Use your Illusion I and II as a body of work ?

Its So Easy

I'm asking as I pulled out the albums and listened to them in order(right next door to hell to my world). It's something I do a bit but hadn't done it in a while. Some brilliant songs on it like Coma, Dont Cry, Novemeber Rain, Estranged, DTJ, and civil war and YCBM.


But songs like bad apples and shotgun blues I have never really been a fan of the songs but they seem to be worse after an extended period of not listening to them.


So what do other people think of the albums as a whole ?

smelltheglove

this debate has been goin on for years should they have just released one album with all the "good" songs on it but to be honest i love both albums ok some songs take a little bit of getting used to but i love bad apples and also 2 of my faves are dont damn me and back off bitch the latter being one of the first gnr songs ever written and like dont cry never made it onto appetite,all in i gotta say im glad we got 2 albums rather than 1 because we were along time waiting for a new origional album!!:D

Its So Easy

smelltheglove wrote: »

this debate has been goin on for years should they have just released one album with all the "good" songs on it but to be honest i love both albums ok some songs take a little bit of getting used to but i love bad apples and also 2 of my faves are dont damn me and back off bitch the latter being one of the first gnr songs ever written and like dont cry never made it onto appetite,all in i gotta say im glad we got 2 albums rather than 1 because we were along time waiting for a new origional album!!:D

No I think they were right to release the two of them. Maybe I didn't word it right but I was asking for peoples opinions on the two albums and how people see them even after 17 and a bit years since they were released.

kona

those two albums are a example of greed. what band releases TWO albums in a week?? without $$$ in mind. Axl prob knew the band was ****ed and wanted to milk it:pac:

ye some good tunes. as a complete body nah.

metaphorically they are like this unbelievably hot woman, with big tits, BJ lips, the lot......just with a huge dick.

damonjewel

No offence but i find it rubbish, as it is a total sellout, Appetite caught my attention with its rawness, But thats where my affair ended. I'm sure GnR fans will discuss this till the cows come home though

Royale with Cheese

I like some of the stuff, but not some of the rest. Really don't think the albums are worth their reputation. Play them next to Appetite and there's just no comparison. None whatsoever.

Malice

I love both albums. Sure there are weak songs on them but every album has songs that can be considered weaker than the rest. For example I think that Think About You, You're Crazy and Anything Goes off Appetite for Destruction are fairly weak tracks that don't grab me half as much as some of the others.

damonjewel wrote:

No offence but i find it rubbish

Seriously? You find the two albums dismissable as rubbish?

hyn-zie

kona wrote: »

those two albums are a example of greed. what band releases TWO albums in a week?? without $$$ in mind.

Well Kona if you are a real fan you'd know that they had 32 songs (2 songs never got released) to play with and recorded over nearly two years, The record company wanted to release it as four album's but the band decided to release it as two albums!

Regarding your comment on Mr Rose

kona wrote: »

Axl prob knew the band was ****ed and wanted to milk it:.

Thats bullsh!t, Axl had blown more money than any off the other members in the first two tours of use you illusion hence why they had to keep going and do a third stadium tour!

Nea

I agree that one decent album could be made out of both.In fairness I dont think anything they could have released could have topped Appetite. That album was so different to anything else and will always stand out on its own.

I remember the disappointment of all my friends when they came out, even with two albums they didnt live up to expectations.

I have just finished reading Watch You Bleed - Stephen Davis which has been an entertaining read. UYI didnt live up to Geffens expectations either after the length of time it eventually took GnR to do the albums. I always thought Axl was a knob but Jesus even more so after reading this book.

The resulting disappointment in UYI after waiting 4 years for it we should have known how much of a stinker Chinese Democracy was going to be

damonjewel

malice_ wrote: »

Seriously? You find the two albums dismissable as rubbish?

A totally dissappointing bloated shambles

Malice

damonjewel wrote: »

A totally dissappointing bloated shambles

I think we all agree that there are some less than spectacular moments on the two albums but do the high points like Estranged, Civil War November Rain, Don't Cry etc. not do anything for you?

Just thinking about it for a few minutes, if I was to combine the two albums into one, this is the tracklist that I'd go with:

1. Right Next Door to Hell
2. Don't Cry
3. Bad Obsession
4. Back Off Bitch
5. Double Talkin' Jive
6. November Rain
7. Don't Damn Me
8. Dead Horse
9. Coma
10. Civil War
11. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
12. Pretty Tied Up
13. Estranged
14. You Could Be Mine

I must see if that will actually fit onto a CD. Interestingly, I'm missing six tracks from the actual compilation

Sephiroth_dude

I have both albums,but theres only a couple of songs that stand out to me,you could be mine,live and let die,coma,back off bitch,right next door to hell,I cant listen to either album in full as they both just bore me to tears bar those couple of songs I mentioned.

here.from.day.1

Awful. I really dont like Guns+Roses/Axel/Slash. :eek:

Nea

malice_ wrote: »

I think we all agree that there are some less than spectacular moments on the two albums but do the high points like Estranged, Civil War November Rain, Don't Cry etc. not do anything for you?

