Your First Thoughts on the UYI Albums

[BangoSkank]

For anyone that was a huge fan during the Appetite & Lies era, what were your thoughts when you were listening to the Illusions for the first time? What were your thoughts right after both albums were done? Especially given how the sound evolved and got really expansive.

Both albums are a pretty big departure from the harder, meaner sound of Appetite and the lyrics are a lot more complex and abstract. Not too mention there was also a big amount of ballad-like, soft songs that were only a part of GN'R songbook before these two came out.

Was all of it a big shock? Did you think it was a mistake leaving "street rock" behind? Were you excited about the direction things were going, etc?

[Rovim]

Not as good as AFD, but still pretty fuckin' great.

In some aspects, they've evolved, in others, they took a step back.

Biggest loss for me was Slash's and Izzy's guitar interplay. :max:

Shittiest additon: Mert Sorsum.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Rovim

[GUNNER PT]

- Totally Crap.

- Not GN'R.

- Where's Steven?

- Axl+Slash+Izzy+Duff+Dizzy+Matt's band

- WTF? A piano? Really?

- What's next? Industrial Rock?

- I hate NuGN'R

Edited August 28, 2014 by GUNNER PT

[Sixes]

I was overwhelmed by the sheer length and it was a challenge to listen to both back to back straight thru. I got the UYI's on cassette the Saturday before they came out so I had a jump on most people, I guess.

After the first listen, nothing really struck me as being a keeper aside from Estranged. That was the only song that stood out on first listen and then throughout subsequent listens. I disliked UYI 1 almost entirely but still continued to listen to it all the time. I still don't like that album but the difference is, I will probably never listen to it again. Don't Damn Me is the only song I can stomach. The rest range from bad to awful, for me.

I remember poring thru all of the liner notes, the thank you's, the pictures....

[Rovim]

I was overwhelmed by the sheer length and it was a challenge to listen to both back to back straight thru. I got the UYI's on cassette the Saturday before they came out so I had a jump on most people, I guess.

After the first listen, nothing really struck me as being a keeper aside from Estranged. That was the only song that stood out on first listen and then throughout subsequent listens. I disliked UYI 1 almost entirely but still continued to listen to it all the time. I still don't like that album but the difference is, I will probably never listen to it again. Don't Damn Me is the only song I can stomach. The rest range from bad to awful, for me.

I remember poring thru all of the liner notes, the thank you's, the pictures....

U still sporting a mullet though, right?

[Sixes]

I was overwhelmed by the sheer length and it was a challenge to listen to both back to back straight thru. I got the UYI's on cassette the Saturday before they came out so I had a jump on most people, I guess.

After the first listen, nothing really struck me as being a keeper aside from Estranged. That was the only song that stood out on first listen and then throughout subsequent listens. I disliked UYI 1 almost entirely but still continued to listen to it all the time. I still don't like that album but the difference is, I will probably never listen to it again. Don't Damn Me is the only song I can stomach. The rest range from bad to awful, for me.

I remember poring thru all of the liner notes, the thank you's, the pictures....

U still sporting a mullet though, right?

If I had any hair left, I would still have one. I'd be king of the mullets, the mullet king

[RussTCB]

The first thing I heard was YCBM on the radio and I was blown away. At the time, I was a new Pink Floyd fan, so when I heard the rest I wasn't put off by how different it all way from AFD.

Fun fact: It took around 10 years for me to like Breakdown at all, now it's one of my favorite GN'R tracks ever.

[Mr. Dude]

I loved the ambition, audacity, and artistic growth of the Illusions. AFD is great, but I listen to UYI far more now. In my mind, the artistic highpoint of the old(er) lineups were tracks like: Civil War, Breakdown, Locomotive, Pretty Tied Up, Estranged, etc. I think Chinese Democracy is more consistent and coherent, but I appreciate the fractured-ness of the Illusions. You can almost hear the band splintering on the record. You feel all the distinct personalities on the album.

[WAR41]

I have a different take on the albums. I was 10 years old when I first heard GNR and the first song I heard from them was YCBM. Then I heard Don't Cry, November Rain, etc. so I actually learned about the band in reverse. I loved the Illusions albums and when I heard AFD after that I remember thinking 'Wow this band was so much heavier before this'. Funny enough I also noticed the difference in drumming style right away and I wished Steven would come back.

[Padme]

I love them. Some of the songs blew me away the very first time I heard them. Others took a little bit more time. But they won me over. I would say with the exception of My World and Bad Apples I love everything in those 2 albums.

[Nosaj Thing]

Those albums are definitely my favorites.

Yes, AFD is incredible but I love the UYIs more - that's the diversity the band needed IMO. I enjoy the piano and keyboard parts, I don't find an issue with Axl adding those elements in a 'rock' band', thing is, it worked. I also supported the idea of Axl making 8-minute-long songs for those albums. Axl's lyrics are the best he has ever written. Slash's guitar parts are the best he has ever written.

