The instrumentals do so much for these songs. All of these songs, whether the lyrics were written by Staley or Cantrell, are expertly written lyric-wise, and the music written by Jerry Cantrell is just superb. The lyrics of all these songs are really dark and depressing, talking about drug addiction, death, suicide, and depression. It just has so much to pick apart and appreciate about it that it's impossible to truly understand it in just one or two listens. This is an album that I've been listening to for a few days now. In a genre that could have only worked in the time that it was popular, and one where literally every band and song sounded exactly the same with extremely similar messages, Alice In Chains made an album that sticks out amongst the rest as one of the few albums that still hold up as great rock records to this day. I don't think there's anyone who genuinely dislikes this album, and that's because there's no reason to. While other bands of this genre aren't talked about too often, and those that are mentioned are either ridiculed or overplayed to the point where most people are sick of hearing their songs, Alice In Chains is one of those few bands that you're highly unlikely to find anyone who genuinely dislikes their music, and Dirt is the perfect example of this. They released Dirt, an album that is now looked back upon rather fondly. It would either propel them to being one of the biggest and best in the genre, or it would completely destroy their career and turn them into nobodys. Depending on the quality of this record, it would either make or break Alice In Chains. Not only was it coming after an amazing album in Facelift, but it was also released after the biggest grunge album of all time, and one of the biggest rock albums of all time, Nirvana's Nevermind. The album holds out little hope for its protagonists (aside from the much-needed survival story of "Rooster," a tribute to Cantrell's Vietnam-vet father), but in the end, it's redeemed by the honesty of its self-revelation and the sharp focus of its music.Alice In Chains' second full-length LP was one that had to follow up on high expectations. Even given its subject matter, Dirt is monstrously bleak, closely resembling the cracked, haunted landscape of its cover art. Sometimes he's just numb and apathetic, totally desensitized to the outside world sometimes his self-justifications betray a shockingly casual amorality his moments of self-recognition are permeated by despair and suicidal self-loathing.
Staley's stark confessional lyrics are similarly effective, and consistently miserable. Cantrell's technically limited but inventive guitar work is by turns explosive, textured, and queasily disorienting, keeping the listener off balance with atonal riffs and off-kilter time signatures. Not every song on Dirt is explicitly about heroin, but Jerry Cantrell's solo-written contributions (nearly half the album) effectively maintain the thematic coherence - nearly every song is imbued with the morbidity, self-disgust, and/or resignation of a self-aware yet powerless addict. It's a primal, sickening howl from the depths of Layne Staley's heroin addiction, and one of the most harrowing concept albums ever recorded. Dirt is Alice in Chains' major artistic statement and the closest they ever came to recording a flat-out masterpiece.