GUNS'N'ROSES: Use Your Illusion I (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After the thundering success of their first opus, "Appetite For Destruction", Guns n' Roses found themselves thrown into the spotlight, offering a timely rock'n'roll alternative to the alternative music flooding the music scene at that time. By modernizing and hardening a glam sound more and more decried and kitsch, the Guns are coming at the right time to give a second breath to a hard rock scene in loss of speed. One year after "Appetite...", Guns n' Roses released "Lies", which was more like a long EP than a real album, but which had the quality to make fans wait until 1991, when they released two distinct opuses: "Use Your Illusion" I and II.

In four years, the combo had time to escape from the style of "Appetite" and to refine a sound still tinged with blues and hard, but in which some keyboards begin to happen and some experimentations giving to "Use Your Illusion" their own personality. The sound is modern, powerful, and visibly moves away from the garage side that remained on "Appetite". This questioning of the sound, coupled with the various influences of the band, allows a diversity that prevents boredom when listening to this first "Use Your Illusion".

Indeed, the album proposes few lacks of taste. Everything is well produced, well mixed, well performed. Whether it is the delicate 'You Ain't The First', entirely acoustic and sung by Izzy, or the epileptic 'Garden Of Eden', on which Axl Rose sings at full speed in a flurry of guitars, each track is credible and sounds good. The ballad 'Don't Cry' is saved from the mawkishness by bewitching solos and a convincing Axl Rose, the attempts of singing of Stradlin (Axl lets him sing his own compositions) seem to be quite good, and 'Coma', a convoluted track somewhat unstructured, remains quite credible. The biggest hit is 'November Rain': entirely composed by Axl, who also plays the piano and the keyboards, the long epic ballad of 8 minutes will become one of the most cult songs of Guns n' Roses, especially thanks to a beautiful finale.

The only remarkable regrets concern the length of the album. Although the listening process goes on smoothly, it is impossible not to notice that some tracks are underperforming and act as filler. The listener will quickly forget 'Back Off Bitch', 'Dust n' Bones' and 'Dead Horses' in favor of the stronger tracks. An exaggeration that is all the more astonishing since by releasing two albums, nobody could reproach them for a low quantity.

In spite of this little drawback that doesn't really harm the global listening, this first part of "Use Your Illusion" remains a success that effectively converts the first opus' try, without repeating or living on this past, and allows Guns n' Roses to build a name that keeps on surviving today. - Official website

GUNS'N'ROSES

USE YOUR ILLUSION I

GEFFEN

HARD ROCK