Music of the Day, 10 May 2025

mournful yet also hopeful

A haunting guitar wail has been reverberating in my head for a few days now. It’s more mournful than I’m feeling, so I didn’t want to feature the instrumental it’s from, even though I like the piece (and the band) a lot. This morning the radio station in my mind doubled down, connecting the wail with a motif from a prog-rock opera adaptation of a sci-fi classic … and I knew the only way to get it out of my head was to share it here.

“Whale & Wasp” is from Alice in Chains’ (AIC) acoustic EP Jar of Flies, which was released in 1994. The story of how the EP came to be is interesting. It was the first EP and the first AIC release to enter the Billboard 200 chart at number one. I bought it sometime that year, as I was going through a very difficult time and the music helped vent some of my emotions.

Even though by then I’d been a prog fan for some time, I was yet to learn of Jeff Wayne’s magnum opus, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. When I did, it was almost immersion—nearly every road trip included playing it through at least once. That makes it a little embarrassing that I’d not connected the wail from “Whale & Wasp” to it back then: my best guess is I’d put my grief behind me. But also, the two sounds aren’t really that similar.¹

Jar of Flies doesn’t have a bad track, so it’s no surprise that it cracked the top ten on charts across Europe and Down Under. Much as I enjoy Layne Staley’s vocals and the tight harmonies with Jerry Cantrell, the additional strings (April Acevez on viola; Rebecca Clemons-Smith on violin; Justine Foy on violoncello; and Matthew Weiss on violin) on “Whale & Wasp” add so much depth that I don’t miss their voices.

I didn’t buy any other releases by AIC after Jar. I remember hearing “Heaven Beside You”² on the radio, but it didn’t hit me as hard. The vocals being deeper in the mix bugged me, I think. And after Layne Staley died, I haven’t revisited AIC’s music, so I don’t know how William DuVall has done as lead vocalist. Song or album recommendations are welcome.

1. if you aren’t familiar with Wayne’s epic creation, give it a listen.

2. from AIC’s eponymous album released in 1995