The acoustic guitars are moody and have a “rotting county” feeling to them, but they aren’t as warm or as rich as those on Jar of Flies. For one, the sound on here is much more barebones. While solid in its atmosphere, and great when it comes to expressing very personal pessimism, Sap does encounter some shortcomings, especially after listening to future acoustic EP Jar of Flies. The song that’s the catchiest is “Got Me Wrong” which features some electric guitar surges in conjunction with the chorus, but even on that note it feels like a song that would be perfect for wandering along an abandoned country road to. There are passages throughout Sap that seem custom designed to feel desolate and hopeless, while still maintaining a summery twang. They provide some nice variety, but the focus remains on the simple, gloomy, and sometimes almost barren sound of Cantrell’s acoustic guitar and how Staley sings over it. I already mentioned Ann Wilson from Heart, but Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden show up on here to perform with Alice in Chains as Alice Mudgarden. There’s a lot of guest vocal appearances on this album, with Layne Staley still providing the vocal baseline. It’s that kind of album that feels desperate and barren, but also mellow with a good melody. The singing on “Brother” sounds like that of a runaway’s cry and the slow strums of the guitar give off the feeling of being lost which is only emphasized even further by Ann Wilson of Heart providing a decent compliment to Staley’s already bleak singing. This is the sort of music you’d hear played around a lonely campfire in the middle of the wilderness with only shadows to surround you and a band of rattled strangers as company. It also proved to be a landmark, making acoustic play not only fashionable to the grunge mainstream, but also dragging the acoustic rock genre as a whole in a darker direction with more emotional depth. Though, this EP is more than that since it has some of its own songs that still show Alice in Chains at their darkest and most emotional, yet also at their most mellow and most reserved. Granted, this EP is not as full-bodied and a little barebones compared to its successor, Jar of Flies, but it was a high-and-dry stepping stone towards creating some of the moodiest and most well-layered acoustic rock ever created. Alice in Chains going acoustic was unusual, but they did show that they could keep their earlier metallic darkness in place while largely abandoning electric guitars and trading rockin' riffs for acoustic melodies on this outing. Sap was an odd diversion when it first came out.
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January 2023
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