Alice in Chains: Back, but not better than ever…

When it comes to music, I’ve never been late to jump on the bandwagon. That’s not to say I’ve been early, though, or even on time. No. I’m the girl voluntarily dragged behind the bandwagon by a 50 ft. piece of rope. Waaaaaaaaaay back there.

For example, when I was in middle school (late nineties into early 2000s), I fell in love with grunge. You know the drill– I wore flannel, thought that Kurt Cobain was speaking directly to me in his songs, didn’t brush my hair, embarrassing, OMGican’tbelievei’madmittingthis, whatever, etc. Grunge even influenced my writing– I would write terrible bits of angst-ridden prose inspired by Mother Love Bone lyrics, and I even wrote my first real piece of fiction in the 9th grade as my way to cope with the devastating news that Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley had OD’ed.

I like to think that I’m slightly cooler now than I was at age thirteen, but even so, I was SUPERDUPER excited to learn that Alice in Chains has reunited with a new (living) lead singer. Upon listening to the first single from the new album, however, some of my excitement dissipated. Sure, “Check My Brain” contains all of the signature AIC elements…haunting vocal harmonies, crazy-hot Jerry Cantrell guitar riffs, sludgy production…and the new singer even sounds remarkably like Staley, but “Check My Brain” would have just been another album track back in the grunge hey-day…never released as a single. It’s not rockin’ or kickass or anything. It’s simply alright.

As much as I hate to untie my rope, it must be done, because the grunge bandwagon is no longer going to drag me anywhere worth going…it’s over. Grunge has gone the way of Kansas– nothing more than dust in the wind.