Search - Mad Season :: Above

An essential listen from the first half of the '90s.

Aron Hsiao | New York, New York | 05/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Above is a must-have album for fans of Layne Staley, Mike McCready, or of course the era and the music that went along with it.Less manic and more subtle than the archetypal Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam albums, Mad Season and Above are an incredible but at times frustrating listen. While the album as a whole is somewhat uneven, beautiful tracks like Wake Up, River of Deceit and the latin-tinged Long Gone Day showcase that incredible potential for creativity and change that seemed to be everywhere in the early '90s. Sadly, this potential was never realized as most of the important bands have either split or lost members due in large part to the daemons that drove their projects in the first place.Still, at certain moments Above provides a glimpse into a deeper, more sophisticated 'grunge' (a stupid, inaccurate term, but it is useful here) that was never fully realized."

For All Seasons

Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 08/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mad Season is something of a Seattle supergroup with Alice In Chains lead vocalist Layne Staley joining up with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and the drummer from the Screaming Trees. The one album they made together, Above, is a stirring collection of songs that take on dark subject matters like death and addiction, but the album is not in the traditional grunge sound. There are some heavy guitar passages like in the psychedelic instrumental blast of "November Hotel" and bluesy "Artificial Red", but overall, the album has a loose, almost jazz like quality. "Wake Up" has a pounding bass with a strong vocal and "River Of Deceit" is an absolutely gorgeous song with great instrumentation. Mad Season unfortunately was a one-off project, but it would have been interesting to see where the band could have gone if they decided to make a second album."

As far as "grunge supergroups" go this is awesome...

Chris Edwards | East Texas | 07/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mad Season, the so-called "Grunge Supergroup" combines the talents of Alice In Chains' Layne Staley, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin and also features blues bassist John Baker Saunders, and Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan on a couple of tracks. This album is a masterpiece. Instead of serving as a "Layne Staley solo project," which some have referred to it as, it is a group effort all the way. The late Baker Saunders was an amazing, if little-heard bassist, and McCready, who never really got to excercise his songwriting muscles in Pearl Jam, wrote some great riffs here. Staley, as usual, is in fine form, both as an awe-inspiring vocalist and top-of-the-line songwriter and lyricist. As a matter of fact, Staley hadn't really addressed his pathos in song so clearly since his main band's "Dirt" album. Loneliness, depression, addiction and coming to terms with those problems, or attempting to, are the themes addressed in these songs. This is by no means a "feel good" album, but as with most great art, most everything Layne did came from pain. The avowed influence of classic '70's rock shared by both Staley and McCready (who both came up in the Seattle scene playing in 'glam metal' bands early on) is apparent on several tracks, like "I'm Above," which contains a killer guitar riff and a nice McCready acoustic solo. The crunchy "I Don't Know Anything," with Layne and Mike's guitar see-sawing riffs is another great track--simple, but very beautiful. Also, the collaboration with Mark Lanegan ("Long Gone Day") can't be missed, with its eerie, jazzy atmosphere and some guest saxophone by Nagalas Sin-Carne."