Alice In Chains Best To Worst Albums
Juan Navarro
Post-grunge is bad. It was a genre predicated entirely on doing what bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam has already done but with absolutely no qualms at all about selling out to Ticketmaster. Now I know what you\u2019re thinking, I am the CEO of nu-metal, the worst genre of all time, but hear me out. Nu-metal, the spiritual cousin to post-grunge, is not bad, despite claims to the contrary, because it was founded on an idea; finding common ground between metal, industrial, rap, and funk and while nu-metal would certainly end up with some bad music the genre by-and-large produced some incredible, game-changing bands. Post-grunge has none of that. Its biggest bands have no legacy, its smallest bands may as well not exist. That being said, the genre did manage to produce some catchy-ass tunes, a few of which I\u2019d even say go beyond just fun and into something great. Quick note before we get into it, I don\u2019t consider post-grunge to truly start until Creed happened. So Bush, Collective Soul and Candlebox are all safe. Now let\u2019s take a look; grow out your goatee, chug that monster, punch some drywall- it\u2019s the 10 Greatest Post-Grunge Songs of All Time.
Touch harmonics were everywhere during the post-grunge/nu-metal era; A resonant, crystalline sound that would cut through the mix, clear and distorted alike. On Puddle of Mudd\u2019s custody court anthem \u201CBlurry,\u201D those harmonics are the song\u2019s consummate hook, followed by the melodic swoop of \u201Cmy whole world surrounds you I stumble and I crawl.\u201D Of all the genre\u2019s Carnival cruise ship Kurt Cobain imitators, Wes Scantlin was particularly shameless, ripping the late singer's diction, drawl, phrasings everything off and selling it for cheap. So total was this impression that I often speculate that the one time he really needed to nail it, it failed so hard thanks to the divine intervention of Cobain\u2019s ghost, stopping by for some quick revenge. Fortunately his momentary ability to craft a decent hook succeeds him here and the product was effective enough to score the band their only Top 10 Hot 100 hit. But really, Scanlin\u2019s major contribution to \u201CBlurry\u201D is just staying out of that acoustic guitars way for a couple bars.
To understand the significance of \u201CSecond Chance\u201D just consider it the final post-grunge song. Released in 2008, \u201CSecond Chance\u201D peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, the last post-grunge song to make it that high, becoming something like a spiritual finale for the sub-genre as post-grunge without big pop hits is hardly post grunge at all. And fucking sheesh the size of this damn thing. \u201CSecond Chance\u201D is an unwieldy monster of a pop production, absolutely stuffed with strings that wouldn\u2019t have been out of place on a Taylor Swift album, hooks, lyrics that make little to no sense (\u201Ceven the man in the moon disappears somewhere in the stratosphere\u201D??) and a climactic drum fill that\u2019s mixed totally different from the rest of the song amounting to a production that in sum-total would have even Max Martin wondering if it was all a bit much. The effect is kinda like one of those combination Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts; just in case post-grunge wasn\u2019t already bad enough for you, well there\u2019s also a Dunkin Donuts helpfully located inside the same store. But all that aggressive hit-breeding worked, it was a smash with a chorus so epic it sounds like one too. Yeah, it\u2019s more minivan than mosh-pit but that\u2019s post-grunge for you.
Upon release in 2002, \u201CFaithless\u201D committed the ultimate post-grunge sin: It flopped, peaking at a pitiful 22 on the US Alt charts. Unfortunately, nothing else really matters in this genre. There was no development deal to catch Injected, Burn it Black would be their first and last album. \u201CFaithless\u201D didn\u2019t catch on, not because it isn\u2019t good - these are some of the best guitar tones you\u2019ll find on this list, it\u2019s because of how casual it comes about its hooks. \u201CFaithless\u201D is confident in itself, not forceful. Consider how aggressive a song like \u201CSecond Chance\u201D is to get stuck in your head. It\u2019s like being battered about the face by socks filled with ProTools plugins. \u201CFaithless\u201D on the other hand has an easy going shimmy to it that even feels a touch glammy\u2013 peep the way singer Danny Grady slides into that chorus \u201CBut it\u2019s my kiiiiiiiind.\u201D If you give just a minute \u201CFaithless\u201D proves as irresistible as any other song being slid across radio disc jockey desks back then, but as Injected (and Edgewater and Revis and 8stops7) had to learn the hard way even a minute was a minute too many.