[WAR41]

These days I have different appreciation for them. I love them, but I do recognize some of the silliness on the albums.

Just curious, what silliness do you mean? I always have (and still do) think some of Axl's spoken words are a little cheesy. For instance the telephone call on KOHD, the 'vacuum' part of Civil War, etc.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I guess my first impression of the Illusions came from T2. I had heard Jungle, SCOM, and Paradise City before hearing YCBM in T2, so I was aware of the band. But that song in T2 has to be my first impression of those albums, and it was a good impression. My second impression would be the November Rain video. I remember seeing it all over MTV back in the day, and I thought it was the coolest video I had ever seen (to this day it still would rank high on my list.)

Even with these images from the glory days, my gnr fandom didn't really begin until 95 or 96. That's when i bought Appetite for the first time, which that album hooked me hard, but we are not talking about Appetite, we are talking about the Illusions. So fast foreward a few months or so, I don't remember if I bought Lies, Illusion 1, or Illusion 2 next, but I did get them all as quickly as I could afford (back in those days I had to earn money through allowance, so it took a while). But I do remember loving Illusion 1 a little bit more than Illusion 2, mostly because of Don't Cry and November Rain. Those two songs made that album for me. Unlike some, I really enjoyed the ballads. I have always liked good rock ballads. Not 80's power ballads like More than Words or Every rose has it's thorn (even though I do like those songs, they have a cheese factor to them imo). But gnr's were different, they were on the epic level like songs like Stairwayto Heaven, Dream on, and Free Bird. So Don't cry and November Rain really appealed to me. They were gnr reaching Zeppelin and Aerosmith type levels of greatness, something that no 80's band (unless you consider VH an 80's band, though I do not) never achieved. They were a throw back to 60's and 70's type music to me, which is my favorite music era's. So hearing how gnr had grown really appealed to me, I still felt that Appetite was the better album, but the Illusions really expanded my love for the band. Eventually I found myself liking and even loving every song on both albums (except for My World). My 2nd least favortie song is honestly Don't Cry (alt). Even though I like the lyric changes, I felt and still feel that it lacks the honesty of the original. Let's face it, Axl to this day has only written 3 positive love songs; SCOM, Patience, and Don't Cry. And all 3 of them are amounst gnr's biggest hits. On the other hand he has written a lot more negative or heartbroken love songs; this i love, estranged, november rain, etc. So I prefer the positive ones in a way, because they are the rarer emotion coming from Axl. I like the heartbroken ones as well, but we get a lot of venom from Axl in his music anyways, so I like it when he is positive, and Don't Cry (alt) is negative imo. Plus it is also redundant imo, not a needed addition to the albums, that is why it's my 2nd least favorite song on either album.

Even though Illusion 2 has the better rocker songs imo; civil war and ycbm, plus it has the better "album tracks" Breakdown and locomotive, I still slightly prefer Illusion 1. My reasoning for that is Illusion 1 is the more consistant of the two. Even though it has more "filler" imo, and also lacks the highs of civil war and ycbm, it also lacks the lows of my world and don't cry (alt). Those two songs at the end of that album really knocks the whole thing down a peg imo. So from start to finish illusion 1 is the better album imo, and is still my 2nd favorite gnr album behind Appetite.

[sweetchild88]

These days I have different appreciation for them. I love them, but I do recognize some of the silliness on the albums.

Just curious, what silliness do you mean? I always have (and still do) think some of Axl's spoken words are a little cheesy. For instance the telephone call on KOHD, the 'vacuum' part of Civil War, etc.

Just the kind of stuff you mentioned.

[TeeJay410]

I heard UYI before I really listened to AFD, so I didn't have many preconceived notions. I remember loving both records, but UYI2 a little more. It had better songs. UYI 1 was more rockin and more consistent so I liked it too. When I heard AFD afterward it almost sounded like a different band. I loved it, and viewed it (and still do) as a better put together album, but the quality of the music was higher on UYI. You could still hear remnants of hair metal influences on AFD, and the giant reverb drums dated it. UYI just grabbed me. Perfect Crime and right next door to hell reflect "dangerous band" far better than most anything on AFD save for "it's so easy" and maybe another track or two. I think Axl was even angrier one UYI.

In all I just loved the sound of the band believing there was no such thing as a bad idea. They just went for it. I only wish that at the same time they chose to keep it to one album and that the production was a little better.

[EvH]

These days I have different appreciation for them. I love them, but I do recognize some of the silliness on the albums.

Just curious, what silliness do you mean? I always have (and still do) think some of Axl's spoken words are a little cheesy. For instance the telephone call on KOHD, the 'vacuum' part of Civil War, etc.

The stupid low voice "Yeah" at the end of So Fine.

[Lies They Tell]

My first thought was that it's pretty crappy compared to AFD. Not because of the piano, because I quite liked November Rain. But because I simply thought that most of the songs were filler stuff. AFD had only a couple of songs that I didn't like that much, but on the UYI albums I skipped most songs like Right Next Door To Hell, Dust N' Bones, You Ain't The First, Bad Obsession, Back Of Bitch, Garden Of Eden, Bad Apples, Get In The Ring, Shot Gun Blues, Breakdown, etc...

