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What are your opinions on the UYI albums?


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Prompted by the desires for some (in the UYI boxset thread) to see the UYis either partially or totally re-recorded (with some saying they want Adler digitally added in, Dizzy removed, and Axl's songs 86'd) I thought we would have this discussion. These two albums were massive and represented the peak of GN'R's popularity as a global rock band, yet it seems among us hardcores there seems to be a split of opinion. Personally, I love the UYIs as is. There's really not much I'd change except I'd have added It Tastes Good, Don't It either on the records or as a B-Side. But let's have an honest discussion. Do you like them? Are they bad albums? Were they missteps in GN'R's history, or triumphs?

Edited by Fashionista
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This could all be resolved with live material from the era. Throughout the UYI tour GNR stripped down the songs and played them without all the pizazz, bells and whistles. Perfect Crime, Double Talkin' Jive, Coma, Pretty Tied Up, Bad Obsession, Dust N' Bones all sounded MUCH better live than their respective studio versions. It was the raw sound the album needed. There's not much that's realistically going to be done if they do re-release the albums besides a remaster. Don't get me wrong, it needs it; but live material to me is much more precious and sought after-along with new songs of course. 

A remaster, and a bunch of live material would certainly help with rectifying the issues with the albums mixing and writing.

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2 hours ago, DeadSlash said:

Kind of a weird premise.  I mean, if you think the Illusion albums were "bad" you're not a hardcore fan.  It's so much of their body of work.  You could be a hardcore fan and not like TSI, Lies, or CD, but if you don't like ADF or UYI, you just aren't a hardcore fan.  It's like saying that you are a hardcore Beatles fan, The Beatles White Album is the greatest album of all time, but they rest of their work sucked.  That would make you a fan of the White Album, not the Beatles. 

I guess it’s a question of perception as to what GNR is. Some people take the view the name is what makes GNR others take the view its the substance.

In your Beatles example, the same 4 guys played on the all those albums so I agree with you in that it’s undisputably the same band.

With GNR there was 5 guys on LLAS, AFD & Lies. Different people on UYI - is the same band ? some say yes, some say no. Personally I think it was an inferior band, I think the balance in the band shifted and hence 2 members had greater influence before which affected the material to a degree and affected the production and make up a whole lot. Given the original band did so much prep work and writing for it I would love to hear how it would have come out of those things didn’t transpire.

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You can be over-critical about these things I think sometimes.  When you ask music fans these sorts of questions a fair portion of them tend to get their critic hats on, myself included but overall, if I was to really think about it, I've listened to the cunting things so many times over my lifetime, especially in my youth, that it'd be unfair of me to really slag em off, they're part of my musical education.  And a very formative one at that so at this point in my life I can't really be writing them off.  They ain't perfect Gods gift type gems like Nevermind the Bollocks, LAMF or With the Beatles but hey, few are.  And they've a broader scope.  So what do I think of em?  They're pretty fuckin' good really.

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2 minutes ago, ©GnrPersia said:

As a GN'R fan do you have any other choice than these four albums? :-)

Yeah, I listen to Cinderella, Warrant, Extreme, Harem Scarem, Ugly Kid Joe, etc...

Also other styles such as Metallica, Alice In Chains, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Dream Theater, Opeth, In Flames...

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The albums are kind of bloated.  In some cases, it works.  In others, not so much.  

I think we'd all love to hear a more raw version.

This was the beginning of Axl going crazy and going all Frankenstein on it.  Eventually it resulted in the copy / paste type methods used to make CD.

The truth is, music doesn't have to be perfect.  And spending too much time adding to it actually makes it less perfect.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Illusion albums was the start of Axl feeling the need to keep adding things to finished songs.

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Not as consistent as AFD, but I still prefer the UYI albums. I like the diversity and lyrically I find them better too because a lot of them are more personal, which I happen to prefer.

A lot of songs on it have aged quite well too.

They definitely could have left a couple of songs off and used them as B-sides, but the truly epic songs make up for that.

Edited by EvanG
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If i remembrr as a 16 year old in 91 these albums took for fuckin ever to be released, and i was chomping at the bit for an  official release date between 1990 and 91.The release date in magazines back in the day always had the release date pushed back for some unknown reason. First it was 1 album then 2 i dont think the band had any idea at the time what the date was going to be and whether the songs would be on 1 or album or 2. Bought them on the day they were released in oz. I was in high school and wagged the remaining classes left at lunchtime bought both UY1 and 2 on cassettes at the record shop and went home locked myself in my bedroom and put on a pair of headphones and immersed myself.

Still listen to them on my ipod every wewk. Even listen to them at home loudly on a saturday night so the neighbors can hear.

Edited by Sydney Fan
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1 hour ago, Wagszilla said:

You pair it down to 12 songs and you have a strong record. The front side is Appetite style, the back side is Axl's epic piano songs.

I've always thought this- if you took the strongest tracks off both albums and left the rest for B-Sides (2nd version of Don't Cry, My World, the song where Axl carries on about beating up people who are mean to him, etc.) you'd have one classic and near-perfect single LP. Probably still long enough to fully pack a CD.

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I love the UYI's and UYI II is probably my favorite GN'R album but with that said I do think that they would have benefited from having 12 songs on each album with the remaining 6 (My World, Get In The Ring, Shotgun Blues, Don't Cry Alt, Don't Damn Me and So Fine would be my picks) being released as B-sides. 

I've always felt that the only reason UYI II ends with Don't Cry Alt followed by My World was so that they could say that they had 30 new songs instead of 28. Even do I prefare the alternate version of Don't Cry to the original I feel like it should have been a B-side and nothing more.

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Both UYI are part of the identity of Gn'R.

I think there's no other way to see it.

As TSI also is part of their identity, you may like more or less any of those albums, but they're Gn'R creations, so part of their identity.

 For example, Load, Reload, St. Anger, etc... They're part of the identity of Metallica, not only the first albums.

Bands, musicians, people evolves, and it doesn't mean to loss the identity, it's a natural growing and learning.

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When they came out I actually liked them more than Appetite... but I was 11 y.o... talk about hype, eh.. :lol:

Honestly, just great songs and I love the fact that they literally "spurted" the double album at the same time. I'd just replace Sorum with Adler, mix the guitars better (where's Izzy?? LOL), eliminate Dizzy and "his hand"/all his unnecessary piano arrangements, the fake synth strings on NR and of course My World. Then we're talking...

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I discovered UYI way before AFD. It were those two album that made me curious of that band. 

So while I agree that AFD is the better (and my favorite) album, w/o songs like Coma, Estranged, Locomotive, Breakdown, etc. I would not be a GnR fan.

I love the songs and most of the mix, don't see whats wrong with e.g. Coma or Pretty Tied up. (I would agree that NR sounds a bit cheesy, though)

I also do love all of the piano work in songs like Yesterdays, 14 Years, Pretty Tied up, don't matter if its Axl or Dizzy.

 

Only thing I dislike is the order of songs on UYI II. For me, the "storyline" of the album, starting with the slow Civil War, putting YCBM and DC II at the end and closing with My World, is a complete mess. IMO they should have tried to "mirror" the song order of UYI, e.g. open with Pretty Tied up, place DC & the "hit" YCBM earlier, have Civil War in the middle, close with Estranged.

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