Layne Staley had always had drug problems, but following the overdoes of his then-fiancé, he became a recluse, unable to leave home. He also had trouble reconciling the fact that while his lyrics had preached the dangers of drug use and that he did not want to be the poster boy to the world’s youth who were taking drugs, it is pretty much what he became. All of this meant that any forward progress that the band Alice in Chains wanted to pursue was now impossible.
In this downtime when Layne Staley was 'not in the right frame of mind' to perform his duties for Alice in Chains, Jerry Cantrell instead went forward and began to write for a proposed solo album. He had some songs that had been written and pushed aside for the previous self-titled Alice in Chains album, and he also went forward and wrote more on his own. There were two points of view put forward when it came to the origin of this album. Some places reported that Jerry had been wanting to branch out and put together his own solo album for some time, in order to explore places that he felt didn’t quite fit in the Alice in Chains world. But in later interviews when the album was released, Jerry confirmed that this only came about because of the inactivity of the band, and Layne in particular. He was quoted as saying that he was happy just being the guitarist and singer in that band and could happily have stayed in that position, but the lack of any ability to continue forward with Layne in his condition meant that he had to branch out on his own.
Many people still saw this as an Alice in Chains album despite this. Jerry wrote all the songs, performed all the lyrics and all the guitars. Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney performed the same role for Jerry on this album, while Alice in Chains bass guitarist Mike Inez also appeared on several songs. And when you are the main songwriter for your main band, then surely your solo album isn’t going to sound much different. Is it?
So the biggest question anyone would ask is the first one to answer. And that answer is... yes, of course it sounds like Alice in Chains. Because that’s what Jerry writes. But there are songs that differ from that template, and that you would unlikely hear on an album if the others in the band had been involved in the writing process. Most of that for me comes at the end of the album, where “Hurt a Long Time” is in such a slow soft tempo that it would bely his main band’s sound, and “Between” which has an almost Nashville feel about the vocals and guitar. Then the closing track “Cold Piece” blends organ and piano into the mix, and frankly feels as though it extends beyond its eight and a half minute run time. And his vocals through this song certainly don’t match what he is usually renown for. So it is songs like these three that show the uniqueness that Jerry has brought to this project, which allows it to stand apart from the music everyone knows him so well for.
In the top half of the album though, Jerry delivers the kind of songs that most fans would have been looking for, the ones who were hoping for an extension from his number one priority. “Dickeye” is a great opening track to the album, and followed by another single release in “Cut You In”, both of which showcase the best of Jerry’s writing and performance. The input of piano through songs like “Settling Down” and the organ and cello in “Breaks My Back” bring about a more contemporary feel to those tracks, substituting out the hard core guitars that have been such a showpiece of his earlier music, and allowing him to bring in another side to his music. And it is these differences in particular that made this album difficult to access for the straight line fans, who pretty much wanted a straight copy of Jerry’s other band rather than hear him stretching his talents to other qualities. The middle of the album represents some excellent tracks such as “Jesus Hands”, “Devil by His Side” and “Keep the Light On”.
There’s no doubt that the tempo of this album is much slower and less intense than those great Alice in Chains albums from earlier in the decade. But in the long run, this is what Cantrell was looking for, an outlet for his frustrations of what was happening on that front, and a chance to bring about other styles and songs that differed from what fans knew him for. It was the time and age for that kind of refocusing, and many of the band that were associating themselves with him and his work at the time were going through the same sort of adjustment. Metallica’s “Reload” anyone?!
I really don't remember what the publicity for this album was at the time of its release. As it turns out, I only found it as I was digging away through every CD rack at the Marrickville Metro Sanity store one Saturday morning, and found it sitting there waiting for me to come across it. And, I would have to say, that after I bought it that day, I didn’t see it in any other record store for years afterwards.
I can happily admit that it took some time for me to come around to this album. I mean, the sound of the album – the guitars and vocals especially – was like Alice in Chains songs (to no one's surprise...), but it took me some time to get past not having Layne's vocals on them, and also that definite change in tempo and energy for the most part. Once I had listened to it a number of times through, had gotten over those facts, and accepted the album for what it was – Jerry's album – I found it more to my liking. And my appreciation and enjoyment of it came flowing along with that realisation.
So yes, the songs are very much in the same vein as the Alice in Chains songs that Jerry wrote, and for the most part they work well. A few do tend to get bogged down (no pun intended...) through the middle of the album, but overall if you like Alice in Chains, you will enjoy this album as well.
I have had it turning around my CD player at home and my music playlist at work for the past couple of weeks, and it is still just as enjoyable as it was once I got to know it 25 years ago. On a couple of songs, I still wait for Layne’s melody to come over the top of Jerry’s vocals, and for the guitar to riff hard into that gutteral sound we all know so well. But that is not to be, and it would have changed everything about this album if it did. Which, would then make this not what it is – the first steps of Jerry Cantrell stepping into the second half of his career as a musician.
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