Use Your Illusion II (Guns N' Roses)

I'm finally back, after what's been at least six months without a single review! So, you might be asking the following question:

WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?

Well after I made that review on Use Your Illusion I (Guns N' Roses); which you can take a look at here, that wonderful thing every human being goes through once in their life called procrastination set in, and well...you get the idea. I eventually caught on to this procrastination by the end of August, but then I put off the issue again by saying, "I'll just do one every Saturday during the school year!" Clearly that didn't happen. I then said to myself, "I'll do reviews during the winter break!" That didn't happen either. My original plan after that was to do a review during the March Break, but I eventually got really bored today and am now trying to do the "review every Saturday during the school year" thing. So here I am, with a new review AND a new system of reviewing! Now anyone who actually looked at my reviews before this one is probably thinking, "What!?" Well after talking to people; namely a very close friend of mine who's quite intelligent who I'll just call Jack, I realized my system of reviewing was indeed a little silly. I mean, "four points for music, three points for lyrics, and three points for coercion? That's silly!" So I've decided to redesign my ratings system, and test drive it on this review. What's the new review system you might be asking? Well, I'll just explain that right now.

My newest ratings system is still a points system, so it's not completely different to the system I used before, but instead of ten total points, it's now thirty total points, and instead of a near balance between the categories in terms of points distribution as mentioned above, well...let's just say there's been an exchange of powers. Instead of the 4 points for music, 4 points for lyrics, and 3 points for coercion system I used before that was; again, mentioned above, I'll be using a system where I give 20 points for music, 5 points for lyrics, and 5 points for coercion. Why change the system? Well, when I was talking to my smart friend that I mentioned above, and telling him about the review system I used before I fell under a procrastination spell, he helped me realize that people typically just listen to the albums they listen to for the music; which includes the melodies, the chords, the rhythms, all that good stuff. Fewer people listen to the album for the lyrics(and if you just listen to an album for the lyrics, go read some poetry or a book instead), and fewer then that listen for a blend of both, if that makes any sense. So I decided to rate the categories accordingly, with the most important thing(the music), being judged for more points than the lesser important things(the lyrics and the coercion). That being said, let's start the review with another brief lesson on GNR history; only this lesson will be A LOT shorter because most of the history that you need to know is in my review of UYI I, which you can find up there somewhere.

So, where do I begin with this band without talking about stuff I already talked about in my review that I did at least six months ago? Well, I can start by saying while Use Your Illusion I was supposed to be hard rock songs for the most part; with the obvious exception of some longer epics; like November Rain and Coma, Use Your Illusion II was supposed to be more epic and big than I. Does it succeed at doing that? Well, why don't we start this review and find out ourselves.

Use Your Illusion II album cover

I was actually expecting to find this album mediocre, but for a reason you'll probably find very silly. The reason I was expecting to find this album to be mediocre was because Axl Rose had more influence on it than his fellow band members at the time, and that works as a reason I was expecting this to be mediocre because I hate Axl Rose, but I'm just going to stop there with Axl Rose and get back to the actual review before my hatred of him gets out of hand and I go into a huge rant. Anyways; on with the review, the music on this album is fantastic. Not even kidding, I love the music on this album (you win this time Axl...). Where do I even begin with describing it? You have the ominous acoustic guitar work and later soaring electric guitar leads in the opening track of the album which is called Civil War, with a powerful vocal melody and rhythm section as well with that wonderful guitar work; provided of course by Slash; who might actually be my all time favorite guitar player. You also have one of the most famous Bob Dylan covers of all time on this album; Knocking on Heavens Door, although I do have to deduct a little bit of points for getting a little bit too overwhelming(a choir? really?), along with one of the most fun "fuck you" songs I have ever listened to; Get In The Ring. The track right after Get In The Ring I really don't like that much, despite being one of the only hard rock songs on the album that isn't an epic; Shotgun Blues, although immediately after that are five mediocre at worst songs which I'll get into right now. Breakdown is a seven minute long epic, with an intro that seems to me has a very subtle influence of country or bluegrass, with the the whistling, the twangy guitar, and the honky tonk style piano that comes in the second short portion of the intro. The song then seems to go nowhere; being one of the more unpredictable tracks on the album, being propelled into what I can only describe as a train-like motion by the guitar and the drum beat provided by Matt Sorum, before going into later sections. Pretty Tied Up (The Perils of Rock & Roll Decadence) has to be one of my favorite songs on the album, with it's mysterious sounding, sitar driven(for lack of a better word) intro that later goes into a song with another train-like rhythm by the guitar driving the song along, that later goes into one of the catchiest choruses I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, and a guitar solo that sounds like you're going on a train to insanity. Locomotive (Complicity) is a bit of a random song, that sounds suspiciously like filler, with it's lack of a chorus, odd sounding 'hook', and it's overall random sounding nature. So Fine is a nice ballad, with some nice guitar work, that has a hard rock sounding section in it where Duff sounds a little bit drunk(ok scratch that, he just sounds drunk), and then goes back into the ballad section with a nice guitar solo. Then you finally get to the biggest epic on the album; Estranged. This is definitely one of the best songs on the album, with amazing guitar work, really well done vocal melodies, a strong rhythm section, a really cool piano solo, well done form, and a really damn good set of melodies and chords. This might even be my favorite song from the band's entire catalogue that I've heard so far. Now what do we have after that wonderful piece of epic? We have "You Could Be Mine", an actually badass sounding 'cock-rocker' that sounds a bit like Nightrain off of their deput album; Appetite for Destruction, with a very nice guitar solo that just carries you flying to nowhere in particular while the song fades...and then there's the last two tracks. The second last track is just a rehash of Don't Cry off Use Your Illusion I, that effects the vocal melodies a little bit for the worse, and the last track is just a piece of shit with hideous vocals, random instrumentation, and a really stupid sounding fade out. Overall, despite some really shitty work at the end, and some fuck ups here and there, Use Your Illusion II for the most part is absolutely wonderful musically, Guns N' Roses really picked up the slack here, and it shines through with the music, with soaring guitars, strong rhythms, and surprisingly well done vocal melodies, making for some really awesome music. 17/20

