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What are your opinions on the UYI albums?


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I got into GN'R when I was about 12, so UYI had already been out a few months by the time I was a fan. As a 12 year with no money and in a time where you had to pay for music if you wanted to hear it, I was aware of the albums, but was stuck listening to my copy of AFD (which I played until the tape actually snapped one day). The first time I heard UYI 1 was on a school camping trip; I borrowed the tape off my friend and was instantly impressed by the production and the sneering vitriol of Right Next Door To Hell. I must have rewound that track 10 times and my friend didn't get his tape back for the whole bus journey.

It was, at the time and after listening to AFD non stop for months, like having a sequel to your favourite film; I never noticed that Adler was missing (it wasn't until later that year that I saw the Paris show on VHS at my cousin's I realised the drummer looked different), that Izzy's guitar was mixed really low and the gallons of reverb didn't seem so out of place back in the early 90s. Unfortunately, my friend asked for his tape back when we got where we were going, so the first chance I got, I ducked into a record shop and spent over half my spending money for the whole week on UYI 2 on tape (they only had this in the store, otherwise I would have bought UYI 1 as well). I loved it just as much, and with much borrowing of the first tape from my friend that week, I was fully educated on the UYIs by the time we came back from camping. 

The comments about them being bloated are fair enough, but there are also flashes of what the band could have become even without Izzy and Steven. A GN'R that went in the direction of Locomotive, Don't Damn Me & Breakdown would have made me a very happy fan indeed. In particular, the lyrics and themes of UYI 2 helped me become accustomed to the new feelings and moods that come with adolescence and adjusting to the shift from being a child into a man. To this day, at least once a week, both albums will be put on for my drive home from work (along with AFD), they are more than records for me; the songs and memories from a statement by a band that were clearly not being told "no" at that point in time are woven into the fabric of my existence. Not perfect at all, but the best things never are.  

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17 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

UYI I is definitely the stronger of the two albums, IMO. There's only 1 weak track on there, Back Off Bitch, but even that isn't really a 'bad' song it's just nowhere near the rest of the album. I'd say it's at least as good as AFD even, as far as the songs themselves go. The production is what brings the UYI's down though, there's some tracks that I almost never listen to the album versions of; I prefer either live versions or Axl's Advance Copy versions of Nov Rain, DTJ, The Garden, and Coma.

I have had these at somepoint but don’t think I ever listened to them. Was the mix/production radically different?

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Actually, there is nothing to discuss - two amazing albums with very different and thrilling songs. Though, the albums itself was not so “breakthrough” as AFD was, but some some song are even on par with AFD. YCBM and Civil War are one of my favorites from GnR library. Estranged, November Rain - also magnificent songs. Maybe, it was not so “rocky”, but still has songs for different tastes. II better than I. 

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24 minutes ago, DTJ80 said:

I have had these at somepoint but don’t think I ever listened to them. Was the mix/production radically different?

Not drastically different, they sound more 'raw' overall, Coma doesn't have the quotes, Nov Rain isn't as layered, The Garden doesn't have the "no I won't" at the start... Don't Damn Me has an entirely different vocal take though, that's probably the biggest difference. 

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22 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

Not drastically different, they sound more 'raw' overall, Coma doesn't have the quotes, Nov Rain isn't as layered, The Garden doesn't have the "no I won't" at the start... Don't Damn Me has an entirely different vocal take though, that's probably the biggest difference. 

Hmm - cool. I will need to dig them out and give them a listen. Cheers. 👍

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On 8/30/2018 at 12:43 PM, adamsapple said:

The last truly epic, bloated, daring, self indulgent rock albums ever made. I love 'em.

Estranged, You Could Be Mine, Coma, Breakdown, November Rain, Locomotive...some pretty good music on these.

Oasis' Be Here Now in 1997 to be honest. But nothing since then indeed

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When I was a kid I thought that the UYI albums had lots of filler tracks. Back then AFD was far superior compared to them in my opinion. But as I got older, my music taste broadened and I remember when I listened to the UYI albums for the first time in a long time and suddenly many of the songs that I had considered filler before, sounded really good. The spoken part at the end of Breakdown didn't ruin the song for me like it did before.  Double Talkin Jive didn't sound as incomplete as it did before, but I really loved the energy of the song. As a kid I didn't care about lyrics all that much. As I got older I learned to really appreciate the lyrics of Dead Horse, Locomotive and Dust N Bones for example. The Garden didn't sound boring like it used to. As an adult I really appreciated the slightly psychedelic mood of that song. The UYI albums are not as easily chewable as AFD is. You really need to have a broader taste in music to enjoy those albums, cause they are a mix of so many different music styles. There's still songs on the UYI albums that I don't like all that much, but I do think that they are great albums.

