August Album of the Month: Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I & II

While the band's debut album, Appetite for Destruction, seems to get the most love these days, few people seem to appreciate how awesome their first their first proper follow-up was.  The preceding release, Lies, was a combination of a previously 'independently released', 'live' EP and four new acoustic numbers. And, while the band did score a major hit from that release with the lovely "Patience", the Use Your Illusion albums are the true successor to Appetite. 

Guns N' Roses always seemed liked one of those bands that was destined to burn out rather than fade away (which they sort of did--- only, miraculously, without fatality) so these two albums seemed like an effort to get as much of their material committed to tape as possible in as short a time as possible because, I mean, who knows how long they're going to be around? 

Released separately on the same day, the two albums are, for all intents and purposes, a double album. Allegedly, the only thing that separates them is fact that Use Your Illusion I is primarily composed of songs that were written before Appetite for Destruction and its ensuing success and Use Your Illusion II is primarily songs written in the interim between.  There would seem to be some truth to this as, not only are "Don't Cry" (with its original lyrics) and "November Rain" among what are widely considered the oldest songs in the band's repertoire but Illusion I seems to be the rawer, more blues based of the two. 

It has often been said that the  Illusion albums represent a conflict between Axl Rose's desires to construct more epic, multi-layered material (like "November Rain" and "Estranged") and the hard rock sensibilities of the rest of the band yet, somehow, the two seemingly contradictory aesthetics blend into what remains a sprawling, epic journey over the course of a whopping 30 songs.  This is their White Album and, I have to say, it probably comes closer to that album in terms of sheer ambition than just about any album before or since.

Slash is often championed as Axl's foil, the blues-based yin to Axl's piano-ballad obsessed yang. However, Axl's real partner-in-crime (and the most crucial ingredient IMO of a true G N' R reunion) is actually rhythm guitarist, Izzy Stradlin.  A perusal of the writing credits reveals that, either alongside Axl or on his own, Izzy was one of the dominant tunesmiths within the band (in fact, evidence suggest that many of the band's earlier songs--- while credited to the whole band--- were actually Rose/Stradlin or Stradlin compositions).  In fact, he even takes lead vocals on a song from each album.

That's not to say that Slash is by any means a slouch; on "Estranged" Axl even thanks him for the 'cool riffs' and "Locomotive" is the most guitargasmic epic the band every crafted. 

Bloated? Yes.  In your face? Yes. A product of the Hard Rock Excess that Nirvana and their ilk would shortly wipe from the face of the earth?  Oh, hell yes! But, is it still awesome after all these years?  You better believe it.

Key Tracks: "Live and Let Die" "Don't Cry" (both original and alternate lyrics), "Civil War",  "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "14 Years", "November Rain", "You Could Be Mine", "The Garden", "The Garden of Eden", "Breakdown", "So Fine", "Coma", "Double Talkin' Jive", "Dust N' Bones",
"Dead Horse", "Estranged"