Facelift
Josh's Review
"We Die Young"- Sick song, flows great and hits you when it starts and you know what song is about to play and you can't help but headbang the whole time esp. the awesome solo. "Man in the Box"- Amazing song and the first AiC song I ever listened to. I hear this song and you can just feel chills down your spine when Layne sings...just wow and great job on the rest of the instruments parts. "Sea of Sorrow"- A true song, emotional and eerie because of how well you can relate to some songs. "Bleed the Freak"- Wow this song is what made me want to sing and also to write lyrics with two singers harmonizing...wow. "I Can't Remember"- Some songs you just hear and wonder how everything in it was thought of and don't think just anyone could write it. "Love.Hate.Love"- Raw, emotional and hits right at home with me.... "It Ain't Like That"- Optimistic to me b/c it says to me "See what I always wait to hurt me, I've had enough" "Sunshine"- To me, nothing short of a ballad, a masterpiece. "Put You Down"- Awesome, lyrics and music not only come together but hit home... "Confusion"- Can't say much more than really good haha... "I Know Somethin (Bout You)"- I love singing all the song but this one makes me smile. "Real Thing"- Good tune, damnit, I sing this song in school all of the time, all of them but this one seems to always stick in my mind when I listen to Facelift. MASTERPIECE...
Ben's Review
It was '91. School just let out for summer, & the stoke of that was in the air. I was 14 years old, hanging out in the basement of the house I grew up in, when suddenly this crunching riff came from MTV in the background. I immediately turned around, watched & listened intently to "Man in the Box." I missed the opening credits & I refused to take my eyes off the television until I found out who the band was. Alice in Chains... I was hooked. One night during the following week I made my mom take me to the record store & I bought the cassette tape, can you believe it? I cranked it on the drive home, & as the second track came to an end I remember thinking, "Am I the only person who knows about these guys?!?!" I felt like I was holding gold in my hand, the best kept secret ever! Of course I listened to "Man in the Box" over & over again, but tapes being tapes I listened to everything else too as I skateboarded.
Two years later I was still listening to Facelift as I snowboarded in Steamboat, CO. Two years after that I quoted "We Die" Young in my senior yearbook. The Live Facelift, VHS single-handedly made me want to learn to play guitar. "Bleed the Freak" was the first intro I ever learned. "Love, Hate, Love" was the first solo I ever nailed in its entirety, followed by the lead in the track "Sunshine." And although I'm a horrible guitarist (Jerry I try to do you justice, bro), I'm in an AiC cover band called Sea of Sorrow. By the mid '90s Chains was very huge, but I always felt like I was their first fan in my hometown, because most of my friends didn't really catch on or even know that those heavier songs they recognized were AiC until Jar of Flies came out. Back in those days even I was aware of how much music was changing, but I always defended Alice as being purely metal first and foremost before anything & not really so much acoustic or so called "grunge" just because they were from Seattle. Although their acoustic stuff is absolutely impeccable, completely original & jams, I was always like, "Dude, they're Metal, so unlike Nirvana or Pearl Jam, even Soundgarden." Like Pantera, Chains kept metal alive through the '90s, and their contemporaries & peers of the same musical genre, primarily Ozzy & Zakk Wylde, always gave them props. One of the last real bands coming from that era for sure, metal bands.
Facelift is a ridiculous album, a debut one at that. I wish I had written it & coined every song. Dirt is another story... its overall tone, feel & sound - no other album sounds like it. Definitely ahead of it's time. I think it's evident now that Alice has STOOD the test of time too. All truly great bands usually do. Even without Layne, new material would truly rock & the band would catch on & live-on with today's kids. But yeah, Facelift bro. Freakin' classic!
Clark's Review
When I first got into the band in high school, I had only heard AiC's softer side - from both Jar of Flies and Sap. After feeling the soothing mellow vibes of those two albums, I got Facelift and instantly fell in love with it. It only took one spin and I was sold on the band and haven't stopped rocking out to them since. The raw, gritty, hard-hitting and edgy anthem, "We Die Young," is a great opening track and best puts you in the mood for what's to come. "Man in the Box" is an incredible sing-a-long rocker that just makes you want to keep bobbing your head back and forth and throating out the "Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah..." or however you interpret the opening vocals. It seems to be a song that rock radio will never kill and fans will remember as being perhaps the most popular AiC song ever.
There are so many other great songs like "It Ain't Like That," "Bleed the Freak," and "Sea of Sorrow" that capture both the anger and the pain, as well as the haunting, yet melodious nature of each track. What drives Facelift is that great scowl of Layne's voice with the fretboard sorcery of Jerry's guitar and the thundering foundation of Sean's drums & Mike Starr's bass. I don't think that there's one song on this LP I'd skip over. Quite the masterpiece. Location: No "Lift" necessary.
Trevor's Review
Alice in Chains..... What can I say about a band who's one of the best bands I have ever heard? Every album has done something that made me want to pick up a guitar. But the one album that started it all is Facelift. When I first heard it I was around 12 years old, and right now I'm 24. Facelift was a big step forward at that time. There was Nevermind that was very big, but I didn't want to even touch that album because I thought it couldn't compare. It had everything I wanted: heavy, melodic, and the chemistry between Layne (Rest in Peace) and Jerry was never interpreted.
There has and never will be a band like Alice in Chains, and in the note, there will never be an album like Facelift in my time. So I know I haven't really talked about the album too much, that's because if you are reading this you have already heard it. I'm not going to tell you people something that you haven't already heard. In conclusion, Alice in Chains is one of the greatest bands of all time, and Facelift, in my eyes, is their White Album, But I know they are going to do better.
Alex's Review
This isn't Alice in Chains best CD but it does have some of their best songs. In other words, this CD is pretty good. "We Die Young" is a heavy metal classic, and one of my AiC favorites. "Man in the Box" is the same. "Sea of Sorrow" is pretty cool and "Bleed the Freak" are pretty cool. "I Can't Remember" is alright. "Love, Hate, Love" is an awesome ballad and one of my favorites. "It Ain't Like That" is awesome. "Sunshine" and "Put You Down" are kinda boring. "Confusion" is awesome. "I Know Somethin (Bout You)" is pretty cool. And "Real Thing" is actually one of my AiC favorites. It's a funny ode to heroin, but it's actually an important song. Accidentally, though. It says he's going down the steps of the white line straight to nowhere, which is pretty much what happened to the late great Layne. So in no way is this a bad CD; it just shows where AiC started at.