Just thinking about it for a few minutes, if I was to combine the two albums into one, this is the tracklist that I'd go with:

1. Right Next Door to Hell
2. Don't Cry
3. Bad Obsession
4. Back Off Bitch
5. Double Talkin' Jive
6. November Rain
7. Don't Damn Me
8. Dead Horse
9. Coma
10. Civil War
11. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
12. Pretty Tied Up
13. Estranged
14. You Could Be Mine

I must see if that will actually fit onto a CD. Interestingly, I'm missing six tracks from the actual compilation

Would have to have The Garden also, Alice really makes that song.
As much as I loved November Rain when I was younger it annoys the tits off me now due to being overplayed.

GhostInTheRuins

I've got to agree with damonjewel here. Out of the two albums there're maybe five songs that are worth listening to.

In fact, I still don't understand why gnr are as popular as they are. One decent album in twenty years ffs.

damonjewel

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

I've got to agree with damonjewel here. Out of the two albums there're maybe five songs that are worth listening to.

In fact, I still don't understand why gnr are as popular as they are. One decent album in twenty years ffs.

Its a long long time since I heard and there was alot more bad than good, the bad including an awful version of Knocking on heavens door, November Rain - give us a break. Possibly if i listened to it again I might say hmmm this one and that one aren't bad but there is a lot of trash on it. I remember Appetite, it was exhilirating and dripping with credibility. Grunge had stolen their thunder by the time UYI came out and they were completely off the mark.

superweld

two amazing albums and i actually like every song including my world :eek:

appetite will always be my favourite album but my favourite gnr songs come from the illusion albums.

Mental Mickey

damonjewel wrote: »

Its a long long time since I heard and there was alot more bad than good, the bad including an awful version of Knocking on heavens door, November Rain - give us a break. Possibly if i listened to it again I might say hmmm this one and that one aren't bad but there is a lot of trash on it. I remember Appetite, it was exhilirating and dripping with credibility. Grunge had stolen their thunder by the time UYI came out and they were completely off the mark.

By that time, Axl had complete control over the band. I read/heard somewhere where Slash said that those two albums were basically recorded down phonelines, and that they were hardly ever in the studio together. They should have been trimmed down to one album......there is a lot of rubbish on both albums tbh.

I'm actually listening to Chinese Democracy at the mo, and to be honest, there are some quite good songs on it!! I was expecting it to be total and utter *****, but it's not!! :rolleyes:

Mental Mickey

superweld wrote: »

two amazing albums and i actually like every song including my world :eek:

appetite will always be my favourite album but my favourite gnr songs come from the illusion albums.

What a rubbish "song" imo.

Nephilim Wolf

They're quite good, but there also a lot of filler songs as well, so what I did is just deleted the weaker songs and kept the class ones. The tracklisting is something like this:

Right Next Door to Hell
Dust N' Bones
Live and Let Die
November Rain
Civil War
14 Years
Yesterdays
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Estranged
You Could Be Mine
Don'nt Cry

breadbin

malice_ wrote: »

I love both albums. Sure there are weak songs on them but every album has songs that can be considered weaker than the rest. For example I think that Think About You, You're Crazy and Anything Goes off Appetite for Destruction are fairly weak tracks that don't grab me half as much as some of the others.

Seriously? You find the two albums dismissable as rubbish?

think about you is probably my favourite song on that album along with the very last part of rocket queen 'i see you standing etc...' (should be its own song imo)

Borneo Fnctn

I think there was far too much for one album. The guns n roses story is very sad for me. I'm 20 and was too young to appreciate them in their hayday. They are one of my favorite artists of all time. They're up there with Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd.

kona

hyn-zie wrote: »

Well Kona if you are a real fan you'd know that they had 32 songs (2 songs never got released) to play with and recorded over nearly two years, The record company wanted to release it as four album's but the band decided to release it as two albums!

Regarding your comment on Mr Rose
Thats bullsh!t, Axl had blown more money than any off the other members in the first two tours of use you illusion hence why they had to keep going and do a third stadium tour!

Nah, im far from being a real fan of them.

In my opinion guns n roses are currentley a JOKE. Its up there with spinal Tap for the sheer astounding stupidity that is Guns N roses.

dont give a **** about them, they have ONE album that is Brilliant, the rest is ****e.

