Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 1
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Free Music Notes for Use Your Illusion 1
Free Music Review: Almost as Good as AFD
Hit: 5 Stars
I won't compare to AFD, because they are both spectacular. I'll just review the songs one by one
-Right Next Door to Hell-9/10 Opens with almost as much power as Welcome to the Jungle. Really good.
-Dust N' Bones-9/10 Really catchy, has a great ending.
-Live and Let Die-9.5/10 Great cover that made this song by Paul Mcartney very popular. This version is the best.
-Don't Cry-10/10 Part of the Don't Cry/November Rain/Estranged trilogy, has a lot of meaning through great lyrics and music.
-Perfect Crime-9.5/10 Fast and furious, a really good song that is easy to listen to over and over. Uses the word f*** awesomely.
-You Ain't the First-7.5/10 The weakest on the album, would have fit in better on GN'R Lies.
-Bad Obsession-9/10 Totally adictive, but kind of ends weak.
-Back Off Bitch-8.5/10 Really good song about a girl that Axl doesn't like, sweet beginning and great chorus.
-Double Talkin' Jive-8.5/10 Not enough lyrics, but the ones that are there rock, also great classical guitar solo at the end.
-November Rain-10/10 9 minutes of masterful balladness, with a cool rock ending to one of GN'R's greatest epics
-The Garden-8/10 The parts where Axl sings are great, but Alice Cooper's part just doesn't make it seem like the same song.
-Garden of Eden-9.5/10 Axl sings very quickly so you should be looking at the lyrics in the book so you can understand him. On a side note, the music video is superb if you ever see it.
-Don't Damn Me-10/10 Possibly my favorite on the album, just plain awesome. "Sometimes I could get even/ Sometimes I could give up/ Sometimes I could give/ Sometimes I never give a f***" is really cool.
-Bad Apples-9/10 Great intro with the most addictive chorus I have ever heard.
-Dead Horse-9.5/10 Interesting acoustic intro, but it turns into the best rock on the album. Probably should have been on the GH.
-Coma-10/10 Simply a 10 minute masterpiece by Axl and Slash. Kudos to you two for making a rock song just as epic as November Rain on the SAME ALBUM! Best album ender ever.
Thanks for reading this review of a 146.5/160, no filler, 16 song masterpiece.
Free Music Review: Shows how good a metal album can be
Hit: 5 Stars
Yep, the full five stars here and I'll tell you why;
One reason is that this work feels optimistic, even when it's addressing pretty dour issues, it's an expansive work by a band that worked hard with their production team and developed their sound further than they'd had the opportunity to on their debut. They sold a squillion of these things at the time and the way the album works on a number of levels is part of the reason why. One level is the pure molten metal songs like Don't Damn Me and Dead Horse and Garden of Eden which show that when the faux nastiness is left behind and a genuine feeling of unclean sneer is available then you will connect with people. It shows how metal can make you think and can at times open up some unpleasant internal cans of worms. And then there are the tracks that make this a cool done-me-wrong good time blast like Dust n' Bones, You Ain't The First and Bad Obsession. Not to mention the good time humour of Back Off Bitch. In fact it's pretty hard to pick a single drop of the ball here. Even the cover of Live And Let Die is pretty good and really, if your going to sing a song like that would you find it more believable coming from these guys with Axle Rose in full roar than Mr Sensible Shoes McCartney? I'm mean really...
As to the band, these guys are so famous it's hard to come up with anything original to say other than that there is/was a certain synergy within this band. After all I'm sure that Duff, Izzy and Sorum are good musos but it's hardly relevant, these are just strong songs. They speak their piece well and with verve and commitment and that's enough to carry the day. And as for Slash, well as I write in 2008 the guy is probably the most recognisable guitarist on the planet to the average punter. And while I feel that his most brilliant riffs are perhaps on Appetite the guy here shows a solid and varied palette from which to paint. Which means the rhythm section can get on with the job of laying either a solid as oak blues base for a song or a crunching metallic bed of nails, whichever is required.
Five stars all the way and a hugely important album that any music fan with even a modicum of rock in their veins should acquaint themselves with.
