Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II

Had Use Your Illusion II been combined with Use Your Illusion I, keeping only the best material while dropping the filler, it would have been one of the best rock albums ever recorded. Instead, great songs like "Civil War," "14 Years," "Estranged," and "So Fine" compete with the inexcusable "Get in the Ring" and the well-intentioned but off-target cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." There's no point to the second version of "Don't Cry," either. On the other hand, when Guns N' Roses were good, they were very, very good, and some of the material on this album is unsurpassable. --Genevieve Williams Amazon.com

Part 2 of the expansive monolith

Coming out at the same time as Use Your Illusion I in one of the biggest days in metal history this album contains a swathe of hard rock and metallic styles. For my mind part one is the more metallic and this the more maudlin of the dynamic duo. But as I said it has a range of styles like Civil War which is the sort of thing that a band with expanding horizons would do, numbers like the visceral Get In The Ring, the bouncy though metallic Shotgun Blues and Breakdown (a personal fave) and sicker more cerebral stuff like the sneering disdain in Pretty Tied Up. We also get an industrial sicko in the brief My World which speaks to a certain doom obsessed juvenile brain wave but is certainly no less valid for that.

My reasons for giving this album only four stars - though a very strong four stars mind - is that it has more tunes that to me don't quite work. Tunes like Locomotive is fine but doesn't seem to quite work as well as some of the more cerebral tracks nor work as brilliantly as blasts of hard rockin' metal. So Fin and Estranged leave me utterly unmoved and I didn't really need an alternate set of lyrics to Don't Cry. And why do some bands like Dylan? Much ground is recovered however due to the maudlin aspects of tracks like 14 Years and Yesterdays and the mega song You Could Be Mine. And to think Lars big upped Metallic' songs association with one of those overblown Mission Impossible movies...silly bloke. And while after most of two decades on some cringe factor may be accrued to the band for having a song so closely associated with a movie it was a huge hit (both the track and the movie) at the time and perfectly suited to the collaboration.

And that's about it, if you don't already have this get out from under the rock you've been living under and get this and Use Your Illusion I as soon as possible as they are well produced expansive works that show that focus and talent can achieve good results and if your good enough you can develop your bands sound and take your fanbase with you June 13, 2008

The Grand Finale.

Yeah, I know. Axl says a new album is coming.
We've been listening to that for over a decade.
This was the end to GNR as we knew them.
And what an ending it was.
Same as Illusion I.
Awesome and a must have.
A piece of rock n roll history.
May 23, 2008

Poetry

Every single song on this CD is fascinating. No matter the profanity or rage, it's great. There's that soft side that makes you think and then you have some songs which show that metal fury that we all know and love. If you didn't get this is 1991, wow, where were you? Regardless, GET IT NOW! March 4, 2008

Stunning!

Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II, the slightly more highly regarded of the two Use Your Illusion releases, is widely enjoyed by those who like a great mix of rock n' roll styles, and widely disliked by those who prefer more pretentious music or who take their love of Bob Dylan a little too seriously. And, as with any number of albums that have made a big impact on the face of rock n' roll, those who dislike it seem to complain about it...endlessly.

Ah, well. I never said it was easy being a Guns fan, but I take solace in the quality of the music on this album.

The first four tracks, "Civil War," "14 Years," "Yesterdays," and Dylan cover "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" mark one of the longest, fairly easy going stretch of songs on any GNR album. Beginning with "Civil War," which balances softer verses against a harder chorus, the album opens very differently than Use Your Illusion I, which really got off to an aggressive start. Rather, UYI II is the more cerebral of the two, which "Civil War" demonstrates with some great, and well thought out lyrics. The (relatively) laid back approach continues through "14 Years" and "Yesterdays," each offering an approach that, at the time, was pretty new to GNR, before "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" pays tribute to one of the band's idols.

The aggression picks up, however, with the blisteringly critical "Get in the Ring," an over the top calling out of many of the band's nemeses, and continues in "Shotgun Blues," a song that is really just layered aggressive rock n' roll...the guitar, the vocals, the bass and drums...all driving a frantic track that would have been at home on Appetite for Destruction.

The middle of the album is marked by the stellar "Breakdown" which, despite being completely unknown to those who only get their GNR from MTV or the radio, is one of the best tracks of the band's career. Great lyrics, killer guitar, and a striking balance between bluesy rock and a harder rock that ends the song in a fury all combine to make this an amazing track.

The harder note on which "Breakdown" ends carries over into the next two tracks, "Pretty Tied Up" and "Locomotive," which really help to fill out the album's middle with some strong instrumental work that defies the label "filler." Tracks like these make a listener realize that there really is a lot of incredibly strong material on this album, and much of it is wholly unknown to the public at large.

A very subdued track in "So Fine" follows, and it pours right into the mood set by the opening notes of the album's epic masterpiece, "Estranged," which is really one of the all time great GNR tracks. The lyrics are really top notch, as are all the instrumental performances, most especially the piano which adds a great touch to the track.

"You Could Be Mine" completes the 1-2 punch, following "Estranged," as one of the album's most unrelenting hard rockers. The chugging bass line, killer guitar, and some of the best vocal work on the album mark this as a standout track.

To some extent, the album closes on a bit of a down note. While "Don't Cry" is a great track in the band's catalog, this version simply features different lyrics and is otherwise, for the most part, identical to that of UYI I. While a good song, and one that lends a nice connection between the two albums, I would have preferred another unique track. This leads into "My World," which is more of a strange, industrial tinged outro than a proper song, ending the album on an utterly strange note.

All in all, however, this is a phenomenally good album. It features a variety of styles, some incredibly good songwriting, and great performances from all members of the band. A winner! February 15, 2008

Just get it 2!

Like I said for its sister album Use Your Illusion I, this is a brilliant record. Don't miss out on it no matter what you like listening too. The Use Your Illusions Records are classics no cd collection should be without. August 23, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...