Album Club Selection #11: Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 1

I've never been a GnR fan, they came along just as my heavy rock period was ending.

This album is a decent listen, if I was on a long drive with, say, Planet Rock on the radio and any of these tracks came on I'd be appreciative enough.

Maybe I need to revisit my heavy rock roots more......but these days I just don't get enough music listening time, better time management needed on my part!

Use Your Illusion I & II are not the last Guns N Roses albums, but they might as well be, as far as I'm concerned. Neither of the two records released after matter to me at all or live up to expectations.

G-N-R was one of the first bands I got into when I came off the road - Appetite For Destruction was everywhere. You could not escape it - and it was damned good. I made the wrong prediction then that they would dominate hard rock for decades to come - but what was popular in music was changing rapidly and the band had a lot of internal issues.

If this album and its twin are to be considered the band's swan song, they could not have gone out of style on a higher note. I think, for most causal listeners, this record has their biggest and most recognizable songs - aside from Sweet Child of Mine and Patience.

Don't Cry, November Rain and Live and Let Die - all fantastic and couched between lesser known, but equally good tracks. Perfect production, excellent playing and the last time Axl Rose really sang the way he was meant to.

Loved Appetite for a while but nowadays it does nothing for me so the omens weren’t good. Managed to get to get to track 8 before I knocked it on the head. 🙁

Not really for me this one. It's not bad, just not to my taste.

I am also beginning to realise that my taste in music is nowhere near as extensive as most of yours and is, maybe, a bit limited.

I have been listening to GNR, Illusion I, II, plus Appetite... Not the entire albums, except for Illusion I, which I did listen to in its entirety twice today. As I mentioned, I'm not a fan of hard rock and metal, but I LOVE all the ballads and quite interestingly don't reject their misogynistic and otherwise offensive shit. I like the kick-ass attitude...

What struck me today is that both Illusion albums represented an end of an era, the 80s long-haired hard rockers were passing into history or needed to reinvent like Bon Jovi, for example.

It all happened within weeks, I think. Pearl Jam's Ten and Nevermind were both released at practically the same time, and the grunge explosion started.

They definitely went in style with these two fine albums.

Slash... I wish I could shampoo his hair....

I also love Double Talkin' Jive and Dead Horse ....But overall Its UYI 2 thats coming with me to the Desert Island ....Civil War ....Breakdown....Estranged ....Yesterdays....Pretty Tied Up .....I was so pissed Axel had a nervous breakdown ....or whatever the hell happened

I'm 100% certain everyone on this forum has heard it

You were wrong there! I am not sure I have listened to any GNR, except the bloke who used to live next door was rather fond of them and played them very loudly!

I will give it a go tomorrow, starting with the song you particularly recommend.

I am beginning to realise how limited my musical knowledge is...

I don't think I ever said this out loud, but I love Guns N Roses. I'm not a fan of hard rock, but they were too mainstream and successful to not notice, and too good to ignore.

November Rain video is iconic, I remember the impact it had on me...

Cool choice.

Right, I'm aware I still haven't given thoughts on the last couple of Album Club selections (sorry about that, I've been occupied with my 2016 reviews and Friday's Archive... I also can't resist watching a film every other night), but I should really talk about this one, shouldn't I?

Aside from the "oh my God I need to pick an album and I admittedly haven't listened to tons of albums in full" panic, I had a little dilemma here as to which Use Your Illusion I wanted to go for. There are songs I love on both, but there are also songs on both I'm not as keen on, so I had to think about this for a little while. I suppose I could've gone for Appetite for Destruction (or a non-GNR album) where I love just about every song, but that felt overly 'safe' to me. Where's the fun in that?

To add to that, I'd honestly say I have more favourite songs on II than this album, but what I has outweighs all of 'em. Not only my favourite GNR song, one of my all time favourites by any band, "November Rain". Axl's masterpiece, its opening piano and orchestral arrangement (and the eight minutes that follow) will never not sound like ESSENCE to me. The fact that a band as ferocious and, well, deplorable as this one could create something that sounds as beautiful and powerful as this song continues to stagger me, and while I'm 100% certain everyone on this forum has heard it, in the most minimal chance one of you guys hasn't, man I wish I could be you in this first time listen scenario.

That's just one epic of sixteen barnstormers, though, so what else has this one got? To quickly go back to the "favourites" on I and II comment, where the latter has five I love, the only other two that genuinely give me a proper hit of dopamine on this album are "Live and Let Die" (it even seems like cheating with it being a cover) and "Don't Cry (ORIGINAL LYRICS)" - I always loved having the parenthesis for both versions on my iTunes back in the day. So that leaves us with 13 tracks I simply really like at best, but for me there's nothing wrong with that as I'll never get over the fact I can say "IT'S A CRITICAL SOLUTION AND THE EAST COAST GOT THE BLUES!" along with Axl at the start of "Garden of Eden", and I'll never get tired of hearing his venomous voice in bangers like "Right Next Door to Hell", "Back Off Bitch" and "Coma". The way it blends with a calmer, clearer "Dust N' Bones" vocal is mint as well.

Oh, and nearly fifteen years after first hearing this album, I still really love hearing what Slash, Izzy, Dizzy, Duff and Sorum give us too. I'm not publishing this post without mentioning them - and making this seem like less of an Axl lovefest hahaha. Over the weekend I was writing about songs that are a team effort, and though Guns N' Roses' relationship as a band is one of the most contentious in music history, listening to this album highlights just how perfect they all were for each other. All six members are equally important over these 76 minutes, and I think you'd struggle to not hear them all shining in all sixteen songs.

"COME THE MORNING LIGHT NOW, BABY!"

I'll open this discussion by saying that I keep my whiskey in a Guns N Roses flask.