Free Music Review: Superior part of the duology
Hit: 5 Stars
Next to 'Appetite for Destruction', this is my favourite Guns 'n' Roses CD. While part two has its fair share of gems and, to be honest, more commercially viable material, UYI part one contains some of the bands most ambitious work, mixed with old fashioned straight rock numbers, all of which are of supreme quality. There is a wide range of songs here, some of which see the band push the boundaries of the derivative hard rock they had peddled so effectively on their 'AFD' masterpiece. My major gripe with the record, indeed with the entire UYI project, is the gratuitous and frankly unnecessary amount of filler on each CD. Songs like 'Bad Apples' and 'Back off Bitch', while being far ahead of anything the huge mass of Guns N' Roses clones produced around this time, just arent up to the quality of many of the stronger cuts on offer here. Some ruthless editing could have made this a classic, as it is the record merits a high rating on the strength of some of the material here, but not all the songs entirely satisfy. That said, the good material here is among the best this troubled, volatile and unpredictable band ever spewed forth. 'Coma' is absolutely essential: their longest song is a masterpiece, with multiple sections, an astonishing solo, and interesting lyrics. Even Axl's massive ego seems to contribute to making this a great song. Elsewhere,'Right Next door to Hell', Perfect Crime' and 'Garden of Eden' see the band take a thrashier, rawer direction with a real punk edge, with Axl rattling of vocals at impossible speed. These songs are different and intriguing. Straight up rock is catered for with 'Dust n' Bones' and 'Dead Horse' while the big ballad, 'November rain' is very strong. Check out the final solo from Slash, which is emotive and certainly one of his best. Axl meanwhile shows that his mellower side perhaps catalyses stronger songwriting.Overall this is a diverse and compelling record, which suffers from a smattering offiller but easily survives on its own merits. Four and a half stars woule be appropriate, but 'Coma' is worth the entrance price alone.
Flawed genius, but genius nevertheless.
Free Music Review: Betcha can't buy just one Illusion record
Hit: 5 Stars
In all of music history, only two albums have come close to perfection. They are: Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II.
Guns N' Roses is perhaps most remembered for the 1987 smash hit debut Appetite for Destruction, but this 1991 double-album-released-as-two-discs-simultaneously stands head and shoulders above it musically.
Whereas Appetite for Destruction has 12 concise, guitar-driven, formulaic and catchy tracks, the Use Your Illusion CDs feature a total of 30 songs in many styles and of widely varying lengths.
The later material made use of new instruments, most notably the piano. Also, the lyrics are much deeper in tone, and Axl Rose's vocals are complemented by Duff McKagan's (bass) and Izzy Stradlin's (rhythm guitar).
Some of the songs, like "Right Next Door to Hell," "Perfect Crime" and "Garden of Eden," are far heavier and faster than anything found on Appetite.
On the other end of the spectrum listeners find "November Rain," an epic ballad, and the 9-minute classic "Estranged," perhaps the best song ever written.
These tracks each contain many different parts bridged by smooth transitions, and both emphasize lighter dynamics.
Also in the "epic" category are "Coma" and "Locomotive," but these two bring heavier, loud sounds to the foreground.
Finally, the CDs often touch on a genre in one or two songs, never to return to it. `50s-reminiscent rock `n' roll can be heard in "Bad Obsession," country in "You Ain't the First" and rap in "My World."
Each of the non-mainstream rock selections is done well, and they let the recordings breathe without overwhelming the listener. Even someone who hates country or rap can listen through both discs without skipping the offending tracks.
Essentially, the Use Your Illusion releases made up the high point in Guns N' Roses' career. Maintaining the killer songwriting of Appetite while working in greater variety and complexity, these two CDs have yet to be topped by the efforts of any other band.
Free Music Review: Killer!
Hit: 5 Stars
Part of a two album masterpiece, Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I provides a slightly more straight up, bluesy, rock n' roll approach than its counterpart, Use Your Illusion II, which is somewhat more experimental. I've heard a few complaints that the Illusion albums are overproduced, and I can't honestly say that I understand this complaint. They're certainly enormous in scope, far beyond what Appetite for Destruction reached for, but what exactly does it mean for something to be overproduced? In truth, these complaints are from those who wanted Appetite Part II and didn't get it. But on to the album itself...
UYI I is a nasty bit of rock n' roll. Aggressive, full of attitude, and showcasing any number of GNR's influences. From the the guttural base line that starts off "Right Next Door to Hell" through the powerfully epic "Coma," the album is a true rock n' roll roller coaster. Most of the tracks are hard rockers, with exceptional guitar work from Slash, that would have fit in just fine with the Appetite material, though they're effectively balanced out with the slower tracks, the move from the aggressive "Perfect Crime" to the Stones-esque "You Ain't the First" being a perfect example. Want something bluesy? They got bluesy rock in spades, with "Bad Obsession," "Bad Apples," and a number of other tunes. Soaring atmospheric rock? Sure, try "Coma" or "November Rain." It's all here, and it's all great!
The true measure of a great album, I've always felt, is not in the quality of its hits. Rather, the so-called "filler" is far more important in creating a great album. Do listeners skip over the songs between the hits, or do those songs quickly become favorites? It's a daunting task, with the Illusion albums, for any of the in-betweens to truly be favorites, as there are so many hits between the two albums. But, nevertheless, UYI I succeeds in this, with the "filler" making a good album great.
So, what's my definition of over produced? As far as I'm concerned, it means that this album is able to kick your a$$ in many more ways than one.