Song of the Week #5
*Forewarning* - I apologise to those who don’t use Spotify. Not using iTunes is my last act of musical rebellion against the corporate pigs at Apple, whilst I listen to music on my iPhone and type out a Song of the Week blog on a Macintosh.
This was a complex choice to make. I knew in my mind that Alice In Chains were next up on the list for Song of the Week, and are one of my favourite bands of all time, but therein lies the big question. Which song do I pick?
It would have been so easy to pick one of the songs from Dirt or Facelift and try and explain as though it wasn’t common knowledge, that these were 2 of the definitive (grunge or otherwise) albums of the 1990s, and inspired a generation of future musicians. An alternative which I heavily considered was using a song from the band’s sensational Unplugged live album from 1996 and mention that it was Alice In Chains’ last significant release (bar a couple of songs) before Jerry Cantrell begin a solo career and Layne Staley’s untimely passing due to an overdose in 2002.
Instead however, I thought I would focus on what Alice In Chains represents now. Everybody has a soft spot for so many of the classics that AIC put out in their heyday, but I think the modern-day iteration of the band unjustly doesn’t receive as much credit as they perhaps deserve. The modern day Alice In Chains is a well-oiled machine that keeps on churning out albums every few years since 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue, regularly tour around the world and are welcome additions to every summer’s festival scene. Instead of doing a disservice to Layne, I think the band are doing a terrific job in moving forward hand-in-hand with his memory and creating music for legions of fans around the world - provided they know when to call it quits of course!
The song I’ve linked is Phantom Limb from The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. For me, this album on a whole doesn’t gel together quite as smoothly as Black Gives Way To Blue, but arguably contains some of Jerry Cantrell’s finest ever riffs, and Phantom Limb is no exception. If the opening 5 seconds doesn’t make you want to grab a guitar and tour the world with a rock band, then perhaps listening to the Seattle grunge behemoth really isn’t for you.