Facelift is the debut studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released by Columbia Records on August 28, 1990. and has been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of three million copies in the United States.

Background and recording

Local promoter Randy Hauser became aware of Alice in Chains at a concert, and offered to pay for demo recordings. However, one day before the band was due to record at the Music Bank studio in Washington, police shut down the studio during the biggest marijuana raid in the state's history. The final demo – dubbed The Treehouse Tapes – found its way to managers Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver, who also managed the Seattle-based Soundgarden. Curtis and Silver passed the demo to Columbia Records' A&R representative Nick Terzo, who set up an appointment with label president Don Ienner. Based on The Treehouse Tapes (sold by the band at shows), Ienner signed Alice in Chains to Columbia in 1989. "I told Jerry Cantrell, 'Metallica took Tony Iommi and sped him up. What you've done is you've slowed him down again,'" Jerden recalled. "He looked at me and said, 'You got it.' That's how I got the gig."

Drummer Sean Kinney claims to have played this album with a broken hand:

Facelift was recorded at London Bridge Studio in Seattle and at Capitol Studios in Hollywood from December 1989 to April 1990. Footage from the Facelift sessions can be found on Alice in Chains' Music Bank: The Videos DVD.

Music and lyrics

Guitarist Jerry Cantrell stated the album was intended to have a "moody aura" that was a "direct result of the brooding atmosphere and feel of Seattle." Regarding the music for "Man in the Box", Cantrell said in the 1999 Music Bank box set, "That whole beat and grind of that is when we started to find ourselves; it helped Alice become what it was."

Cantrell also credited "I Can't Remember" for helping the band find its sound.

Discussing "Bleed the Freak", Cantrell stated that the lyrics represent "us against the world, those people who put you down." Facelift was dedicated to her memory.

Staley's "Sexual chocolate, baby!" scream at the end of "Real Thing" was a reference to the film Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy, whose character was the singer of a band called Sexual Chocolate.

Outtakes and non-album tracks

"Killing Yourself" is the B-side to the 1990 "We Die Young" vinyl single.

Demos for the songs "I Can't Have You Blues", "Whatcha Gonna Do", "Social Parasite", "Bleed the Freak", "Sea of Sorrow", and "Killing Yourself" were featured on Alice in Chains' 1988 demo tape.

The band discussed several ideas for the album art with photographer Rocky Schenck. One of those ideas was making it appear as if they were emerging from an eyeball. Columbia Records did not give the band a large budget for the photoshoot, but Schenck liked them so much that he was willing to make it work. The budget was barely enough for a one-day shoot, but Schenck stretched it out for over three days. The first day of shoot took place on May 2, 1990, at the swimming pool of the Oakwood Apartments in Burbank, California. The pool was covered with a thin piece of plastic to give the idea that the band was emerging from an eyeball. They had to swim under the plastic, rise to the surface and breathe in as they emerged, so the plastic distorted their faces. One of the photos from that session included a shot of Layne Staley wrapped in plastic with the other members holding him, which was used as the cover for the "We Die Young" single.

Schenck was experimenting with in-camera multiple exposures, where he would create a distorted image by exposing different parts of a single frame of film one exposure at a time, a technique that he had been using for years in his videos and art photography. The band had seen Schenck's portfolio of black and white portraits of haunted, distorted faces, and asked him to duplicate the technique. Schenck did not want to duplicate the original black and white photo, so he tried the same technique in color using photos of each band member's face. A photo of bassist Mike Starr was chosen as the album cover. After seeing the photo, the band decided to name the album Facelift.

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Facelift was released on August 28, 1990, peaking at No. 42 in the summer of 1991 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was the first album from the grunge movement to reach the top 50 in America on the Billboard 200, and the first to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on September 11, 1991, followed by Nirvana's Nevermind on November 27, 1991.

Facelift included two retail singles ("We Die Young" and "Man in the Box") and two promotional singles ("Bleed the Freak" and Sea of Sorrow"), all of which had accompanying music videos. The album was a critical success, with Steve Huey of AllMusic citing Facelift as "one of the most important records in establishing an audience for grunge and alternative rock among hard rock and heavy metal listeners."

"Man in the Box" hit No. 18 on Billboards Album Rock Tracks chart, with the album's second promotional single, "Sea of Sorrow", peaking at No. 27, and in six weeks Facelift sold 400,000 copies in the United States.

Legacy

In June 2017, Ozzy Osbourne listed Facelift as one of his "10 Favorite Metal Albums". In April 2019, the album was ranked No. 14 on Rolling Stones "50 Greatest Grunge Albums" list. Soundgarden lead guitarist Kim Thayil also picked Facelift as one of his favorite Grunge albums.

In 2020, Paste named Facelift the 13th best album of 1990. Staff writer Jade Gomez said: "Capturing the bleakness of Seattle in the late '80s and early '90s, Facelift is one of the more realized debut albums of the grunge era, contrary to the band's worries of being unable to find their sound. [...] It's a haunting, distorted, ear-shattering exploration of pain that bridged the gap between heavy metal and grunge fans, and cemented Alice in Chains as one of the most important bands in history."

Tour

The band continued to hone its audience, opening for such artists as Iggy Pop, Van Halen, Poison, During the tour the band found themselves subject to some hostile audiences; however, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello recalls them earning the respect of others by standing up for themselves: "If there was a guy starting shit, Layne would jump into the audience and beat the FUCK outta that guy!" Michael Christopher of PopMatters observed "With 1990's Facelift, before Nirvana blew the scene wide open, Seattle's Alice in Chains were getting a metal push, thrown on tour with the likes of Slayer and Megadeth, repeatedly booed off stage in a genre where they didn't belong." The band later released the video compilation Live Facelift, which was filmed at the Moore Theatre in 1990.

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel adapted from the Facelift liner notes.

Alice in Chains

  • Layne Staley – lead vocals
  • Jerry Cantrell – guitar, backing vocals, talkbox on "Man in the Box"

Additional personnel

  • Kevin Shuss – additional backing vocals

Production

  • Dave Jerden – producer, recording, mixing
  • Ron Champagne – additional engineering
  • Leslie Ann Jones – assistant engineering
  • Bob Lacivita – assistant mix engineering
  • Eddy Schreyer – mastering

Charts

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Certifications

References

  • Official website