1056. Guns n' Roses / G N' R Lies [EP]. 1988. 4/5

Guns N’ Roses debut album “Appetite for Destruction” had been a slow burner across most of the world. It was really 12 months after it was released before it finally began to take traction and began to sell in the millions worldwide. And because of this slow burn, the release of this EP came as somewhat of a surprise. Under normal circumstances, 17 months after an album’s release was probably a good time frame to come in with this album. Three singles had been released in that time frame, including “Sweet Child O’ Mine” which had come out five months prior to this. However, two further singles from that first album were still to come months after this release, with “Paradise City” being the big seller of them. Indeed, there was only one single released from this EP, and that wouldn’t be until April the following year, a few months after “Paradise City” had stormed the charts itself.
All of this combined to add some confusion to what the band and/or the record company was trying to achieve. And perhaps it was just simply that neither was aware of how this movement in popularity was gathering. Could either have guessed the success that “Paradise City” received when it was released, some 18 months after the album had first been put out? If they had, would they have delayed the release of “Lies” purely from a financial point of view? Or did the release of “Lies” when it was, riding the wave of the still-building Guns N’ Roses fanbase, allow it to not only get sales at that time, but more six months later, when the single release of “Patience” also went ballistic on the back of the success of “Paradise City”, and then poured more money into the coffers with those people then rushing out to purchase “Lies” as well? Whatever reason you come up with, it turned out to be a pretty profitable time for the band and their moguls.

The opening four tracks are all in a faux-live setting and made up the original EP “Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide”, which was released by the band prior to the arrival of “Appetite for Destruction”, with the release limited to just 10,000 copies. There are two songs from the band Hollywood Rose that Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose originally formed which eventually morphed into Guns n’ Roses, and had all members apart from Duff McKagan in at one time or another. Those two songs are “Reckless Life” and “Move to the City”, and both are upbeat and fast paced songs that hint at the style of songs that was to come from the band. “Nice Boys” is a cover of an old Rose Tattoo song, and the band does a great version here, losing none of the original attitude. The fourth and final song here is an Aerosmith cover called “Mama Kin” which is the weakest of the four songs but is still a vast improvement on the original. Which wouldn’t be hard for most Aerosmith songs.
The four remaining songs are all performed acoustically and predated what was to become a glut of similar releases, driven in part by this release. It led to the hit single “Patience” which found itself on heavy radio rotation around the world, and in itself pushed other bands such as Extreme and Mr Big to release their own big selling acoustic numbers. This then led to the popular “MTV Unplugged” program that brought together whole sets of bands numbers played acoustically. Here of course there was only one actually released song that got this treatment, being “Your Crazy” which was faster and much more electric on the “Appetite for Destruction” album. This version was apparently more in the realm of the way they wanted the song to sound, which to me is ‘crazy’ (pun intended I guess) because the faster version is much better. “Patience” was the only single released, while both “Used to Love Her” and “One in a Million” are great sounding songs with lots of energy and performed with gusto. There is some degree of controversy over “One in a Million” in particular, with the use of some words that are taboo in describing racism and homophobia, and it is a shame that they overshadow what is a terrific tune and a song that is played superbly by the band in this instance.

As an accompanying piece with their debut album, "Lies” still stacks up well. With their continued growing popularity, this kept the band well and truly in the public’s hearing alongside their debut album. It’s a short sharp jab in the ribs and serves its purpose well. It may not be a go-to album on many occasions, but when you get around to it you remember just what made it so special. The combination of live sounding tracks and the acoustic based tracks actually works well as an EP, and combines both sides of the band in a terrific way.
When this was first released, I felt an aversion to buying it, and as a result didn't really give it a good listen until a few years later. Why? Well, the reason turned out to be that I wanted to be different from the crowd. “G N' R Lies” came out at a time when, in Australia at least, “Appetite for Destruction” was still in the throes of taking hold of the listening public, so it was actually the ’in-thing’ to enjoy Guns n' Roses as a mainstream act. When this EP came out, and with it the mixture of live and acoustic songs, those jumping on the bandwagon grabbed it with glee, and as a result I felt an aversion to liking it for fear that I would be lumped in with this popular music seeking crowd. Yes, the age of youth was upon me, however stupid that does appear in retrospect. And it is. The fact that "Patience" was such a hit made me withdraw even more from this release when it first came out. I wasn't a fan of the hit machine, which is what these acoustic tracks became, and led to so many hard rock and metal bands seeking to 'sell out' and perform songs just for radio exposure. It really stopped me actually buying into this album until the mid-1990's, at which point I discovered the great material that lay within, and not for the first time wondered why I was so stupid in the early years to deprive myself of this because of 'music fashion'. In the end, I had again been the one to suffer through my own desire to ‘not fit in’. Idiot.
Everything about this album still holds up today. I have had this going around for a few times a day for the last few weeks, and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. The popularity of this album then bled into the soon to be released “Use Your Illusion” albums, as Guns N’ Roses continued, if only for a short glimmer of time, to rule the music world in all genres.

