When we last left off with Axl Rose and crew, Use Your Illusion I<\/i> had just come out, and I found it to be overambitious, vaguely mixed and stuffed with filler. Certainly Use Your Illusion II<\/i>, the companion disc released at the same time, couldn\u2019t fall into the same traps\u2026 could it?<\/p>\n
There was reason to be cautious, since this was the disc that contained the first official single from either album, \u201cYou Could Be Mine\u201d\u2014a track initially featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day<\/i> that, quite honestly, I never liked. Of course, if you happened to like that song, then you\u2019d think the album starts off on a solid foot.<\/p>\n
In fact, Use Your Illusion II<\/i> is the stronger of the two albums, containing more solid rock akin to their debut effort Appetite For Destruction<\/i> while showing some musical growth among its 14 songs. And, with a few exceptions, it\u2019s an incredibly solid disc\u2014but when they slip, they fall hard.<\/p>\n
Opening the disc with \u201cCivil War,\u201d a track initially featured on the Nobody\u2019s Child<\/i> compilation, is a good move, and sets the bar surprisingly high. The only track on either album to feature original drummer Steven Adler, it successfully straddled the worlds of rocker and ballad while showing that, at that stage, Guns N\u2019 Roses had lost precious little power since their debut was released in 1987.<\/p>\n
And, as critical as I was of Guns N\u2019 Roses doing a cover tune on Use Your Illusion I<\/i>, the choice to cover Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cKnockin\u2019 On Heaven\u2019s Door\u201d not only fits this particular album, but is appropriate, as they had a history of performing this track live in their early days. I remember searching out the 12-inch single that had the live version, elated when I finally got my hands on it. Rose and company put their own spin on the track while staying somewhat true to the style that Dylan created for it.<\/p>\n
For the most part, Use Your Illusion II<\/i> plays like a slightly weaker Appetite For Destruction<\/i>\u2014that is, it\u2019s enjoyable enough to listen to, but many of the tracks don\u2019t have the lasting power that the hits did. Just like you had songs like \u201cThink About You\u201d and \u201cMy Michelle\u201d off Appetite<\/i>, here you have \u201c14 Years,\u201d \u201cLocomotive\u201d and \u201cSo Fine.\u201d There\u2019s nothing wrong with these songs per se, and they\u2019re enjoyable enough to listen to, but if you\u2019re waiting for another tour de force like \u201cParadise City,\u201d you\u2019re going to walk away disappointed. For this listener, at least, the best track still proves to be \u201cCivil War.\u201d<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t really justify why we needed a second version of \u201cDon\u2019t Cry\u201d with different lyrics\u2014truth be told, I can\u2019t hear much of a difference, and I wasn\u2019t sitting there comparing the lyric sheets. Still, not a terrible track.<\/p>\n
When Guns N\u2019 Roses does have the occasional misstep, though, they\u2019re lulus. Exhibit A: \u201cGet In The Ring,\u201d a profane musical middle finger to anyone who ever said anything negative about the band, especially in the press. Honestly, this one is flat-out uncomfortable to listen to, and could easily have been left on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n
Exhibit B? The album\u2019s closer, \u201cMy World\u201d\u2014the briefest of all the tracks, but it does hint at disturbing directions Rose might have been taking Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019s music into. (Thankfully, he didn\u2019t dive that<\/i> deeply into the pool, but some who have listened to Chinese Democracy<\/i> may argue otherwise.)<\/p>\n
Did we actually need two separate albums from Guns N\u2019 Roses in 1991? Honestly, no\u2026 and Use Your Illusion II<\/i> would have been a stronger album had select songs been added from Use Your Illusion I<\/i> and the weak material left off this one. That being said, Use Your Illusion II<\/i> is easily the stronger of the two albums, and while it\u2019s still a step down from Appetite For Destruction<\/i>, it turns out to be a fairly decent effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5690],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46840","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-guns-n-roses","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46840"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}