as other Alice In Chains songs is because they really
\ndidn’t fit neatly into any genre. They were too hard for
\nalternative, and not heavy enough for metal – and fortunately for
\nus, they seemed unwilling to compromise in either direction.<\/p>\n
But the biggest problem with
\nFacelift<\/i> is an occasional lack of cohesion and direction.
\nWhen the band kept their songs shorter, they were more in focus.
\nBut on cuts like “Love, Hate, Love” and “Put You Down,” it
\nsometimes feels like they’re drawing the song out for no apparent
\nreason. The end result is I find myself losing focus with the album
\non several occasions.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong, I found more to enjoy about
\nFacelift<\/i> on this listen than I did when I bought the tape
\nback in 1990. It’s just that Staley and crew were still trying to
\nfind their musical niche. (They were still searching when they
\nreleased the EP
\nSap<\/i>, and seemed to find their groove with their next
\nfull-length album,
\nDirt<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
\nFacelift<\/i> is still an album that’s worthy of your attention,
\nthough it might be a little difficult to get through in one
\nsitting. And if you can separate Staley’s problems from the band’s
\nearly days, you may find some surprises lurking on this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5937],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-35896","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alice-in-chains","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35896"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35896"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}