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There is some sub-par material on both of the Illusion records. If you take that material out, and merge the great songs onto one disc, you have a record that's every bit as good as Appetite For Destruction.

My one disc Use Your Illusion record would be: November Rain, Coma, Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Civil War, 14 Years, Don't Cry (Original), Dust N' Bones, Locomotive, Right Next Door To Hell, Breakdown, Yesterdays, and Estranged.

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18 minutes ago, Old_school_gnr_fan said:

There is some sub-par material on both of the Illusion records. If you take that material out, and merge the great songs onto one disc, you have a record that's every bit as good as Appetite For Destruction.

My one disc Use Your Illusion record would be: November Rain, Coma, Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Civil War, 14 Years, Don't Cry (Original), Dust N' Bones, Locomotive, Right Next Door To Hell, Breakdown, Yesterdays, and Estranged.

Mine would be:

Perfect Crime

Right Next Door to Hell

Dust N' Bones

Bad Obsession

Double Talkin' Jive

Civil War

Back Off Bitch

November Rain

The Garden

You Could Be Mine

Don't Cry

Yesterdays

Estranged

Coma

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On 8/30/2018 at 4:16 AM, Len Cnut said:

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.

I like how you stated these albums were part of your musical education. I’m stealing that line. Next I’ll be saying innit.

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Imperfect masterpieces. These are the albums that made me a fan, especially UYI 2. I don't even mind juvenile stuff like GITR and Shotgun blues because they fit with GnR's attitude that they didn't give a fuck what anyone thought and it's amusing to me that they had the balls to put those tracks alongside Civil War and Estranged. :lol:

But as time goes by, I have a real issue with how polished the songs sound. They have been robbed of their vitality and it's a disservice to the band that their sound has been neutered in the studio. I think it's even more of an issue here than in Chinese Democracy. All the swaggering of Slash and Izzy are kind of blasted with a sheen of vanilla that rounds out the rough edges. And Matt Sorum's drumming on the AFD-style rockers straight up kill those tracks. He just drains them of their energy completely. In fact what works best on UYI imho are the more experimental tracks hence my affection for UYI 2, the prequel to Chinese Democracy.

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I mean everyone talks about filler but given how GNR turned out aren't we glad to have all these tracks? We already have the distilled perfection of AFD... may as well blow it out. Especially because every time these threads pop-up, there is absolutely no consensus on what the filler actually is :)

"Bad Apples is filler? Are you mental??"... "alright alriiight.... just calm down.."

"You're not taking my Garden of Eden... and how about that video!" 

"Yeah it's cheesy but... The intro to Get In the Ring!!!"

I want someone to get in there and fuck with the mix and the master and get their hands dirty but every single song on those albums has something redeeming. Maybe they should have done a What's the Story Morning Glory / The Masterplan kind of thing if you really want to get that critical appreciation for a tight album... shove all the B-sides and the TSI stuff onto a seperate delayed release.  They sure got a lot of publicity and hype for doing two full albums at the same time, though. 

 

Edited by Ant
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28 minutes ago, Ant said:

I mean everyone talks about filler but given how GNR turned out aren't we glad to have all these tracks? We already have the distilled perfection of AFD... may as well blow it out. Especially because every time these threads pop-up, there is absolutely no consensus on what the filler actually is :)

"Bad Apples is filler? Are you mental??"... "alright alriiight.... just calm down.."

"You're not taking my Garden of Eden... and how about that video!" 

"Yeah it's cheesy but... The intro to Get In the Ring!!!"

I want someone to get in there and fuck with the mix and the master and get their hands dirty but every single song on those albums has something redeeming. Maybe they should have done a What's the Story Morning Glory / The Masterplan kind of thing if you really want to get that critical appreciation for a tight album... shove all the B-sides and the TSI stuff onto an album.  They sure got a lot of publicity and hype for doing two full albums at the same time, though. 

 

Yeah, nobody can agree on what constitutes as filler on those albums. 

No way is Bad Apples filler though.:D Neither is Garden of Eden. Come on those songs are great. :heart:

I don't even think My World would have been filler if Axl had the sense to just dump the vocals and leave it as an instrumental jam. Ditto with GITR.

There's an argument to be made for Don't Cry (alt) though. That one was gratuitous even with how excessive UYI already was. 

Edited by RONIN
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1 hour ago, RONIN said:

There's an argument to be made for Don't Cry (alt) though. That one was gratuitous even with how excessive UYI already was. 

Don't Cry (alt) is the favourite of many people, including me. I wouldn't want to miss it. Plus, back in the day, I only got UYI II at first, so I was really happy to have a version of my favourite GNR song at the time on it. Every show I'm still quietly hoping that he'll do the alt version instead of the original :lol:

I hated My World right behind it though. Such horror when I wasn't quick enough to turn the cd off after DC.

So yes, we can at least agree that no one agrees on the fillers.

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