Fave Song On Alice In Chains - Dirt?

i'm with the person who said "dam that river" is the weakest here. still a jam, just kinda lacks the "this song has a dark underbelly that's even scarier than the surface" feeling of pretty much every other track for me

it is an excellent track two for that reason tho

I love the prechorus of “hate to feel”, seriously intense vocal harmony

you love to feel it

i'll not hear any dam that river slander.

I have mad love for the title track on this. it's the slow-burning heart of the album, a centerpiece if you will.

also, this verse always gets under my skin:

You, you are so special
You have the talent to make me feel like dirt
And you, you use your talent to dig me under
And cover me with dirt

it's kind of a testament how my darker moodset was already almost in place by high school because I lent this album to a friend and he returned it and I asked him how he liked it and he hated it and said "this shit is way too depressing" and he quoted the title track to me and I was like "oh...that? who among us hasn't felt this w etc etc"

truly the most perfect intro

I went through a heavy AiC binge a few weeks ago so this revive is hitting the spot <3

probably gonna spin this later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIR9dkEA_c

Playing and tempo is pretty loose, but pretty much the better for it, and his bass tone is the sound of grunge.

this was one of the albums that i learned how to type with
i would just type the lyrics as i heard them and try to keep up with the song

"AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

lol

I love Hate to Feel. One of the few weak chinks in the album though is how it is sequenced so close to Angry Chair, which has a very similar structure (I actually prefer Hate to Feel).

And yes the title track is immense.

middle 8 to “angry chair” is so great.. LOST MY MIND YEAAAAHHH

that was my favorite part of the song growing up

Layne's voice frightened me on "God Smack" too

was blasting this shit in the car earlier. it was never exactly my fave back in the day but fuck me

I've not listened to the whole album in a good long while but god it's so beautifully produced. Every slough, every murky corner is lit like an M.R. James story. I don't mind admitting I struggle with Staley's voice over a sustained period but as a document of what he was capable of, this is the album.

Sean Kinney is a motherfucker.

one thing I love about the song "Dirt" is that it's one of the songs that comes to mind when searching for music in the vein of PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me.

what's everyone's preferred placement of "down in a hole"

i feel corny for preferring it as a penultimate track. wiki says the band wanted it as track four, but the citation for this information is an interview that... doesn't really reflect that claim

i think my reasoning is less about "down in a hole" and more about how "rain when i die" -> "sickman" is sort of a signal that the record will just be a deepening vortex of bad vibes and things will never get better

The intro to Rain When I Die is gruesome

yknow brad i kind of like that idea, because as much as i enjoy it as a kind of "breather" after three songs of wonderful sludge, i always thought that having "angry chair" and "would?" back to back made the ending of this album feel really abrupt, like it seems that there should be something in between those two songs..

it = "down in a hole"

otoh, the "i don't mind.." and "i'd like to flyyyy" parts are maybe a little too similar to be back to back? but maybe that's not a problem!

"Junkhead" is my #1

Eric Harvey for Pitchfork Sunday

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/alice-in-chains-dirt/

someone upthread said that “sickman” was their dazed & confused but it’s clearly “hate to feel”!

the weighting of tracks in this poll is probably about right, but I think I'd bump up the title track a few notches, and Sickman could go down a bit. maybe.

there are so many devastating lines on this album, but one that's unfairly overlooked is "ah, what's the difference, I'll die in this sick world of mine". obviously the entire album is focused on how his addiction was killing him and knowing where it all leads to but there's such an eerie fatalism to that one line, one that hints at much more of a desire to escape it than he shows elsewhere on the album, but understanding the odds are stacked against him