Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains - Greatest Hits

From 1999's Music Bank box set and its one-CD compilation offshoot, Nothing Safe: The Best of the Box to a 1996 Unplugged CD, the Alice in Chains titles continue to arrive even while the band--and especially reclusive frontman Layne Staley--stagnates. The quartet's heavy, dirgelike music is aging well, but the 10 songs that comprise Greatest Hits are the basic radio hits. Greatest Hits features no new music, no liner notes, no lyrics, no new photos, and no elaborate packaging. Still, for the rock fan, every song on the disc (five of them penned solely by talented guitarist Jerry Cantrell) is a bona fide hit, from the band's earliest, their 1990 breakthrough "Man in the Box," to the lush orchestration of "I Stay Away" to 1995's dark pop gem "Heaven Beside You." Greatest Hits provides a quick fix for newer fans, but with The Best of the Box boasting 9 of Greatest Hits' 10 songs, plus an additional 5 selections. Skip Hits and go for The Best. --Katherine Turman Amazon.com

Good tunes

This cd has a bunch of great songs don't you hate buying a cd,record album or casette tape for a song or two this is full of great songs February 27, 2008

Just what I wanted.

If you like Alice in Chains, or if you've never heard there music, this is the perfect collection for you. February 6, 2008

AIC deserved better

Ah yes, Alice in Chains. Debatably my favorite hard rock band (either them or AC/DC, if you were wondering). One of the best bands of their era. And distinctive as hell, too. Because they had the tremendously talented, darkly charismatic Layne Staley singing for them. Layne was sort of a modern Jim Morrison: there's something about him that I find oddly intriguing, even though his music is depressing as hell. Him and Jerry Cantrell carved out some haunting two-part harmonies, too. And Jerry could play! In fact, one of the examples of his capabilities is missing here: Rain When I Die. You need to hear that song, even if you're only casually into AIC. There's no substitute for the insane guitar noises he makes during the first minute of the song.
Actually, I don't really see much reason to buy this, unless you want the absolute basics and nothing more. Sure, every song here is great: my favorites are the hard-rock punch Them Bones, the eerie Rooster, anti-censorship hit Man in the Box, the folk-metal extravaganza I Stay Away and ESPECIALLY Heaven Beside You, a light-and-shade song much like Led Zeppelin's work, the folky part sounds genuine (especially the little acoustic guitar trills), the electric part hits hard(especially the solo), and the vocals are creepy (Especially in the choruses). One of my favorite songs ever.
That aside, let's go over some missing songs. I'll just go with well-known ones: We Die Young, Got Me Wrong, Rain When I Die, Down in a Hole, Rotten Apple, Don't Follow (okay, it's not that well known, but I've got a soft spot for it), God Am, Over Now and Killer is Me are the ones I'm thinking of. This has all the absolute best-known AIC songs, and the cover art rules, but it could've been a lot more. September 14, 2007

SWEET!!!!!!

Alice In Chains are one of the greatest Grunge bands in the world. Mellow sounding Alternative rock, it soothes the soul and makes you want to dance and sing. Has a hard edge and like i said also mellow. what can i say besides Nirvana, Alice is up there. September 2, 2007

Forget this one and get Best of the Box instead.

It has 10 of their hits, but The Best of the Box has 15 songs, plus new hit "Get Born Again". So I would use your money for that one. This isn't a bad collection, just incomplete. August 3, 2007

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