The Depths · All albums

Jar of Flies

Alice in Chains · 1994

• Scores: Noise 1, Unease 1, Complexity 1 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock, Acoustic Rock
• Mood: brooding, hushed, melancholic
• Sound: acoustic guitars, close vocal harmonies, strings, slow tempos, short EP

Alice in Chains recorded this EP in a week in September 1993 at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, where the band were living after being evicted from their home, and self-produced it with Toby Wright engineering and mixing. Staley asked that Pro Tools not be used. Wright used the pickups from Cantrell's guitars for live floor recordings to keep the acoustic guitars sounding acoustic, and most tracks were captured in one or two takes. The syncopated opening of No Excuses came from Sean Kinney's improvised side-stick experiments, combined with bongos.

Track list

1. Rotten Apple (6:58)
2. Nutshell (4:19)
3. I Stay Away (4:14)
4. No Excuses (4:15)
5. Whale & Wasp (2:37)
6. Don't Follow (4:22)
7. Swing on This (4:04)