1055. Guns n' Roses / Use Your Illusion II. 1991. 3/5.

From the outset, the appearance of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II on the same day created mayhem amongst fans of Guns n' Roses who had been waiting with anticipation for new material from the band. Two albums meant a lot of juggling when it came to listen and giving all of the material a fair chance to grow with love. Over time I came to enjoy the mix of material on Use Your Illusion I, and over time I came to consider just where it was that Use Your Illusion II couldn't quite match up to it.

There are two great songs on this album, ones that have resonated through time and still stand out as the best here every time they come on. The album opener “Civil War” is a classic, with its opening monologue taken from the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, the moody start to the hard and emotional ride beyond, it is one of the songs that shows the other side to Guns n’ Roses, not just the crass and pissed off side, the one where the band’s lifestyle comes through in the lyrics. “Civil War” shows a mature side, a meaningful side to the band’s song writing, and for me it is one of their best songs. The other is “You Could Be Mine” which found its way onto the soundtrack of “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”, and it too shows the technical side of the band and its musicians. It is a heavy, rollicking song that reaches for the pinnacle, and tests the limits of any singer’s vocal chords. Hard hitting drums, awesome guitars and great lyrics make for a terrific song and the best the band can offer.
Beyond this there are other layers of songs that fill the album, some are good and others are really only average. Unlike the other album I don't believe the songs tie together as well here as they do on it, and whether that is because most of this is 'newer' material is not something I can answer.
Sitting in the middle would be songs such as the piano ragtime sensibilities of "14 Years" which I alternately enjoy or dismiss depending on my mood at the time. "Yesterdays" again is heavily based around the piano and the tempo probably precludes my total enjoyment of the track. The cover version of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" doesn't do it for me like its sister track from Use Your Illusion I, "Live and Let Die", probably only for the fact that I've never really liked the song anyway. It's okay for the mix of songs available.
"Get in the Ring" is an abusive laden sledge fest at critics and hangers on over the career of the band, with little left to the imagination as to what they really think of those people mentioned. Once again, as with "Yesterdays" I can really get into this song on some days and on others I can quiet happily skip it if I'm not in the mood. "Shotgun Blues" is closer to the sound the band gave us on their first album and is more recognisable as a result. "Breakdown" is fine but a bit long on the run time. "Pretty Tied Up (The Perils of Rock 'n' Roll Decadence)" has its moments where it is fun to listen to, and for the most part so is "Locomotive (Complicity)", but once again it just goes on way beyond the length of time it needs to.
"So Fine" is written by and sung by Duff McKagan, and apart from that novelty the song is about average for the rest of the album. For my taste it is too slow and maudlin at the beginning to be an enjoyable track before it breaks out towards the end.
"Estranged" is a long winded, overblown extravagance of a song that goes nowhere and takes an eternity to do so. I have never found anything even remotely terrific about this track. With so many of these tracks it feels like they have been extended purely to try and get the album up to its maximum length of 78 minutes that a CD would hold in those good old days of the early 1990's. Sure, quantity can be better, but only if it is quality.
"Don't Cry" is the second version of this song, with alternate lyrics from the twin track that appears on Use Your Illusion I. I haven't ever been a fan of either version. "My World" completes the album in reasonable fashion without being able to rescue it from its own averageness.

As I said in my review of Use Your Illusion I, taking the best songs from both albums and combining it into just one would have been a much better idea, and produced a much better product. With that in mind, I don't think there would have been a great deal of material from this album that would end up on a combined effort. Much of this feels and sounds forced, and without great inspiration. Others may disagree, but unless there is some stimulant involved I can't get overly excited about what is contained within.

