Alice In Chains – Sap

I'm only a casual Alice in Chains fan, but I've heard all of their stuff, and this is my favourite. All their studio albums sound the same to me: the first three, the Jerry Cantrell solo album, and even the comeback from a couple years ago -- all the same churning grunge quasi-metal. Not bad stuff by any means, but there's little variation.

By contrast, this EP (and to a slightly lesser extent, Jar of Flies, which is good, but which I found a little too emotionally heavy) demonstrate a respectable range of songwriting and performance capability. Cantrell's gift for melody is firing on all cylinders here, and the band moves effectively from acoustic, bluesy passages to dynamic rock. The surprising addition of Ann Wilson is just great.

As someone who was not a big fan of the overblown grunge/alternative movement of the early-90s, I think Sap is their finest moment and most enjoyable outing. There were so many lousy bands and records that came out of that time, many of them just following what other bands did. It's nice to look back, weed through the blandness, and come away with a work that stands up 20 years later.