Use Your Illusion 1 - could've been better than Appetite?

[31illusions]

Nothing beats Appetite. I actually like UYI 2 better than 1. Illusions has everything for me depending on what type of mood I'm in.

Sad, Happy or Angry. Illusions has it all. Add Coma and Perfect Crime to UYI 2 and that album has everything I need.

[DieselDaisy]

Does not come close to Appetite but I do like the Izzy songs on there. It is certainly much better than UYI2

[Gordon Comstock]

The highs on UYI2 are incredible, but the album has too many sub-par songs, such as Get In The Ring, So Fine, Shotgun Blues, My World and Yesterdays (don't mind that one, but it isn't great).

UYI1 only has one mediocre track (Bad Apples) and that's fun in a sort of guilty pleasure way.

This. To those saying UYI II is the better album, you're wrong. There are more 'great/epic' songs but otherwise the quality is all over the place, whereas UYI I there's maybe 2-3 songs that aren't as solid as the rest, but the album as a whole is way stronger. Replace Back Off Bitch, and Live And Let Die with YCBM and Pretty Tied Up, swap the Don't Cry's and it's maybe their best album.

[dalsh327]

GNR was one of the first bands not churning out an album a year, it's just that Appetite was drilled into everyone's heads for 2 years straight and people were trying to get their hands on any scrap of recordings that existed.

[ludurigan]

There are some songs on Appetite that are so fuckin good

Nightrain

Rocket Queen

Think About You

Sweet Child o Mine

Are you kidding me?

Its undisputed

Rocket Queen

Mr. Brownstone

Its So Easy

There is just NO WAY to compair.

Steven drumming on Rocket Queen and Mr. Brownstone has more groove than the entire UYI songs

There are like 3 or 4 songs on Illusions that reach the insanity level of Appetite

One of them is You Could be Mine

The other 2 or 3 it depends on my mood

[wasted]

1. Live n Let Die

2. Double Talkin' Jive

3. Back Off Bitch

4. Don't Damn Me

5. Bad Obsession

6. November Rain

7. Right Next Door to Hell

8. Perfect Crime

9. Don't Cry

10. The Garden

11. Dead Horse

12. Coma

These 12 tracks are kind of AFD-shaped and are all UYI 1 tracks.

1. Tie

2. Easy

3. Nightrain

4. Out Ta get me

5. Brownstone

6. PC v NR = tie

7. My Michelle

8. Tie

9. Sweet v DC = tie for stolen songs

10. The Garden

11. Dead Horse

12. Tie

AFD wins 5-2.

UYI can tie up some of the big ones but loses out to AFDs album classics. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Edited May 15, 2015 by wasted

[Tadsy]

It comes down to opinion...

I personally like all of it... but for long listening the illusions go for longer.. in saying that..throw it all on random and nobody loses!

[uncivil war]

I once tried to make a "Best of Illusions" CD for my car, but couldn't fit all the songs I liked onto one CD.I'm assuming that the band felt the same and that's why we ended up with 2 albums.

These days I have a GN'R playlist and listen to all the songs on random.

[Silent Jay]

These days I have a GN'R playlist and listen to all the songs on random.

That One In A Million/IRS transition must really hurt.

[wasted]

Jungle into If the World just blows my circuit board.

[Silent Jay]

Jungle into If the World just blows my circuit board.

It's such a crime, you know it's true

[wasted]

Chinese D

Its So Easy

Better

Jungle

If the World

YCBM

There was a Time

R2D2 supports this set list.

[Free Bird]

Although it's not without its flaws, this is by far the better of the two Illusions albums. I really love this record and feel it gives Appetite a run for its money as the best GNR album from the original lineup. Coma and November Rain are amongst the two best songs the band ever made, and stuff like The Garden, Right Next Door To Hell and Don't Cry are up there as well. Even the lesser celebrated tracks like the underrated You Ain't The First and the cheeseball cock-rock of Bad Apples and Dust N Bones add a certain charm, with their bluesy Stones-esque feel.

If you swapped Don't Cry with the far superior alt version and replaced the fairly average Back Off Bitch with You Could Be Mine I think it could've been an even stronger album than Appetite.

Thoughts?

How different opinions can be. If I had to choose I'd go with UYI II everyday of the week but would definitely swapped Don't Cry as well, since I like the original version much more.

Neither would I consider Dust N Bones as cock rock. It's pretty much one of my highlights on UYI I. Almost as strong as 14 Years is on the UYI II.

I consider Back Off Bitch a good rocker so replace it with Shotgun Blues. Replace So Fine with November Rain, Get In The Ring with Coma and Dust N Bones with My World and you would have the ultimative record.