Rating: "I'm a cold heart-breaker, fit to burn, and I'll rip your heart in two". 3/5

684. Guns N' Roses / Use Your Illusion I. 1991. 4/5

Following the enormity of Appetite for Destruction it was always going to be interesting scenario to see what Guns N' Roses would do in order to equal or top its popularity. It would be safe to say that it would have been difficult to predict that the response would be to write, record and release TWO albums, both on the same day. An impossible task, you would say, to do so and to be able to sell both in appropriate numbers. But they did, and for the most part they succeeded in doing so with both albums.
This is a real eclectic mix, showing that their music cannot be categorised in a single genre. But, they are able to mix it into a format here that, for the most part, makes the album a winner.
The good songs are terrific, top-shelf stuff. They are songs you can easily walk around singing in your head for days afterwards when you have thrown the album on for a whirl. The lesser songs on the album are, well, average at worst, and OK on most scales. The album survives on a whole because these songs - good, average, fast, slow, heavy, soft - all mix themselves in to the playlist such that whatever your tastes or likes of each song, you can be sure that it will be offset by the next song in order. It means that, even though some of these songs could be considered "skip" songs, you have no desire to do so, because it all seems to fit together rather nicely.

It kicks off with brilliant "Right Next Door to Hell", a breezy mix of lyrics and guitar shovelled in until it bursts through the speakers, a song that could easily have come from their debut opus. This is followed by "Dust N Bones" which slows the tempo down immediately and also introduces the piano into the mix as well.
The cover version of Wings' "Live and Let Die" is a real treat. It pays homage to the original but not straying too far from its formula, but it gives it a real hard rock edge, and the energy that comes out is just awesome. "Don't Cry" (this version being dubbed the "Original Version" rather than the "Alternate Lyrics" version on Use Your Illusion II) is tolerable without being anything above average. I feel as though this is this album's "Paradise City", a song that most others seem to love, but that I find quite average.
"Perfect Crime" is what I would consider the best type of Guns N' Roses song. It is short, sharp, taxing vocals, great riff and solo break and terrific drumming, all at a cracking pace. Great stuff all round. This is followed by "You Ain't the First", an acoustic song in the same style as what was done on G N' R Lies. Now, while that stuff was OK for an EP release, I don't really see the need to revisit it here on a new album a couple of years later. If you wanted to write this song, then do it at THAT time! Sure, that's just my opinion, but it did seem a little odd at this time of the album. "Bad Obsession" reinvigorates the piano here, as well as bringing in the harmonica, so that it has a real rockabilly feel to the song. Another song for me that isn't bad, but it doesn't appeal either. "Back Off Bitch" is a much more straight forward hard rock song, with typical Axl attitude. "Double Talkin' Jive" is a really subtle under toned kind of song, featuring Izzy Stradlin on vocals and an extended guitar solo from Slash that leads out the song.
"November Rain" was the overblown lengthy single, and the video it spawned is by all accounts one of the most expensive ever produced. To be honest, when I first listened to the song on the album I was less than excited about it, but, having had it played on the radio for six months straight, and having seen the video for the song a thousand times, it did begin to grow on me. Though I would never call it once of their greatest songs, I do now find myself enjoying it whenever it comes on. "The Garden" follows this, which features Alice Cooper on vocals on part of the song, and it is written in a very Alice Cooper-type way. You could easily mistake it for one of his songs, such is the mood and tempo it is played and sung at. "Garden of Eden" moves the album back into fourth gear, driving along at a frenetic pace that had been missing from the previous couple of songs.
"Don't Damn Me" starts off with a great rock riff and Axl at his best, spitting out lyrics in an incomprehensible tone and without taking a breath, which seems literally impossible if you try and sing along with him. It has a great solo from Slash and is one of my favourite songs on the album. I cannot understand why they have never played it live, it just feels like a great live song. "Bad Apples", dominated by the piano of Dizzy Reed, sounds as though it could be being played in an old western bar, the band in the corner playing while everyone around them sips whisky and plays poker. "Dead Horse" is of a similar vein, although there is not the dominating presence of the piano here that there was on "Bad Apples" it is much more driven by the guitars.
The album wraps up with the 10 minute sleeper, "Coma". In so many ways, certainly when I first got the album and listened to it, this song really did almost send me into a coma. It really dragged out the conclusion of the album, and on two occasions during the song it feels like it is finished, only to kick start again (no doubt much like a coma victim). In recent times I have come to enjoy it much more than I did in those days twenty years ago, though i still think it is dragged on far longer than is necessary.