It is with heavy heart I must report to you that Creed is bad. Bad bad. Bad bad bad bad bad not good bad. If you enjoy them - and I have many friends that do - I tip my cap because they are not good. While this was a somewhat hot take 22 years ago when their albums were going diamond it isn\u2019t anymore. If anything it\u2019s actually pretty mean. My favorite column on the internet, Tom Brienhen\u2019s Number Ones, recently wrestled with this when writing about \u201CWith Arms Wide Open\u201D; \u201CThe success of Creed just puts me in a bad position. I don\u2019t like the person that I have to become when I write about Creed.\u201D
So here\u2019s what I will give Creed. Weathered, despite that awful album cover, is a solid record and \u201COne Last Breath\u201D is their best song. A lot of this has to do with the fact that it just turns all their worst impulses down a notch. Mark Tremonti - he of the infuriating wiii-dee-dee-diddle-eee chorus riff from \u201CHigher\u201D - opens the song with a beautiful gentle clean guitar. Scott Stapp reigns in his yarl for actual singing sounding an honest bit sensitive even\u2013 \u201CPlease come now I think I'm falling, I'm holding on to all I think is safe\u201D it begins, a tender lyric delivered free of the chest beating this band took to so naturally. And then once the song does ramp up into its signature CG-bluster it feels deserved. So, Creed? Bad band... \u201COne Last Breath\u201D though? Good song!
\u201CEvery time we lie awake / After eh-vrey- hit- we take.\u201D How many radio DJs knew this was going to be a smash hit soon as they heard that? It\u2019s a fantastic hook to open a song with, I\u2019m a huge sucker for upward stair-step melodies like that, but then you get to the chorus? Oh man. A pummeling drum fill and then- \u201CI! HATE! EVEH-REE-THING ABOUT YOU!\u201D It\u2019s another one of this sub-genres\u2019 many many \u201CHeart Shaped Box\u201D rip-offs but really juiced up with the kind of undeniable appeal that forces you to scream every single word right into your windshield, no matter who else in this McDonalds parking lot is watching.
Sean Danielsen wanted to be Kurt Cobain. There\u2019s nothing remarkable about that, every post-grunge singer wanted to be Kurt Cobain, but Danielsen really wanted it and what separated him from the others was the strength of his intent; he was never going to reach Cobain\u2019s genius but watching Danielsen pull on his restraints as hard as possible could be just as moving. Rather than smoothing out Cobain\u2019s edges Danielsen was as comfortable blowing his voice out In Utero style (\u201CRadio in a Hole\u201D) as he was sounding delicate as new ice on a frozen pond (\u201CI Want My Life\u201D). \u201CBottom of a Bottle,\u201D Smile Empty Soul\u2019s forever definitive track, resonates because of how it mends the two styles; pitched between the grasping heartache of \u201CBeen scared and lonely\u201D with the triumphant claiming of mistakes chorus \u201CI do it just to feel alive!\u201D Every lyric on \u201CBottom of a Bottle\u201D is sad - evoking the emotional gulf of young adulthood, watching your innocence being swallowed, replaced with a pile of responsibilities - but the overall effect is triumphant. The chorus is massive, the riffs are catchy as all post-grunge needs to be, but it\u2019s sincere and that\u2019s what really counts.
When \u201CYou Know You\u2019re Right,\u201D the final Nirvana single, was released officially on October 8th, 2002 it wasn\u2019t the product of love and care that got it there, instead it had to be lawsuited out of a proposed Nevermind 10th anniversary box set by Courtney Love, who claimed it would be wasted on such a thing. Jim DeRogatis reported on the battalions of lawyers and contracts that were getting drafted to wage war over a song of this potential. It\u2019s truly the most post-grunge way a grunge song could be produced, all emphasis on rights and royalties and record sales with little consideration for much else. And if \u201CYou Know You\u2019re Right\u201D resembles Nirvana\u2019s classic songs in sound it does not resemble them in spirit. Love lawyered up when she heard the track because it sounds like a smash, not a cult classic, with its eager chorus that dives for a hook as greedily as anything they\u2019d ever put out. Had Cobain survived, it\u2019s not hard to imagine him penning something like this to put the Seethers and the Puddles of Mudd out of their misery. As is, it\u2019s Cobain crawling back from heaven to show the world how it\u2019s done one more time.
\u201CHanging By A Moment\u201D arrived as grunge was transforming into post-grunge through massive glucose injections; if Cobain was uncomfortable with how pop friendly Butch Vig made Nevermind the post-grunge generation of heavy guitar bands would have fired the guy for not making it pop enough. It was an era in which mixing board mavens like Bob Clearmountain and Brendan O'Brien held the keys to the kingdom, squashing each instrument until they worked as well on grocery store PAs as they did in arenas. \u201CHanging By A Moment\u201D was a massive hit with an equally massive chorus to prove it yet defies its era by feeling so delicate little song. Singer Jason Wade\u2019s mini-Weiland impression is a puffed chest to quiet a hammering heart. Tweak the song\u2019s drop-d tuning to standard and \u201CHanging by a Moment\u201D could be a Built to Spill song. A lot of that has to do with the bowed upright bass that opens the song with a gently diving note and finishes it running the bow over the strings for a tactile sound that you could almost reach out and touch or the way the song dodges post-grunge sludge to dive into an exciting first verse jog that perks the tempo up and continues propulsively through the chorus. But for all that careful craft \u201CHanging by a Moment\u201D still sings from the heart, the impossibly short seconds between direct eye contact and a first kiss in slow motion.
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