Alice In Chains-Facelift (1990)
Artist: Alice In Chains
Catalog Number: CK 46075
Year of Release: 1990
Country and Year of Edition: US 1990
Sell Price: $7.21
Sell Date: 9/10/24
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold 9/10/24 NM/VG+ $9.99
Low: $1.25 NM/no cover 7/20/24
Median: $4.49
Average: $4.75
High: $9.99
Current low price: $5.52
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 4
Have/Want: 4774/930
Where Sold: Vanceboro, NC
Time It Took To Sell: 4 months
Where and When Bought: Facebook used $2 cd lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B
Sad To See It Go: No
My friend Kenny was on the road with Mirror Queen in the Midwest last year and noted something as he played a few dates in Ohio. Alice In Chains dominated the airwaves and everywhere there. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam may have ruled the day, but with the RIAA giving multi-platinum certifications as recently as 2022 for their early 90's releases. Something is going on here.
I bought this copy in a low end Facebook CD lot last May with Kenny's story fresh in my mind. In 1990, I thought Facelift actually sounded pretty good skimming it over at WERS. There wasn't much straight guitar rock in the major label realm and it all got lumped in as "alternative" before the grunge era made way for the "Modern Rock" radio format later in the 90's. Still, in 1990, Alice in Chains didn't have the "indie cred" the way Soundgarden, or to a lesser extent Janes Addiction had. They just had a debut on a major label.
Like Pearl Jam after it, this album was a US commercial slow burn released in August 1990, hitting Gold in September 1991, Hitting platinum in August 1993 after the massive success of the successor Dirt, then being popular most of the 90's hitting double platinum in 1997 and tailing off a bit. This got certified triple platinum in 2022 and with streaming, "Man In A Box" received Gold, Platinum and Triple Platinum certifications all on the same day.
Giving this a listen for the first few times ever start to finish, I thought to myself that this is top loaded. The first three tracks are great, and there are a couple standouts later on. I mean whoda thunk lyrics like "take another hit and bury your brother!" or "as you wallow in a sea of sorrow" would transcend beyond metal fist pumpers into preeminent couplets of White America in the industrial Midwest three decades later?
"We Die Young," "Man In A Box" and "Sea of Sorrow" all had videos in their day, the rest did not and you can tell from the YouTube streams, the number of listens to each track. As for the others that stand out to me, "It Ain't Like That" is a nice chugger that lays out the Layne Staley vocal template that millions of lesser lights have tried to mimic as well as some bigger ones on the commercial front long after his 2002 death. I'll include these mentions in the for further review section at the bottom so you get an idea. "Put Me Down" has a nice little Aerosmith "Walk This Way" tangential riff. I Know Somethin (Bout You)" is a bit like The Cult. The closer "Real Thing" takes us back to a foundational Black Sabbath style riff circa Sabotage.
Not a bad achievement for something I initially thought to be headed for the cutout and dollar bins.
FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION
Rage Against The Machine-Evil Empire (1996)
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