I have always felt, probably like a majority of people, that if the band had just taken the best parts of both Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, and fused them together, they could have made one album that may have reached legendary status. As it turns out, both of them stand up on their own. Use Your Illusion I has something for just about everyone's musical taste, and all with a distinctive Guns N' Roses flavour about them, which is quite an achievement. To me, there are a lot of songs here that I like rather than love, and a numberof others I can tolerate rather than like. With an album so long and with so many songs of varying styles, you might be able to find a lot that you enjoy, but there will also through sheer volume be a few that you are ambivalent about. In an overall rating of the album, this is what costs it getting full marks.

531. Guns N' Roses / Chinese Democracy. 2008. 1.5/5

It came as absolutely no surprise to me that this album was such a disappointment. Let’s face it – we were all waiting for it for so long, at least ten years. In fact, since the release of both of the Use You Illusion albums, we’ve been waiting for the follow up. Almost two decades later, and years of promises, and the day finally arrived. And after such a build-up, what could you possibly expect.

It doesn’t help that it also isn’t Guns N’ Roses – it’s Axl Rose and some other musicians. No disrespect to them, but Slash’s guitaring was as much G N’ R as the vocals ever were, and it does seem to be missing a bit in that respect.More than anything else, the songs are lame. Having been written and recorded over such a long period of time, the album is disconnected and for the most part tremendously boring. There is little hard or heavy, or even rock, about most of the songs on this album. Axl still wails where he finds it necessary, but has little in common with what the original band released back in its day.

For the record company’s sake, at least it has been released. The world can now stop worrying about whether it was ever going to happen, and move onto other matters.

Rating: Only what is to be expected, but not what was hoped for. 1.5 / 5

453. Guns N' Roses / Greatest Hits. 2004. 3/5

Isn’t it somewhat presumptuous to release a Greatest Hits album when, in reality, you have only released two albums? There’s Appetite For Destruction of course, and then Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II which to me constitutes one album (they were released more or less at the same time), and then the awful The Spaghetti Incident which is trash.

Anyhow, here it is, and while it does have some great songs on it, it also has some less justified tracks. You can’t argue with “Welcome to the Jungle”, and “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, and “Civil War” and “You Could Be Mine”. But what is the deal with the plethora of cover tunes? On a greatest hits package? C’mon guys, (some of) the versions may be good, but they aren’t your songs! Way to pad out an album that really shouldn’t have been released in the first place!

Quite honestly, before I ever reached for this I would go for Appetite For Destruction because most of their great songs are contained there anyway.

Rating: Lots of great songs, but just so unnecessary. 3/5.

74. Guns N' Roses / Appetite For Destruction. 1987. 5/5.

Where the hell did Guns N’ Roses appear from? It’s an interesting story, but my intention is not to go through the entire history of the lead up to the band coming together. In short, the members of two bands, Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns, came together to form a new band, taking a piece from each of the band's names to create a new name – Guns N’ Roses. As the band progressed, all of the members of L.A. Guns moved on back to their original grouping (and of course did their own thing with some success), and as each member left, another former member of Hollywood Rose came in to replace them. As it turned out, a number of Hollywood Rose songs would turn up on releases by Guns N’ Roses, including on their debut album, “Appetite for Destruction”.
The band eventually signed on to Geffen Records for less money than they were offered by other record companies, but with Geffen they were offered the ability to do their own things, whereas other companies had wanted to change the band and image and music to their own terms. Having signed in March 1986, the band had released a four track EP, “Live Like a Suicide” in December of that year, in order to keep peace with their record company as well as keep their name in the minds of the fans out there, as Geffen had feared that the band didn’t have enough material to release a full album. The writing and recording of “Appetite for Destruction” took place over the first six months of 1987. Several producers came in and help produce songs, in order to gauge their suitability to work with the band. In the long run Mike Clink was the man who got the job, a producer with a wide experience and with different genres of bands. With songs from a wide variety of timelines of the band and its members, in hindsight it probably always boded well for the album to have a varied and interesting progression. The album was eventually released on July 21 1987, to the massive sound... of crickets...