I've learned to like many of the songs that used to bore me on the UYI albums, but I still prefer AFD by a mile.

[Mr. Dude]

My first thought was that it's pretty crappy compared to AFD. Not because of the piano, because I quite liked November Rain. But because I simply thought that most of the songs were filler stuff. AFD had only a couple of songs that I didn't like that much, but on the UYI albums I skipped most songs like Right Next Door To Hell, Dust N' Bones, You Ain't The First, Bad Obsession, Back Of Bitch, Garden Of Eden, Bad Apples, Get In The Ring, Shot Gun Blues, Breakdown, etc...

I've learned to like many of the songs that used to bore me on the UYI albums, but I still prefer AFD by a mile.

I used to feel similarly, but I've come to find value in everything on the Illusions. In terms of a percentage or ratio I think you could make the case that there is more filler on AFD. AFD is the 1 album that I'm kind of bored by now. Its mainly because I've heard the songs so much, but (contrary to popular opinion) the production is a little too smooth for my taste. I prefer the production on UYI even if it is somewhat uneven and dated. I think the Spaghetti Incident actually has excellent production. The 2nd half of Lies is very good too- it sounds like they just captured the band in a groove. I think drug use really prevented the band from fully capitalizing on that creative period...or who knows- maybe the drug use is what led to that loose, self-assured, effortless Stonesy groove during the Lies era. I would've felt better about it if it were just an EP though. As it stands it just seems like a mish-mash for a commercial purpose. There is no denying that the new stuff on Lies is one of the artistic highpoints for that lineup though. I hear people say- oh they were ripping off the Stones or whatever, but that's besides the point. Rock n roll isn't as much about originality as it is authenticity. If the feeling is genuine it doesn't matter. Its not like the Stones were original. Keith Richards will tell you that they were doing their best to rip off the black blues artists that came before them. Same goes for Zeppelin and then all the bands that tried to ape them too...and on it goes. The feeling is what matters- not who did it first.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Mr. Dude

[wkuk04]

Born in 1985, and aged six when they came out. I didn't listen to buy and listen to the albums till like 2002, and my overall impression was these albums are great, not only do you have epic tracks like November Rain, Estranged, Locomotive, Breakdown but you also get straight out rockers like Right Next Door To Hell, Dust and Bones and You Could Be Mine. The hard rock/metal vibe was beginning to shift by the time these albums got released and Nevermind was released only a week later. So for me covers like KOHD although a classic, probably sound dated at the time.

[Crash Diet]

My first reaction when i first heard the UYI's

[DieselDaisy]

I loved the Stradlin numbers. The rest took some time getting used to. The production is overblown and I did not like the drums, silly overdubs and bits of talking. Overall, some good stuff there but not a patch on Appetite.

[Jwalker19]

I first heard the albums when I was ten so I wasn't very knowledgeable on music in general so during the first listen, nothing really stood out for me from either album. I thought UYI II was boring as hell though. After a while, a few UYI I tracks started to grow on me and over the years. As I've become a bigger and bigger GN'R fan, I've grown to LOVE both albums and appreciate the music. UYI II is my favorite GN'R album now lol. I like them both way more than Appetite.

Oh, and hearing Get in the Ring at ten was pretty interesting to say the least hahaha.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Jwalker99

[hellobeatle]

Picked up UYI 2 on cassette week of release and wore the damn thing out. Got UYI 1 in 1992 on cassette and did the same. At the time I didn't really compare it with AFD and Lies. No one really got AFD until 1988/89 so it all seemed pretty quick.

Edit: Get In The Ring was a popular song at the time, weird how it's so hated now. Coma was popular too. Just tidbits I remember.

Edited August 28, 2014 by hellobeatle

[Not An FSB Agent]

Fuck if I can remember that long ago... I do remember loving Civil War when it was getting radio play before the release, and being disappointed in how long it took to finally release them, though.

[Apollo]

For anyone that was a huge fan during the Appetite & Lies era, what were your thoughts when you were listening to the Illusions for the first time? What were your thoughts right after both albums were done? Especially given how the sound evolved and got really expansive.

Both albums are a pretty big departure from the harder, meaner sound of Appetite and the lyrics are a lot more complex and abstract. Not too mention there was also a big amount of ballad-like, soft songs that were only a part of GN'R songbook before these two came out.

Was all of it a big shock? Did you think it was a mistake leaving "street rock" behind? Were you excited about the direction things were going, etc?

Absolutely instantly loved the wealth of material and made my friends go crazy because that's all I allowed them to listen to for about a year.

They were amazing because of the different types of songs - rockers, power ballads, ballads, gritty type songs..........I still remember sitting down with both albums for the first time and just listening to them over and over and over for hours.