Review Summary: There's only one place to put this album. Down in a hole.
A greatest hits compilation in theory are great albums. But in truth, they can be the most average album released by a band. They can leave out some of their most notable songs and/or include songs that got hardly any airplay back in the day (eh hem, Nirvana)
That aside, the Alice In Chains greatest hits album is just another casualty. The original Alice In Chains lineup formed in 1987 and died in 1996 after MTV Unplugged. Of all the songs they released in that timespan, they only put ten in this album. Nine years of material and only ten songs were present. Every album released by the band had more than TEN songs.
So let's discuss what's IN the album before we discuss what's NOT in the album.
The album is divided into sections. They play the songs in order of their albums from Facelift, to Dirt, to their EP, Jar of Flies, and their self titled album. Kicking off this record is the song that made them famous, "Man In The Box". Layne Staley has always had the spotlight in that song for his famous cry of "FEED MY EYES!". And that's it for Facelift.
Dirt is usually considered the greatest album of the grunge era and sometimes the greatest album ever. Alice In Chains give us "Them Bones", "Rooster", "Angry Chair", and radio staple, "Would?". Transitioning into the Jar Of Flies EP, we get "I Stay Away" and "No Excuses". And finishing off the album are the singles from the final Alice In Chains album, "Grind", "Heaven Beside You", and "Again".
There were literally seven more songs they could have put in here, but apparently it would kill the producers of the album so just they decided not to. Facelift's "We Die Young", "Bleed The Freak", and "Sea Of Sorrow" were just blatantly left out. "Sea of Sorrow" and "Bleed The Freak" weren't super famous, so some slack can be cut there, but "We Die Young" was just as big a hit as "Man In The Box" and should have been included.
Dirt's song selection would have been right on the money, had they included the only other single off that album, "Down In A Hole". It's largely considered one of their more melodic and darker songs and really should have been here. There's no excuse on why it shouldn't (no pun intended)
Jar Of Flies leaves out "Whale And Wasp" and "Don't Follow". But again, they weren't that famous, so we can cut them some slack. Then came time for their self titled album. At least nothing was left out here, but for every other album, the song choice was just flat out horrendous. It's not the song quality that's bad, hell, the sound quality was amazing, but to leave out "Down In A Hole" and "We Die Young" is just baffling. Hell, they even left out Got Me Wrong, which also as much of a radio staple as tracks like "Would?"
All in all, this is very disappointing. If you've been a life long fan of Alice In Chains, there's nothing new here for you. If your just getting into Alice In Chains, just get Facelift and Dirt. Those albums represent the band far better than this pile of dirt
