Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89190 in Digital Music Album
• Published on: 1998-08-25
• Released on: 1998-08-25
• Running time: 3825 seconds

Customer Reviews

Buy the two albums separately
This is a really good cd and I gave it five stars, but it is no substitute for Use Your Illusion I & II. It's a nice enough overview of the two albums, but it focuses mainly on their more radio oriented songs. This is almost a UYI Greatest Hits. While I'm sure no one will really agree what songs should or should not make the cut, it is clear that songs like "You Ain't the First" and the second version of "Don't Cry" are not needed on this one cd compilation. To be sure, it has two of the biggest essentials: "Estranged" and "November Rain", but so much is missing that it pains me to think someone might buy this album and miss out on so many other songs. Some of the more glaring absences include, "Bad Obsession", "Double Talkin' Jive", "Don't Damn Me", "Bad Apples", "Coma", "Breakdown", "Pretty Tied Up", "Locomotive" and "You Could Be Mine". Use Your Illusion I & II both have as much music as a cd can hold, and are, essentially, the length of three albums. It's worth your time and money to get them both. Only buy this compilation if you are a collector, or if you're looking for a gift without any bad language.

A "best of" from 2 albums?
Made in USA in 1998, Serial# GEFD-24463, Playing Time 63:52

The best thing about this CD is the idea for the cover that merges the artwork from the individual "Use Your Illusion 1" and "Use Your Illusion 2" CDs.

If you're on a tight budget, it's worth it, and you can be the proud owner of the edited version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", the full version being on the original CD "UYI 2". Or if you're a die-hard GNR fan, you'll have to buy this for the very same reason.

Releasing the albums as a pair was somewhat daring, and I can't say I like everything on them. But each of them has some material that unfortunately didn't make it on this "compilation".

I'm by no means a big GNR fan, but I think you should do yourself a favor: buy both separately, and forget about this compilation.

How to make a good Use Your Illusion combo CD.
As far as I can tell, there's certain types of people this CD is for: Those who don't want to fork out money for both Illusion CDs, those who are only casual GNR fans, and those who are Wal-Mart or K-Mart retailers.

First, upsides. The McCartney cover "Live And Let Die" is a thundering classic that GNR made their own (as they tend to do). "Don't Cry" is a pretty nice power ballad that really works. "November Rain" is one of the best songs of the 1990s, with beautiful lyrics and instrumentals, two great Slash solos, and that perfect ending guitar riff.

"The Garden" is nice and sinister, while "Civil War" is a great anti-war anthem with lots of sonic power. "14 Years" is a bluesy, Stones/Aerosmith-ish lover-trashing song, with Izzy and Axl sharing vocals. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is a remarkable achievement, acheiving a perfect sonic power in a song that, remarkably, is better than both the Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton versions of the song. I mean, you've really got something if you can say you did a song better than Clapton. "Estranged" is the final great track on this CD, and works as a sequel to "November Rain," as the songs' protagonist suffers through a hard breakup and his thoughts turn to suicide. This song clocks in at nearly ten minutes, and it's a beautiful but biting epic, with lots of mood swings and song shifts. They're not jarring, though --they're perfectly appropriate. It's a remarkable song.

Now, the cons. "You Ain't The First" should have been omitted altogether. It's catchy, but not something that belongs as one of the best songs of the Illusion albums. "Yesterdays" seems like Axl's attempt to tap into "Dream On" territory by talking about past mistakes and lost innocents. Unfortunately, it's a horrendous song, and doesn't hold a candle to that Aerosmith anthem. There's also another version of "Don't Cry," which is identical musically but contains different lyrics. It's really quite pointless, as the original "Don't Cry" is far and away superior anyway.

Were I making a mix of the Illusion albums, I would remove the above named tracks and replace them with "You Could Be Mine," "Pretty Tied Up," and "Dust N' Bones". Some nice rockers to contrast with the epic ballads like "November Rain," "Don't Cry," and "Estranged".

And my two cents has now been deposited. Run with it.