Use Your Illusion II [Gold CD]

Use Your Illusion II [Gold CD]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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

Tracks:

Civil War
14 Years
Yesterdays
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Get In The Ring
Shotgun Blues
Breakdown
Pretty Tied Up
Locomotive (Complicity)
So Fine
Estranged
You Could Be Mine
Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)
My World

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews:

The final album by Guns and Roses..........2007-06-26

Both Use Your Illusion albums had enough material for a 4LP set, and most of it is superb. This is the better of the two records, with G n R classics like Locomotive (an intense, nearly 9 minute rave up), Pretty Beat Up (courtesy of Izzy Stradlin with a cool sitar intro), an excellent cover of Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and Estranged is a good ballad. Gettin' in the Ring is a funny song where Axl goes off on critics. The song is a bit obvious, but it's still fun to listen to. This is more than likely Guns n Roses's final album. There's no way Axl is ever going to release anything else. How come Axl and company can release the equivalent of four albums in 1991, and haven't made an album of new material in 16 years (well, at least Axl, the others have moved on)? Axl needs to get his head out of his a**, and stop being full of himself.

Pure early 90s metal.......2007-05-19

Use Your Illusion II, the second half of Guns 'n' Roses' dual release, is second only to Appetite for Destruction in their list of best albums. With charging guitar funk ("Breakdown"), speeding hard rock ("You Could Be Mine"), and amazing ballads ("Estranged"), UYI II is a must-own for everyone and all die-hard G'N'R fans. It starts off with a creative blend of hard rock and balladry ("Civil War"), and after you've heard that song, you're immeadiately hooked. The blues rock sample of "14 Years" is also amongst the best in G'N'R's arsenal, and it shows that sometimes, bassists CAN be good at singing. "Estranged," which is probably the album's highest point, is one of the top 100 greatest songs of all time, and could even give "Stairway to Heaven" a run for its money. Other songs on the album, such as the two-part "Breakdown" and the awesome "So Fine," also deserve credit for giving the album the unique sound it has. "You Could Be Mine," which is my favorite from the album, is a hard-rocking G'N'R hit that will have you headbanging from the start. It features brilliant vocals by Axl Rose, awesome drumming from Matt Sorum, and masterful guitar playing from the almighty Slash. Use Your Illusion II probably would've won Best Album of the Year Award in 1992, but unfortunatly it didn't get the recogniton it needed thanks to Nevermind by Nirvana, one of the most overrated albums of all time. Standing as the last good album by Guns 'n' Roses, Use Your Illusion II will help you become a big fan of the band, even if you're against them in every way. A must-own album for everyone.

gnr 2.......2007-02-15

one of the best gnr albums, the other is part 1. most of the songs on the use your illusion cd's are really well written.

Wildly uneven, but could've been amazing.......2006-12-21

Hey, remember my old review of this album? Remember how much it SUCKED? Well, I'm editing it, because I've changed my mind about a couple songs. Now, I still feel Knockin' on Heaven's Door is a mockery of the Dylan classic, that Get in the Ring is stupidly self-centered, that My World is more wanking to end the extended game of pocket-hockey we call Use Your Illusion (at least it's short...), that Locomotive and Breakdown are amazing examples of WHY I feel this was an extended game of pocket hockey (how come nobody but me says that anymore?), and there's too much idiocy like Shotgun Blues, Pretty Tied Up (someone should make a law about anyone but Lou Reed writing a song about S&M) and So Fine. Oh, and why remake Don't Cry? It was a good song, you know, before you threw in the unneeded remake.
But we've got five REALLY AWESOME songs here. Ever see that video for Yesterdays? Great stuff, man. (and this from a guy who normally despises music videos!) Say what you will about Axl, but that little slither-dance thing he's got going is pretty cool. Now, I'm not saying you can judge a song by its video, because the song itself is amazing, too. Slash and Izzy riff away and Axl howls "ooh... yesterday's... got nothin' for me!" Schweet. Estranged is, well... Estranged. I didn't like it at first, but I didn't like ANY Guns n' Roses at first - their work seems to grow on me more than any other group's. Anyway, air-guitaring to that thing should be some sort of Olympic event, it's a great song to blast out the windows while you do said air guitaring (it'll drive the neighbors crazy, especially if they hate GN'R as I'm sure mine do and if you're as bad at air-guitar as me), it's got the best lyrics on any GN'R song anywhere ('cept maybe Patience), it's awesomely epic, AND I like Dizzy Reed's piano. It's true. I think he was an unnecessary addition to the band, but Estranged makes me change my mind. Possibly the best of either Illusion, though November Rain's some pretty stiff competition. Anyway, Izzy Stradin's my second-favorite Gunner (behind Guy with Cool Hat, Cool Stage Name and Even Cooler Guitar Tone), and he gets a chance to sing on his Stonesy Axl bash-a-thon 14 Years, which rocks tremendously. And I haven't gotten to the two big hits: Civil War (which mixes Appetite's hard rock, GN'R Lies' acoustic material, and surprising social relevance) which rules, and You Could Be Mine, a flat-out burning rocker which rules even more.

pretty good.......2006-10-06

This was a pretty good piece of work by GNR, but they have definately done better. Use your Illusion I was clearly the better of the two, but that doesnt mean this cd was total trash. This was by-far 10 times better than the Spaghetti Incedent, but not as good as Appetite for Destruction or the Greatest Hits album. "Knockin' on Heavens Door" was probably the best song on the album, whearas "My World" was complete garbage. I don't know what they were thinking with this song, but it sucks big time.