For an album that has become one of the biggest sellers of all time, it is amazing how little anyone knew about it for so long. There’s little doubt that much of the album was uncommercial, songs whose subject matter and explicit language made them impossible to play on the radio. It was also one of those albums that had the ‘explicit language’ sticker prominently displayed on the cover, which may or may not have hindered its sales.
Eventually, it was two singles that broke the band firstly into the mainstream, and then into the stratosphere. The alternative flavoured “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, not a ballad but with lyrics that makes radio stations stand up and think ‘that’s a hit’, was the first to make a splash, with Slash’s uniquely harmonic guitar riff to open the song, and then his solo later on, making a song that atmospherically made the band marketable on the basis of it being a great track that ticked all those commercial boxes without being the atypical radio hit. This was the song that powered the album sales, such that it finally reached top ten around the world, a year after its release. Six months on from that, the band then released “Paradise City” as its next single, and this sent sales soaring again. “Paradise City” had a film clip of Guns N’ Roses playing live, and the song drew on that to continue the sales surge of the album, with its repeatable lyrics and rock sensibilities, giving kids of all ages a chorus that they could cling on to. These two songs were the driving force that propelled the sales of the album well into two years after its initial release.
And the thing is, once people bought the album, they discovered that the rest of the songs on the album weren’t really like those two songs at all. Some found disappointment in this, but many found the true joy of what Guns N’ Roses had compiled for their debut opus. The incredible energy of the tracks throughout is something to behold. The lyrical content and in your face style of each song is like a freight train, or perhaps even a Nightrain, bearing down on you. Both the album opener “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Nightrain” were released as singles, but both had more impact on people once they began buying the album. The opening trio of songs in “Welcome to the Jungle”, the hard rock jingle “It’s so Easy” and the rollicking “Nightrain” make for a terrific start. “Out Ta Get Me” and “Mr Brownstone” leave nothing to the imagination as to their lyrical content, and the excitable enjoyment that they are performed at both musically and by Axl’s vocals make them fantastic songs to sing along to. Both have such brilliant riffs, and the groove of “Mr Brownstone” is awesome. After the lengthy overhaul of “Paradise City”, the two songs sandwiched between it and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” are probably my favourites on the album. “My Michelle” and “Think About You” are arguably the most unlikely songs to appear on this album, and perhaps that’s why they attract me so much. At opposite ends of the scale when it comes to the lyrical aspects of singing about the ‘girl in your life’, for me they have always picked up that middle part of the album. And of course, once we’ve crossed over “Sweet Child O’ Mine” you have the three closing tracks, with the fast paced “You’re Crazy”, the hard jumping of “Anything Goes” and the lengthy extolling of “Rocket Queen”, a song I’ve always felt may have fit better on one of the Illusion albums. But what it does do is close out a most remarkable album given the circumstances of its release and growth over the years.

I know full well I didn’t have this album until well into 1988, because no one in my high school had this album, to my recollection, in our final year of high school. I know I had this on cassette recorded for me by someone in the first half of 1988, and I don’t think I bought this until sometime in that year, probably at the time they really began to get noticed. I remember seeing the album in record shops that I frequented in those days, with the big warning sticker on the front, but because I hadn’t heard anyone who listened to them, or heard any of the songs off the album, I ignored it and looked at the other wares in the racks. And I guess I followed the crowd a little when it came to finding and enjoying this album. I don’t feel any problem with that. Sometimes being a sheep is a good thing and leads you to something you may otherwise have missed, and I think this album in particular is a good example of that. I know the band toured Australia at the end of 1988 and I didn’t feel overwhelmed to attend, so I know my feelings on the album were still ambivalent at that stage, some 18 months after it had been released. One of my funniest memories of the time is when one of my best mates bought the UK 12” single of “Welcome to the Jungle” because he loved that song, but found that “Nightrain” was on the B side, and he claimed he was going to go home, and drag a razor blade right across the B side to make it unplayable, because he hated that song so much. Of course, within a few months he then claimed that he did actually enjoy the song after all. Funny times.
It is an eclectic and unique album that has crossed genres, and indeed is one that cannot be categorised into any one format as a result. It’s a metal album, and hard rock album, a rock album, an alternative album, a post punk rock album... and probably another half a dozen genres rolled into that as well. One thing that I’ve always attested to is that I love the album much more than those two songs that drove its eventual popularity, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City”. They are good songs, but not in the best half of songs that appear on this album. They did their job in getting the album airplay, and for me it was discovering everything else here that is the real bonus.
In the years since this album has held up surprisingly well, perhaps because there has been so little other material released beyond 1991, that it doesn’t have much to stand up against in the GNR discography. Maybe that’s it. Or maybe this is just a unique album that stands the test of time because it had to fight so hard to be recognised in its time. Whatever the reason, 35 years on – or in reality I guess 34 years on, from the time most of us actually discovered it – this album is still a pretty damned good listen.