From Amazon.co.uk
Jerry Cantrell put a lot into
Degradation Trip. With his band Alice In Chains in hiatus, in a riot of creativity, he locked himself up for three months, seldom washing, eating takeaways, while he wrote 25 songs. He went to record them, but clashed with producer Dave Jerden. Then musicians Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin were unavailable. And then Columbia dropped him. Financing himself, he finally got together with Trujillo, Bordin and Roadrunner Records, and here it is, arguably his best album since Alice's
Dirt--certainly his most adventurous. Perhaps half the 14 tracks are Alice-like, blessed with filthy riffs and those seductive, off-kilter vocal harmonies. But the choral breaks in "Anger Rising" and the folky acoustic strum of "Solitude" recalls Cantrell's Seattle friends Heart. "Mother Spinning in Her Grave"'s punky refrain is reminiscent of the Cars, while "Give It a Name" is rumbling rock & roll and the closing "Gone" is a slightly countrified lament. So, it's musically fascinating, and lyrically compelling, too, as Cantrell contemplates a colourful and painful past. And then, two months before
Degradation Trip's release, Alice's vocalist Layne Staley died from a cocktail of cocaine and heroin, adding near-unbearable poignancy to Cantrell's already unforgiving lyrics--"Thinking 'bout my dead friends" ("Psychotic Break"), "When hurting yourself seems right" ("Solitude"). Fans will find this hard to listen to. As Cantrell himself sings, again in "Solitude", "so black it's untrue".
--Dominic Wills
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