Use Your Illusion I
by Guns N' Roses

Their debut was fantastic and was always going to be a hard act to follow. A lot more tracks with a bluesy feel on this. It's alright overall, but I think GnR are one of the most overrated bands ever and this album was given a bit to much credit at the time of release.

Album Rating: 84.69
(1,355/16)

Yes it’s far too long, with too much filler but it contains some of the bands greatest tracks (Coma, November Rain, Don’t Cry (although I prefer the alternate version on UYI II)).

1.Right Next Door To Hell. 76
2.Dust N' Bones. 80
3.Live And Let Die. 90
4.Don’t Cry [Original Version]. 94
5.Perfect Crime. 74
6.You Ain't The First. 71
7.Bad Obsession. 70
8.Back Off Bitch. 84
9.Double Talkin' Jive. 83
10.November Rain. 100
11.The Garden. 85
12.Garden Of Eden. 80
13.Don't Damn Me. 87
14.Bad Apples. 68
15.Dead Horse. 83
16.Coma. 100

From Graeme2 11/28/2021 09:22 | #276811

Big old bloated mess these 2 albums. Ego's out of control along with the drugs and losing a very important and key member who had the groove and replacing him with someone far inferior and losing that feel he brought. Rigid. Add piano and costume changes and any old clichéd shit you ever wrote. I guess there is just about enough material for 1 decent album that would resemble something like previous posts. Even that wouldn't be a be a brilliant record.

From VictorVale 05/22/2021 14:04 | #269982

O sumo de uma banda de rock!

People always talk about the filler, but from what I can tell there are 10 good songs and 6 bad ones. The bad ones are really bad. But maybe we cannot agree which are the bad six. Here's my go as the single non-filler album (Ive cheated a little with 15 songs)

Dust N Bones
Live N Let Die
Bad Obsession
Double Talking Jive
November Rain
Coma
Civil War
14 Years
Yesterdays
You could be Mine
Breakdown
Don't Cry (Alt Lyrics)
Pretty Tied Up
Locomotive
Estranged

From Daydreamer 06/02/2017 22:40 | #191882

Albums as uneven as this one are the hardest to rate. I gave it a 80/100 rating and I'm being kind. There are maybe 5 really great songs and the rest is mostly filler. This is considered the lesser of the UYI albums for a good reason.

Both Illusion records get an 8/10 from me even though there is plenty of filler on both.Personally I believe they should of made a single record and kept the rest for b-sides and future records. My ideal Use Your Illusion album would be:

1) Civil War
2) You Could Be Mine
3) Dust N Bones
4) Live and Let Die
5) Double Talkin Jive
6) Bad Obsession
7) Dont Cry
8) Pretty Tied Up
9) 14 years
10) November Rain
11) Yesterdays
12) Dead Horse
13) Coma
14) Estranged

This would be one of the greatest records ever made. I also think this record would of sold over 30 million records just like Appetite has.

Long as hell but I had fun listening to the rockin tracks, some are fillers yeah but I find the standouts tend to stick in my mind the most

The, use your illusion, albums were released on the same day in September 1991, as the long awaited follow up's to the classic, appetite for destruction. There is some good stuff here, but there is some awful stuff too. Of the good stuff, there's, don't cry, the epic, coma, dust'n'bones, the stones-ish, you ain't the first, and, bad obsession. November rain, is good, but it's so overblown and bombastic, it's almost sickening, I mean, this is Guns'n'Roses, not journey. There's some terrible songs on here; don't damn me, back of bitch, garden of Eden, the garden, are all atrocious. Double talkin' jive, and, live and let die, are ok I suppose, as is, dead horse. None of these songs would have made it onto, appetite for destruction. The most disappointing of the two records.

My least favourite of the two Illusion albums

This album contains the epic November Rain and a great cover of Live And Let die - however there is a lot of stuff on hear that I really don't like

The two Illusion albums could have been condensed in to one unbeatable record

However a comment from Migglemo shows an attempt at writing the ideal track list -
So I had a go

You could be mine
Live and let die
Don't cry (no 2)
Civil war
14 years
Yesterday's
Knocking on heaven door
Pretty tied up
Locomotive
So fine
November rain
Estranged

And there in lies the problem..... as only 6 of our choices are the same (And that was only because I cheated and had 12 tracks instead of 10 ! Maybe the band had a similar dilemma ?

So maybe the answer should have been to have a double album, but cut some of the songs
- So instead of a wapping 30 songs, cut it down to 20 or 22
I think this would have resulted in a masterpiece of a double album that would be ranked very high to this day.

Who knows, what done is done !
So what we are left is....is two over long albums that have some amazing classics on each, and a lot of filler rubbish

Still worth a listen though for the great stuff