Dirt (album)
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| Alice in Chains studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
March - May 1992 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
57 min 35 s |
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Alice in Chains and Dave Jerden |
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Studio (s) |
Eldorado Studio, Burbank , London Bridge Studio, Seattle , One on One Studio, Los Angeles |
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Dirt is the second studio album by the grunge band Alice in Chains , released on September 29, 1992 on Columbia Records . The album marked the breakthrough for the band Alice in Chains and is considered by many to be their best work. Its release date coincides with the height of the grunge wave. It is listed in the 1001 albums You Must Hear Before You Die , "1001 albums that you have to hear before you die".
style
Dirt is mostly described as darker and more melancholy than the previous album Facelift . Songs like Sickman , Them Bones or Junkhead should be mentioned here, but there is also a ballad called Down in a Hole . Much of the songs were written while the band was on tour.
Bassist Mike Starr said that the band with their "depressive lyrics primarily deal with their own problems". Although other band members also took alcohol or medication at the time, this mainly affects singer Layne Staley's heroin addiction . Especially in the songs Sickman , Junkhead , Dirt , God Smack (Smack is a slang expression for heroin), Hate to Feel and Angry Chair , the singer's heroin experiences are discussed. Angry Chair is about a "bad trip ". Mike Starr said, however, that the band distanced themselves from hard drugs in the song God Smack with the line "Can't get high or you will die". Staley himself was later self-critical of the lyrics on Dirt , saying that he didn't want fans to feel encouraged to use drugs.
Them Bones is about mortality in general. Down in a Hole , written by Jerry Cantrell , refers to the unhappy situation in an extended relationship. The song Rooster is based on the experiences of Jerry Cantrell's father, who fought in the Vietnam War. His nickname was "Rooster" back then. In the accompanying music video shot by Mark Pellington , he begins by talking about his experiences. The song Would? with its identically pronounced Title Andrew Wood , the late singer of Mother Love Bone , dedicated. The video for Would? contains scenes from the film Singles - Lonely Together by Cameron Crowe , in which the band had a guest appearance. The song was also released on the soundtrack of the film that was being released at the same time, which was released on June 30, 1992 and was successful before the film released in September. In the song Iron Gland, which is not listed on the record , Tom Araya from the band Slayer can be heard as a guest singer. The short song came about when Cantrell was playing a hard riff that the rest of the band didn't want to hear. The title of the piece, which was only later published on the Music Bank box set, is an allusion to the song Iron Man by Black Sabbath .
History of origin
The album was re-recorded with Dave Jerden from March to May 1992 at the Eldorado Studio in Burbank , California , the London Bridge Studio in Seattle and the One on One Studio in Los Angeles . This led to conflicts between Jerden and Layne Staley, as the former advised him to stay sober with the recordings. When released in September 1992, the record peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Music Charts and has gone platinum four times over the years. After Would? nor were Them Bones , and Angry Chair (all 1992) and Rooster and Down in a Hole published (1993) as singles. The band played u. a. with Ozzy Osbourne on his No More Tears tour. Shortly before, Layne Staley broke his foot in an accident, so that he initially had to go on stage with crutches. During this tour, bassist Mike Starr left the band and was replaced by Ozzy Osbourne bassist Mike Inez . In 1993, the band played with Primus , Tool , Rage Against the Machine , and Babes in Toyland the Lollapalooza -Festivaltour, the last major tour with Staley.
reception
The magazine Visions led the album at position 14 of the "100 most important records of the nineties". The magazine also put the record at number 30 of its "150 albums for eternity" chosen in 2005. In the 500-track list of the best of the editorship of Rock Hard magazine , Dirt took 77th place. Andreas Himmelstein called the album the “masterpiece” by Alice in Chains, but you really have to deal with it to understand it. In the then issue of the magazine, Götz Kühnemund named Alice in Chains an “extraordinary band” and the best of the Seattle bands . He highlighted Jerry Cantrell's "fat" guitar and Layne Staley's "expressive, somewhat tearful voice" and awarded nine out of ten points. In the “editorial charts” in November 1992, the album took first place with an average score of 8.9 points. On allmusic .com, Steve named Huey Dirt one of the most "excruciating" concept albums ever recorded in view of Staley's addiction. He praised the musical qualities of the band as well as the "honesty of self-disclosure". The rating was four and a half stars out of five.
Track list
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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- Them Bones - 2:30 (Cantrell)
- Dam That River - 3:09 (Cantrell)
- Rain When I Die - 6:01 (Cantrell / Staley / Kinney / Starr)
- Sickman - 5:29 (Cantrell / Staley)
- Rooster - 6:15 (Cantrell)
- Junkhead - 5:09 (Cantrell / Staley)
- Dirt - 5:16 (Cantrell / Staley)
- God Smack - 3:50 (Cantrell / Staley)
- Iron Gland - 0:43 (Cantrell, the song is not listed in the booklet)
- Hate to Feel - 5:16 (Staley)
- Angry Chair - 4:47 (Staley)
- Down in a Hole - 5:38 (Cantrell)
- Would? - 3:28 (Cantrell)
With some versions of the album, u. a. the later US version, Down in a Hole is included in fourth position. The title list corresponds to the European version.
Re-use
Opeth coverten Would? , which was released on the single Burden from the album Watershed . Three Days Grace covered Rooster .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rock Hard: Best of Rock and Metal , pp. 192f.
- ↑ a b www.allmusic.com: Dirt review by Steve Huey
- ↑ www.rocklistmusic.co.uk: List of 1001 albums , accessed March 15, 2010.
- ↑ a b www.rockhard.de: Dirt review by Götz Kühnemund
- ↑ a b c Holger Stratmann: Alice in Chains - Scheißdreck , in: Rock Hard, No. 66, November 1992, pp. 24-25
- ↑ www.rollingstone.com: Jon Wiederhorn: Alice in Chains: To Hell and Back
- ↑ a b Booklet Boxset Alice in Chains - Music Bank
- ↑ Blair R. Fischer: Malice in Chains? In: www.rollingstone.com. September 4, 1998, archived from the original on November 14, 2007 ; accessed on October 26, 2014 (English).
- ↑ www.riaa.com: Alice in Chains , accessed March 14, 2010.
- ↑ Visions No. 82, January 2000
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US