Music Monday: Alice In Chains “Jar Of Flies” Turns 27

The 3rd studio EP by Alice In Chains “Jar Of Flies” was released on January 25, 1994

Originally planned to post this two years ago on the albums 25th anniversary release.

Alice In Chains had done quite well at releasing studio material early on in their career. By this point, there were two full albums “Facelift” and “Dirt” And as stated above, this third EP, the first two being “We Die Young” from 1990 and “Sap” from 1992. This one was different in that it came out when the band was hugely popular. So this EP has the designation of being the first ever to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart at number 1. The EP would eventually go on to sell more than 4 million copies.

Track Listing

1. “Rotten Apple”
2. “Nutshell”
3. “I Stay Away”
4. “No Excuses”
5. “Whale & Wasp”
6. “Don’t Follow”
7. “Swing on This”

Acoustically Speaking

While this has the feel and sound of being an acoustic album, there are harder jams on a few of the 7 songs, with “I Stay Away” being the hardest. Going the softer route, it’s “Don’t Follow” that is the most mellow. For my favorite song on this album, it’s got to be “Nutshell” with the lyrics “And yet I fight/This battle all alone” which gives the song a depressing meaning, but very open on where life is. Most likely referring to Layne and his state of where he was then. The band would follow up this EP with the self-titled third full studio album in 1995. Other than the Unplugged album, which is a masterpiece and easily my favorite Alice In Chains album, the band went through many years without any new music, with Layne losing his drug addiction battle in April 2002 and eventually with William DuVall coming into the lead vocalist position in 2006.

It’s such a great EP and one that any fan of Alice In Chains has easily embraced.