Still there were songs on the first record I don't want to miss like Don't Daimn Me, RNDTH and The Garden so it's ok how it is... I'm glad they did it that way

Edit: AFD's songs are far beyond the Illusion tracks. In rawness, of their quality, productionwise ... they are better in simply everything.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Free Bird

[axlsalinger]

the cheeseball cock-rock of Bad Apples

Everyone says this about Bad Apples but i think you're not giving Axl enough credit for his intelligence here, i always felt this song was kinda satirical, like a piss-take of the LA rat race, i think just cuz it's presented in a hard rock context from a big 80s band that people make that association, that it's like some thicko cock-rock track but i don't agree with that at all. In fact, lyrically i think it's up there with Axls best work.

I fucking love Bad Apples, I have never understood the general disdain for this song. I have always preferred UYI to AFD, even though they're both fantastic records. UYI 1 has some great tracks but it's hard to beat an album with Civil War, Estranged, Locomotive and You Could Be Mine on it. Each album has a couple of filler tracks, but overall there's more than 1 record's worth of great work there. The mix isn't perfect like it is on Appetite, but it's still a real fucking strong piece of work.

[uncivil war]

These days I have a GN'R playlist and listen to all the songs on random.

That One In A Million/IRS transition must really hurt.

Not as much as Jungle into My World does. ?

[dando]

Illusion 2 is the best record GnR have put out

[wasted]

There's definitely more AFD era material which could have been the next record. Izzy brought completed songs more I think and obviously there's the Axl songs.

[EvH]

Jungle into If the World just blows my circuit board.

It's such a crime, you know it's true

I love your new avatar

[DieselDaisy]

There is too much shite on UYI2 though,

Shotgun Blues

Knockin on heavens dawawa

Get in the ring

My world

Don't Cry alt lyrics/

[wasted]

You need 6 tracks from each UYI.

UYI 1

1. Right Next Door to Hell

2. Dust N Bones

3. Live N Let Die

4. Don't Cry

5. November Rain

6. Coma

UYI 2

1. You Could Be Mine

2. 14 Years

3. Yesterdays

4. Heavens Door

5. Civil War

6. Estranged

That's a wrap.

[wkuk04]

Illusion 2 is the best record GnR have put out

I don't know...I think CD just tops it.

[wasted]

CD v UYI 2 - World Series of Awesome

1. Civil War

2. 14 Years

3. Better

4. Street of Dreams

5. If the World

6. There was a Time

7. Catcher in the Rye

8. Pretty Tied Up

9. Locomotive

10. Sorry

11. Estranged

12. You Could Be Mine

13. Don't Cry Alt

14. Prostitute

It's all tied up at 7-7.

The main controversy is that This I Love didn't beat Dont Cry Alt but it seems like a fair result.

[J Dog]

the cheeseball cock-rock of Bad Apples

Everyone says this about Bad Apples but i think you're not giving Axl enough credit for his intelligence here, i always felt this song was kinda satirical, like a piss-take of the LA rat race, i think just cuz it's presented in a hard rock context from a big 80s band that people make that association, that it's like some thicko cock-rock track but i don't agree with that at all. In fact, lyrically i think it's up there with Axls best work.

Thank you. I've always thought Bad Apples was one of the top tracks on UYI I. Axl digs in pretty good with the lyrics. And I always thought it had more of a sleazy sound than cock rock.

For me AFD is their best album without question. I guess if I did the whole coulda woulda shoulda thing and swapped songs or made UYI one album it might be closer. Even then AFD is still where it's at.

[sturginho]

1. Live n Let Die

2. Double Talkin' Jive

3. Back Off Bitch

4. Don't Damn Me

5. Bad Obsession

6. November Rain

7. Right Next Door to Hell

8. Perfect Crime

9. Don't Cry

10. The Garden

11. Dead Horse

12. Coma

These 12 tracks are kind of AFD-shaped and are all UYI 1 tracks.

1. Tie

2. Easy

3. Nightrain

4. Out Ta get me

5. Brownstone

6. PC v NR = tie

7. My Michelle

8. Tie

9. Sweet v DC = tie for stolen songs

10. The Garden

11. Dead Horse

12. Tie

AFD wins 5-2.

UYI can tie up some of the big ones but loses out to AFDs album classics. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Did you really say that it is a tie between LALD and Jungle??? Pull yourself together man!

[dalsh327]

GNR could have made AFD 2 with what they already had and not worked on any more songs, but he already had Estranged and November Rain in mind, those were probably the songs he kept working over and over on, so the band had time to bring more songs in and have Axl write lyrics, but you get more into "who came up with what" for those songs more than you do AFD.

Chinese Democracy was probably the first time Axl had to come up with the words to every single song on the album. Sometimes the words are the hardest thing to come up with. He probably could have called Bernie Taupin (who had helped Alice Cooper out) or any decent lyricist and asked for help.

AFD stands as a classic album against every other classic album made, but just because The Beatles are #1 with Sgt Pepper or the Beach Boys with Pet Sounds, that doesn't mean the fans feel AFD is GNR's best album.

General opinion is AFD is the big one, fans are more divided on whether ChiDem or UYI are better as an album you listen to in one sitting. You can incorporate TSI into UYI because most of those songs were recorded during and around the UYI sessions. Maybe not SIDHY & LAYGG.