Never seen a one album wonder band be regarded as the best ever its actually unreal.

sorry i cant take GnR seriously, neither people who think they are the best, Im a fan Of APFD, not a fan of GnR.:)

now steel panther, thats where its at:D

lord lucan

Right Next Door To To Hell
Live And Let Die
Perfect Crime
Don't Damn Me
Bad Apples
Dead Horse
Coma
Civil War
14 years
Shotgun Blues
Breakdown
Pretty Tied Up
Locomotive
Estranged
You Could Be Mine

That'd be my line-up out of the 2 albums. i've always wanted to hear the edits that Slash said he had of the 2 albums before all the bells and whistles were added(mainly by axl). some great tunes there,was never gonna be able to compare to AFD so no point in trying to compare the 2.

MagicMarker

Personally, I think Estranged is their finest song. But you're all correct, both albums have some crap songs, but they both also have some incredible songs.

Why focus on the negatives?

kona

lord lucan wrote: »

was never gonna be able to compare to AFD so no point in trying to compare the 2.

:eek:

WHAT??

If that was they case every single album would be immensly brilliant...seen as it only has itself to be compared with?

They should have gone back to jacking their hair up and kicking ass, instead of axl not wearing pants and a grungey shirt and churning out toilet paper.:(

such a waste of potential.

lord lucan

very few bands can follow up a killer debut with an equally killer sequal. some try and re-hash the winning formula from the first album and fail miserably and others try and move in a different direction. the way i see it the band(-axl) wanted to keep with the solid rock sound but axl had grandiose ideas of how the next album would sound. it's well documented that axl spent a fortune on all sorts of equipment to facilitate all sorts of extra 'sounds' on the album.

they produced about an album of rockin' tunes out of the 2 illusions,nothing stellar or groundbreaking,just great rock music.

digsy32

Obviously they are not as good as Appetite but I still like them. There are a few weak tracks though. I've never liked the cover of Knockin' On Heavens Door.

If I had to combine the tracks I'd pick, it would be as follows:

Right Next Door To Hell
Dust N' Bones
Live And Let Die
Don't Cry (Original)
Bad Obsession
Back Off Bitch
November Rain
Don't Damn Me
Dead Horse
Coma
Civil War
Get In The Ring
Pretty Tied Up
Estranged
You Could Be Mine

DerKaiser

Not a G'N'R fan, was when I was about 14,

I don't think g'n'r have ever created a good "body of work", I like songs here and there, I lean more towards Appetite as a good album but to be honest the use your illusion albums I find to be quite pretentious, songs like November Rain and Don't Cry are vastly over-rated, Dust & Bones, 14 Years, Dead Horse, Locomotive and Coma are still ones that I would dig, these are mostly tunes that are full of the influence of Izzy and Slash, anything that Axl touches to be honest pisses me off, he would eat his own sh*t, that dude

Would have been much better if it had have been condensed into one album

ReacherCreature

superweld wrote: »

two amazing albums and i actually like every song including my world :eek:

appetite will always be my favourite album but my favourite gnr songs come from the illusion albums.

Oh god, My World was dreadful for me, I don't even consider it a song!

MagicMarker wrote: »

Personally, I think Estranged is their finest song. But you're all correct, both albums have some crap songs, but they both also have some incredible songs.

Why focus on the negatives?

I love Estranged. A terrific song.

Nea wrote: »

I agree that one decent album could be made out of both.In fairness I dont think anything they could have released could have topped Appetite. That album was so different to anything else and will always stand out on its own.

I remember the disappointment of all my friends when they came out, even with two albums they didnt live up to expectations.

I have just finished reading Watch You Bleed - Stephen Davis which has been an entertaining read. UYI didnt live up to Geffens expectations either after the length of time it eventually took GnR to do the albums. I always thought Axl was a knob but Jesus even more so after reading this book.

The resulting disappointment in UYI after waiting 4 years for it we should have known how much of a stinker Chinese Democracy was going to be

Brilliant book about the band, raced through it. It really shows different sides to Axl. Suggest fans read it.

Mossy Monk

My World was terrible. I hear people say it was ahead of its time but my God it was ****. The rest of the 2 albums was great I thought. Locomotive and Coma being my 2 stand out tracks

Motley Crue

In my opinion this is a great album, as a double piece of work, and contains some amazing tracks. There are some which I believe could have been better left for an AFD type 2 record while others are the real progress of the band beyond that stage. In truth, the album is everything the band needed to release at that point, as its both a continuation of what people like and its also moving in a new direction.

Like a Jigsaw, you cannot have one piece without the other, and releasing them on seperate CDs was (I think) originally designed to make a bit more money and make it more affordable for poorer kids to buy one followed by the other...but people just had to have both of them to realise the direction in which they were going

Favourite Track: Double Talkin Jive

BostonB

It would have been one decent album, but not as good as Appetite. As 2 its weak.