Stooge
Right from the beginning, nobody could accuse Alice In Chains of being predictable. With only a single full-length album under their belts, they chose to follow Facelift with, oddly enough, a mostly acoustic recording. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to mind.
Plenty of great guest spots crammed into such a small running time. We get Ann Wilson from Heart, as well as fellow grungers Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and Mark Arm (Mudhoney) making memorable appearances.
It’s hard for me to choose an obvious favorite song; all four songs are great. “Brother” has an excellent chorus, with Ann Wilson’s vocals shining brightly. “Got Me Wrong” stands out (not in a bad way) on this recording as being the only tune of the core four compositions to feature distorted guitars. It’s a very catchy song, and the electric guitars help give the song an extra kick (compared to the version off the MTV Unplugged performance). “Right Turn” and “Am I Inside” both have exceptional vocal deliveries by all participants. The outro of “Right Turn” has Arm and Cornell using overlapping vocal passages to great effect, and Staley and Wilson both turn in top-notch performances in “Am I Inside”.
A hidden track, commonly called “Love Song”, is also included. It’s a rather odd Kinney composition, obviously thrown in as a laugh by the band, though it doesn’t really negatively alter my view of this EP.
Alice In Chains took a slight risk with Sap, but the result is a fantastic alternative metal (metal in a loose sense) album. Definitely worth purchasing!