The first EP to debut at number one
In the grand scheme of music history, most EPs tend to be considered an afterthought. Although artists might not like to deal with different short releases between their mainline albums, a handful of the greatest artists in the world have made some of their best material when working on bite-sized albums for the market instead of the usual grand spectacle. While most people shy away from not making new music when not on the clock, Alice in Chains gained a massive amount of fans through their smaller releases.
When looking at it objectively, EPs are a perfect way of introducing an artist to someone. Though most artists now like to fill out their single CDs with a fair amount of extra songs slapped together as an EP, those B-sides and extra material leave more space for artists to stretch what they are usually capable of, leading to the most experimental pieces of their catalogue.
Which brings us to the band Alice in Chains. At a time when the Seattle scene was just starting to blow up, Alice in Chains were one of the few bands that could qualify as metal. Although the band’s ethereal harmonies were too pretty to ignore, the sounds of Facelift hit with the force of a sledgehammer, with Jerry Cantrell coming up with tone-bending riffs that felt reminiscent of what Tony Iommi had done with Black Sabbath over a decade prior.
While the band had their fair share of heavy songs like ‘Man in the Box’ make dents in the rock charts, their first idea to experiment came with the EP Sap. Made with the money director Cameron Crowe used to make the soundtrack to the movie Singles, Alice in Chains came out with the most downtempo music of their career, with Cantrell taking the lead vocal on tracks like ‘Brother’ and harmonising to glorious effect with Layne Staley on the song ‘Got Me Wrong’.
Despite being thrown together on a whim, the band’s next step marked their most harrowing listening experience yet on Dirt. Documenting Staley’s heroin abuse, the album practically feels like a journey down to Hell across its few minutes. If Dirt was a concept album, Jar of Flies was the sad aftermath of where everything had gone.
Crafting acoustic songs centred around death and abuse, Staley held nothing back in his performances, talking about how he would ultimately lose his battle with his demons on tracks like ‘No Excuses’ and ‘Nutshell’. While the lyrics were too painful for words, the music was too undeniable to ignore, sending the EP up into the hit parade alongside the biggest albums of the day.
In an era when albums had become the de facto medium of choice, Jar of Flies would debut at number one, marking the first time any other EP had accomplished that feat. Although it would prove to be a success story for Alice in Chains, it only signalled the beginning of the end, with Staley going on hiatus from the group after their next record before passing away of a drug overdose in 2002. As dark as Jar of Flies is on the surface, fans can often relate best when artists open themselves up this bare.
