Jar of Flies was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1995: Best Recording Package and Best Hard Rock Performance for "I Stay Away".

The EP was well received by critics and has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making Jar of Flies one of the band's most successful releases.

[8] During Alice in Chains' June–August 1993 appearance at Lollapalooza,[9] guitarist Jerry Cantrell called producer Toby Wright with a proposal to collaborate on new material.

[1] Drummer Sean Kinney had said, "After playing loud music for a year, we'd come home and the last thing we wanted to do was crank up the amps right away.

AKG 414 microphones were used for overhead registration, while D-12s were used for the floor and rack toms, and Sennheiser MD 421s were placed on the kick drum.

Wright was not an advocate of the technique and said that they "eventually wound up with some bongos and some smaller drums set up over the hi-hat that we incorporated into that groove.

Wright recalled the pace of Staley's work as quick, and that the vocal tracks were recorded within one or two takes via a Neumann M-49 microphone.

[1] Due to the dominance of acoustic instruments in Jar of Flies, the album is often considered a continuation of the sound adopted by the band on the 1992 EP Sap.

[10][16] The album demonstrates the band's wide range by offering a variety of tracks with an acoustic texture,[17] featuring elements of blues rock[18] and jangle pop.

[19] Steve Huey of AllMusic stressed that "the mood is still hopelessly bleak, but the poignant, introspective tone produces a sense of acceptance that's actually soothing, in a funereal sort of way.

Jerry Cantrell's arrangements keep growing more detailed and layered; while there are a few noisy moments, most of Jar of Flies is bathed in a clean, shimmering ambience whose source is difficult to pin down".

"[21] Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly noted that "No Excuses" has a '70s-influenced style and described "Swing on This" as "postmodern boogie-woogie".

[22] The album's lyrics are dark and gloomy, with Huey writing that "Jar of Flies is about living with the consequences, full of deeply felt reflections on loneliness, self-imposed isolation, and lost human connections.

"[20] Jon Pareles of The New York Times observed that "Alice in Chains prizes solitude on Jar of Flies, a set of songs about rugged individualism turned into exile.

As he recalled, "The band had come up with the idea for the title and wanted the cover to be a young boy looking into a jar filled with flies.

Schenck's assistant took several trips to a nearby horse stable where he caught hundreds of flies using a butterfly net.

This version of the album includes a lyric sheet, a biography and discography of the band, the music videos for "No Excuses" and "I Stay Away" and fragments of interviews with the musicians.

"[20] The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1995,[44] but lost to Buddy Jackson for "Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys" performed by Asleep at the Wheel.

[50] Cane Hill's lead vocalist Elijah Witt said that Jar of Flies was a major influence on the band's 2019 acoustic EP, Kill the Sun.