As the early 90s musical landscape became populated with music from Seattle, I eagerly snapped up the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Singles. It’s a great compilation of odds and ends and tagged on at the end was a song that really hit me full on. ‘Would’ was my introduction to Alice In Chains. It remains to this day, an all-time favourite song, as does their second album, the incredible Dirt. Hard to believe it came out just over 30 years ago. A lot has happened to Jerry Cantrell in that time, the tragic loss of Layne Staley didn’t put an end to Alice In Chains, they still release quality music and tour the world. In between, Cantrell has recorded three solo albums, Boggy Depot (1998) and Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2 (2002). There’s quite a timespan between the last solo album and Brighten, his latest release.
But in this time, Cantrell has had his music feature in blockbuster movies like John Wick and Spider-man. Not to mention eleven Grammy award nominations, selling more than 30 million records as well as being cited as one of Guitar World’s 100 greatest guitar players of all time. It’s not just his unmistakeable guitar work that makes Alice In Chains the band they are, but also his incredible vocal interventions. Cantrell’s tender harmonies with the rasping Staley brought a warmth to their bleak and dark drug infused inclinations. Flying solo, Cantrell finds himself branching out into an altogether happier sound and his song writing skills come to the fore.
Featuring a plethora of guest musicians (Greg Puciato, Duff McKagen, Gil Sharone, Michael Rozon to name but a few), Brighten contains nine songs of high-quality production and melody. Beginning with ‘Atone’, a broody droning psychedelic dirge of fuzzy guitars, river dredging bass and a plethora of western movie whip cracks and tumbling drums. The song makes for an intense opening track. Cantrell sings with a Staley style snarl and the whole track feels like a long-lost Alice In Chains classic.
As the title suggests ‘Brighten’ is an upbeat rocker with a euphoric melody and big smacker of a chorus. The harmonised voices are a thing of beauty and uniquely Jerry Cantrell, he’s been effortlessly embellishing his music with these for decades to glorious effect. Along with some off kilter chord changes that seem to logically fit with perfection as the melodies ping about. ‘Prism of Doubt’ might have a chord change that has been turned in a hundred times before, but Cantrell pulls out a sublime melody and adds in lovely country touches as pedal steel and twanging guitars. Easily one of the finest songs he has ever penned, it’s a joyous and extremely memorable song that is as glorious as a warm summer breeze.
Michael Rozon’s pedal steel lingers on in the swooning ‘Black Hearts and Evil Done’, another country song that seems to be a genre Cantrell could easily tread into. His voice lends itself to the more appealing side of musical style that has progressed over the years. The acoustic led ‘Siren Song’ starts as a steady rock ballad with some languid pedal steel and chilly evening twinkles. As the song winds its way into harder territory it swells into an Alice In Chains slow burner resplendent with some stunning harmonies. Listen closely and you’ll be treated to some splendid percussive elements of every kind. Listen even closer and you’ll hear Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato rip out some cracking backing vocals.
If I point out that ‘Had to Know’ contains the same chords as Bryan Adam’s ‘Run To You’ it’s not to spoil it for you, it’s to marvel at Cantrell’s ability to not launch into that song’s roaring chorus. This song is a capable yet ultimately forgettable rocker that is the first track to disappoint these ears. That is, until Puciato turns up again for some added snarl that manages to pull the song back from the ledge. Years of doom and bleak tones haven’t tarnished Cantrell’s ability to twist out brilliant melodies and ‘Nobody Breaks You’ offers up positivity by way of an epic chorus of layered harmonies, dense guitars and piano. By way of reminder that he can turn out a mean solo, Cantrell turns in a mean solo and the song steps forth as an album highlight.
Whilst the song title suggests a death metal band, the poppy ‘Dismembered’ is another rockin’ country mid-tempo song with a glorious melody and ooh, about a hundred hooks. Album closer ‘Goodbye’ finds the instrumentation stripped back and Cantrell’s voice is vulnerable as the multi-tracking is allowed to rest up. The song is a heartfelt ballad and it’s unusual to hear Cantrell not covered in thick guitars but backed with delicate strings. This could be an area to explore more for future releases, I reckon.
As I mentioned before, it has taken twenty years for Jerry Cantrell to release another solo album. Perhaps he found himself at a loose end, like the rest of us, with the world in lockdown and that’s how Brighten came to be. Like a lot of other artists, the circumstances around the album’s creation have yielded an album of great music. Brighten contains some of Cantrell’s finest songs and will appeal not only to Alice In Chains fans, but anyone with an ear for good heavy rock and fine melodies.
