The dark and depressing themes and moods are what makes AiC so great. They wouldn't work as a happy band imo.
Ding! This fella gets it!
I also find the bleakness uplifting. If I am having a terrible point in my life or whatever, I turn to AIC and they make it sooo much easier to get through.
So does this one, and I wholeheartedly agree.
There are maybe 5 songs I can remember when and where I was the first time I heard them. Don't Follow is one of them. The DJ didn't say the song name or artist, and pre-internet, it took forever to figure out what the song was. But I never forgot those chords, melodies and lyrics. Listening to that song now still gives me chills.
*Deb is getting goosebumps as she types*
The first time I heard "Don't Follow" I fell in love with Jerry's plaintive but heartfelt vocals... until Layne's kicked in. Good GOD that man could belt stuff out. It was about at "scared to death" that I almost started crying. Layne's tone was so dark, bleak, and depressingly beautiful. What a loss to the music world.
I might have posted this story - if not, I'll post it again. It's also related to Jar of Flies, but involves "No Excuses". I was still living with my dad at the time, and for some weird reason he was throwing me crap about how AiC was nothing but shit, death, evil... anyway... I made him listen to "No Excuses" while he read the lyrics. He apologized to me after the song was over. Dad usually never reacted like that either - I chalk it up to who he was with at the time exerting a not so nice influence on him. He figured it out.