Alice In Chains - Unplugged [Canary Yellow]

Alice In Chains walked onto the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 1996 having not played live in nearly three years. Layne Staley was visibly unwell. Nobody watching was confident it would hold together. What came out of that night is the most emotionally exposed performance the band ever gave, and one of the few MTV Unplugged sets that stands as a real album rather than a curiosity.

Stripped of the sludge, the songs turn out to be built from harmony. Jerry Cantrell and Staley's voices lock together on "Nutshell" and "Down in a Hole" in a way the electric versions half-conceal, and "Would?" and "Rooster" lose none of their weight for being played acoustic. "Brother" and "Frogs" go somewhere quieter and more unsettling. Scott Olin joined as second guitarist, and Mike Inez wrote a message about Layne on his bass that made it onto the broadcast.

It was one of Staley's last performances with the band. Thirty years on it plays less like a set and more like a document, and it remains the best argument for how much songwriting was buried under all that distortion.

This pressing is on opaque canary yellow vinyl across two LPs.