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Both I and II were good records, but now: Chinese Democracy, is a bomb. The band was branching out, with a few personnel changes, then came the videos, and the rest was history. Remember when this one came out in the early 90's, along with part two. T2 Judgement Day was the big film, with the song You Could Be Mine, on the soundtrack.
this one is a must have. The second half rocks also, with my favorites being "Don't Damn Me", "The Garden", "Dead Horse", and of course the 10 minutes plus closing track "Coma". "Use Your Illusion I" is an extremely ambitious album from Guns N' Roses. It's just straight ahead great heavy metal with amazing ballads like "Don't Cry" and "November Rain".
USE YOUR ILLUSION I IS PACKED FULL OF TUNES RANGING IN TEMPO AND AGRESSIVENESS. TO ME THIS WAS THE LAST POSITIVE PRODUCT THAT AXL ROSE WAS A PART OF. TOO BAD AXL HAS HAD PROBLEMS THAT KEEP THE BAND DOWN. THIS IS A GREAT LIST OF TRACKS. GREAT WORK OF ART.MARK "TATTOO" STEELE THE ADDITION OF MATT (DRUMMER)OPENED THE BAND UP TO A MORE TECHNICAL AVENUE. MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN ILLUSION 2. SLASH CAN OBVIOUSLY KEEP UP WITH IT ALL.
These include "Dust and Bones," "You Ain't the First," "Bad Obsession," and "The Garden." These are all solid tracks, but they can't bear the weight of being the best songs on the album. By contrast, "Don't Cry" has some merits, but is basically just a banal monster ballad. "Coma" is a heavy 10-minute epic that some people love, but I personally don't think it goes anywhere.In the middle are most of the album's better songs, tracks in the "not quite hard rock" mold of Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones. A previous reviewer praised this album by challenging the reader to just buy one "Use Your Illusion" without becoming tempted to buy the other. They certainly don't transcend the band's influences or form a compelling artistic statement like "Appetite for Destruction" did.Honestly, I've mulled over this album for over a month, and I don't see how any track other than "November Rain" can be considered essential. also happen to be obvious filler. To that, I'd reply "Mission Accomplished."This is allegedly the more "hard rock" oriented of the two, but unfortunately all the songs that rock as hard as "Appetite For Destruction" ("Back Off B****," "Right Next Door to Hell," "Perfect Crime," "Don't Damn Me," etc). This isn't a problem per se since I listen to all types of music, but I don't think the other tracks manage to compensate.On the ballad side of things, "November Rain" is of course a candidate for GnR's all-time best song, and despite being a rote imitation, GnR's version of "Live and Let Die" tops McCartney's original.
While epic balladry clearly is the strong point, it falls few and far between raucous rockers that seldom highlight what eroded Slash-n-Axl synergy was left. Strangely in many ways these dated quicker than what made GnR in the 80's.
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