Album of the day (#3581): Appetite For Destruction

[baystateoftheart]

Strong contender for the worst album in the top 100

EDIT: Oops, I see it's fallen a lot. Nice
_________________
Add me on RYM

[AfterHours]

Appetite for Destruction is gradually becoming an underrated masterpiece.

(In a decade or so maybe it will get 'rediscovered' once people realize their hip hop collection features far more misogynistic albums than this)

Fundamentally the album takes to an exuberant, melodic, climactic extreme the anarchy and sheer disgust of the Sex Pistols, the hysterical sexual innuendo of Zeppelin's Plant, the dirty glamour of The Rolling Stones (and New York Dolls) at their most frantic and excessive.

Vocally, Rose turns in one of the most outrageous performances in rock history. Practically every phrase is an act of absurdist disgust. Guttural and despicable from the side of his mouth, casting aside the phrases with the disillusion of the most maniacal 'noir' anti-heroes and criminals (think Natural Born Killers, Sin City...). The fact it is so melodic only heightens the outrage, expressionist and almost comic book vividness and spectacle, because this frames the tunes in a maniacal and glorious crescendo, exuberantly leaping out from the explosive 'musical picture' (a bit like a 3D pop up book, or 3D cinema) in enthusiastic anarchy.

In songs like Sweet Child of Mine and Think About You, Rose (outrageously/ambiguously) merges his character with the part of the 'romantic crooner' (Sweet Child) and 'teen age romantic pop' (Think About You) in melodic tuneful heartbreak but without losing the outrageous nasal disgust in his voice, thus leading to a heightened emotional ambiguity or absurdity where one is confronted by the grotesque and uncomfortable picture of a delinquent and crude person yet spilling his heart in front of you. His voice in these songs actually carries an underlying hurt and pain in the grueling 'purge' of the phrases, cathartic and almost masochistic (not far removed from Foetus) and pathetic in a sad and crippled (by life) sort of way.

One soon realizes that the other songs contain this continual purge of pain, cathartic, self-destructive and self-persecuting and even if they sometimes flaunt moments of lyrical idiocy (It's So Easy) they are never less than outrageously alive and musically impressive. Even if less 'touching' they are yet more outrageously violent and vigorous and prone to delirious crescendos and spectacle.

The vocals are framed/juxtaposed by overflowing urban frescoes that take The Rolling Stones 'dirty' guitars and themes to an absolute extreme and pornographic excess without losing musicality.
The 'dirty' guitars are excessively fractured and blurred harmonically in grimy, slimy, sleezy pornographic and violent visages. Dilapidated environments that are like expressionist visual art, representing the flickering light shows of LA or Vegas night life, raucous night clubs, disgusting streets and alleys, ferocious orgies of sex and violence.

Many of the songs develop into masterful 'concertos' of instrumentation in which the themes are extensively worked and varied into brilliant climaxes, variations and recapitulations (Slash's performances are stunning; Welcome to the Jungle, Nightrain, Paradise City and Rocket Queen come immediately to mind in this regard).
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

[mrmcrook]

This is one of those albums that although it's full of great songs and was a masterpiece for many years, it's destined to become 'dated'. A true classic is timeless. That's where this differs from those that are true classics. Like what's been said in previous comments, it's not one that you pull out and listened to very often these days.
Don't get me wrong, it is one of the greatest debuts and has no filler which makes it a highly rated album. The sad thing with GnR though is they couldn't keep up the momentum. Every album after had a few good songs on them but were mainly filler.