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Jar of Flies is the third studio EP by American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released on January 25, 1994, by Columbia Records. Jar of Flies was the band's second acoustic EP, after 1992's Sap, and it was the first EP in music history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the first week sales exceeding 141,000 copies in the United States. The self-produced record was written and recorded over the course of just one week at the London Bridge Studio in Seattle. The tracks "No Excuses", "I Stay Away" and "Don't Follow" were released as radio singles to promote the EP. Jar of Flies was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1995: Best Recording Package and Best Hard Rock Performance for "I Stay Away". The EP was well received by critics and has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making Jar of Flies one of the band's most successful releases. In Canada, Jar of Flies was certified double platinum for sales of 200,000 copies. In the United Kingdom, the EP was certified silver after selling 60,000 copies there.
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Jar of Flies is the third EP by rock band Alice in Chains. Though the band is associated with the grunge movement the sound of the band (from Seattle) is more like southern rock. Certainly on this “accoustic” album I get the feeling of being late at night at a bbq with a jar of moonshine (and no flies) in my hand. The music sounds laid back, but also mystical and devilish.
Near perfect. I remember when this came out it totally blew my mind. First time I had a band I love make a big shift from loud full out rock to a subdued brooding sound. Loved it then. Love it now.
I wonder what the ”no EPs” crowd will say about this one? It is longer than some of the albums from the original list (e.g. Zombie, Out of Step), such is the nature of arbitrary classification… Either way, this is something of a classic. Nutshell is an all-timer
Alice in Chains-stream goes mainstream. Still brilliant.
Acoustic rock, grunge, hard rock. Me ha gustado. Un 4.
Finally. It’s quite good
Feels much longer than 30 minutes in the best way possible. The band's dark, hypnotic grunge is intoxicating, and I appreciated how a softer touch in the instrumentals yielded a beautifully melodic album while maintaining the band's heavy, sludgy feel. Great add, not normally an AIC fan but this was a solid album through and through.
I mean Nutshell is good 2
This is one of those albums from my youth that always scared me because of the artwork and an assumption that it was heavy rock. I still don’t like the artwork but the music is far more inviting. Don’t think I’ll be listening again any time soon but was not horrific.
A less heavy Alice In Chains but still Alice In Chains
A lot softer and more tender than I expected. A really nice experience. "Jar of Flies" is maybe the grossest name for an album I've ever heard?
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Rotten Apple, Nutshell, Swing on this
Short and sweet and full of emotion. Fantastic album.
One of the best albums of its day. Nice to hear it again.
I have tried to get into Alice in Chains several times over the years, not least when I was younger and had my mind blown by Nirvana and then Pixies and Soundgarden, all of which had fantastic things about them and really opened my eyes to new feelings and music. But Alice in Chains was always one where I could not work out what the appeal was. It is the same thing but more traditional, more root one, less feeling, more competence. Nothing about it is bad, but nothing about it elevates me or makes me feel anything new or different or exciting. It's just competently put together music, sort of the championship version of a conference pub rock band. It's just the obvious thing done well, and I think that's why I've never been able to get into them. This is again more of the same.
Never was into this particular grunge band for whatever reason. Musically solid, plagued by the usual issue of self-seriousness in this genre.