Track Listing

1. Nutshell
2. Brother
3. No Excuses
4. Sludge Factory
5. Down In A Hole
6. Angry Chair
7. Rooster
8. Got Me Wrong
9. Heaven Beside You
10. Would
11. Frogs
12. Over Now
13. Killer Is Me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4053 in Music
• Released on: 1996-07-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

CD Description
UNPLUGGED isn't Alice In Chains' first unplugged record; it's just the first official, MTV-sanctioned one. The EPs JAR OF FLIES and SAP are both low-key, mostly-acoustic outings that achieved a similar vibe without the benefit of an MTV appearance. Which is to say Alice In Chains isn't jumping on abandwagon here; they're doing more of something they do very well.
UNPLUGGED features acoustic versions of songs from every record in the Seattle band's catalogue except its debut, FACELIFT. And it heavily features guitarist Jerry Cantrell, who wrote or co-wrote 12 of these 13 songs, including the previously-unrecorded "Killer Is Me". Cantrell's vocals pace that one along with "Heaven Beside You" and "Over Now". Lead singer Layne Staley, meanwhile, finds a fitting outlet here for his creaky voice, particularly as he tackles harrowing images of drug addiction in "Sludge Factory" and "Down In A Hole".

Customer Reviews

Powerful and moving
This is a very special album. MTV's unplugged series continues with the band that seemed very unlikely to lend itself to this format.

Strip away the production, special effects and heavy instrumentation of the albums and suddenly the mastery of Alice in Chains music is laid bare. This album is easily as surprising and involving as the Nirvana Unplugged session. It certainly is not as viceral as most of the studio albums and reflects most closely the Sap EP, it is however as loaded with angst, frustration and pain as the original album recordings, if not more so.

It has been said on another review that Layne was drugged up to the eyeballs to do this recording, this problem was an issue throughout his career and eventually (and sadly) took his life. His off stage lifestyle and depresive mindset coloured his music and is a big part of why AIC's music was so heartwrenchingly effective. This live set is no different to that of the albums in that sense.

This session in my opinion, like that of Nirvana MTV appearence, affirms the bands mastery of songcraft and is a fitting tribute to a fine singer/songwriter whos music will live on in the powerful and classic albums that he left behind.

Beautiful
Apparently, this album has split the jury; those who love it and those who feel it doesn't do justice to the original material. I fall into the former. Some of tracks differ from the originals ever so slightly (take No Excuses or any of the slower songs) where some stand quite separate from the originals. I do not feel the acoustic thing was an mtv gimmick. This album feels honest. The harmonising between Layne and Jerry on this record is the best you'll find. The song arrangement was brilliant. Material from every AiC LP/EP is included and done performed brilliantly. The album flows track to track summating to something truly amazing. Some one once said that this is not how Alice should be remembered. I say, coming together after 3 years and giving their fans this awesome LP, this is exactly how Alice in Chains should be remembered. I wish I was there to see the show.

Powerful and haunting but most of all amazing!
For my money this is a better album than Nirvana's unplugged CD. Where Nirvana might have been about timeless songs, Alice in Chains were about catharsis. Be it through the unrelenting narcotised grind of Dirt to the softer atmospherics of the Jar of Flies EP, AIC is a band which shoots it's messsage deep into your heart. Unplugged is mainly compiled of material off their recent eponymously titled album, packaged by a sleeve featuring a three legged dog. However it is here, despite some superb bluesy guitar playing from Cantrell, that Singer Layne Staley excels.Songs like 'Down in a Hole' and 'Angry Chair', songs which slayed audiences with their power now leave the listener aching in the darkness the band creates. The music is bleak, opiated and haunting but above all darkly and oppressively beautiful. It is hard to transfer into words the effect this album will have on you if you are in pain, but if your not...you should buy it anyway, just to know how it feels.