While Guns N' Roses have done very well when it comes to the actual music, can the same be said for the lyrics that go with that music? Well, we might as well start from the beginning of the album like we did for the previous section. The lyrics in Civil War are very fitting to the title, all of them relating to war; specifically being against it, especially the blatantly obvious chorus, and those lyrics are very well constructed, to the point where I wouldn't look at you funny if you called those lyrics beautiful. The lyrics in Knocking on Heavens Door are also pretty good, but they were written by Bob Dylan, so what else did you expect. The lyrics in Get In The Ring are typical of 'fuck you' songs, lyrics designed to insult people and make the artist look good, only a little bit better written in this case. The lyrics in Estranged are really good, portraying very accurately what the average man might be thinking through the process of a divorce; which is appropriate of the mindset Axl had at the time he was writing the song, and the lyrics in the last track of the album are shitty like the actual music of that song. The rest of the lyrics...are kinda mediocre, with some exceptions now and then like 'You Could Be Mine', but other than that, the lyrics for the rest of the songs on the album aren't really something I admire or look up to. Overall, in terms of lyrics, this album does ok with some exceptions; both positive and negative as mentioned above, but it's not something I'm completely disappointed by, as I wasn't expecting superb lyrical poetry. If I want that, I'll ask Jack about a Bob Dylan album that has the best lyrics. Guns N' Roses are much more known for the actual music they make, rather than the words that go along with it, I'm completely fine with having satisfactory lyrics for most of the album considering how well done the music is. So in the end, this album has overall mediocre lyrics on the positive end, if that makes any sense. 3/5

So we've covered the music, and we've covered the lyrics. Now it's time to see how well they mesh and blend together. Civil War is really well done as a combination of music and lyrics, with the imagery that it provides really making you feel like you're in a war zone at times. 14 Years; although I didn't mention it throughout the whole review until just now, is another well done combination, making me feel like I'm with the narrator of the song, angry at the world and about to do something about it after...well 14 years. Knocking on Heavens Door and Get In The Ring are also pretty damn good combinations too, as...you get the idea. Hell, most of the songs on the album are well put together combinations of music and lyrics, with maybe one or two exceptions(yes, I'm referring to My World). So clearly, we can already reach the end of reviewing this section. Overall, the album does amazing work in coercing the music and the lyrics together in wonderful ways(although you could easily just not listen to the lyrics at all and you'd still get a pretty damn good album), with beautiful imagery to support it. 4/5

So in conclusion, Use Your Illusion II is a wonderful album with great epics and some really nice guitar work to listen to that I especially recommend to anyone into long epic songs to listen, along with any budding hard rock guitar players to check out. If you're more into the hard rock stuff that Guns N' Roses have done however, you should go buy I instead. You'll find some hard rock elements in here, with the heavy guitar work and the strong drums, but they're a lot more prominent in I than II. Would I recommend this to just any casual listener though? ...not really.  Most of the songs are longer than a song a casual listener would listen to, and the short songs on the album are really not that great compared to the long epics on the album. With that being said though, this is still a really great album, and I'd recommend it to anybody that's really into Guns N' Roses, and just about anyone into some longer than usual rock epics. 24/30

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P.S. I have a facebook page now! Go check it out!
P.P.S. Yes I have abolished the 'one point off for a cover rule'.
P.P.P.S. Yes I'll probably review the albums I've done in prior reviews again with the new system.