Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Product details
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
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
CD Description
Part of 'SHM-CD' series of reissue and limited release. Originally released in 1991.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
What proved to be their last album was one of their finest. Having said that they only made three albums full albums of new material (Appetite, Illusion 1 & Illusion 2). Lies and Spaghetti were mere fills during major tours.
Illusion 2 gave us the newer material that the band had at the time as Illusion 1 was made up old songs that never made Appetite. I remember waiting for the albums to be released and going to Wembley Stadium the week before they were released. The new songs songed good live but I found them to be even better on record. GNR were a band of highs and lows, but when they were good they were the best on the planet at the time. Illusion 2 seemed to capture the band at the height of their powers and is an album not to be missed. Rock songs at the time had to be short and sweet with the epic's being a thing of the past. This album though changed things and people realised once again that a long song was not a bad song. Estranged, Breakdown, Pretty Tied Up, Locomotive and Civil War being the highlights. Pretty Tied Up once again showing the darker side of GNR in their lyrics. This is still an album that should be part of any rock lovers collection.
This is one of the highlights from one of the all time great rock bands.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is a very different beast from "Appetite", or even UYI Vol 1. Whilst Guns always could rip it up and tear it out with the best of them (and they do so brilliantly on Vol 1's "Perfect Crime", "Right Next Door To Hell", "Bad Obsession" and so on), on this album there's a concerted effort to display musical and emotional growth. Axl was always a broader musican than Slash - a fact evident from the fact that on this moderately-paced album, Slash only has 3 or 4 writing credits. This is very much Axl's baby, although the quibbling over credits (unlike "Appetite", which is band-credited) already suggests the loss of band solidarity. This album is less of a stomping hard-rock album and more of a classic rock album, where the act is established and they can now stretch their wings. Slash has already said that the UYI albums are their equivalent of the White Album.
The songwriting is I think consistently stunning. There's more, and more varied, emotion too. God only knows why "Estranged" isn't more recognised - it's one of the pinnacles of their acheivement, a cold, disconsolate beginning, shifting (via one of Slash's finest ever lines) to a sneering, callow hauteur, then a sad, yearning instrumental, to a open and warming ending, closing on an almost desperate note. "So Fine", sung wonderfully by Duff, has shivers and sighs of pure emotion, a rock ballad of unusual exquisiteness. "Locomotion", like "Estranged", considers the end of relationships and the realisation of emotional emptiness, Axl's nasal, almost-sneering delivery suggestive of the immaturity he's singing about. "Breakdown", another song that's oddly underappreciated, again suggests a man on the edge of his tether, yearning for the innocence and certainties of younger, simpler days (note the country-style intro - similar to Axl's piece of straw in the "Welcome To The Jungle video - he was an Indiana boy after all!) - which "Yesterdays" does explicitly but with far less style. "Pretty Tied Up", a classic piece of Izzy, is typically Stones-y and also features some outstanding sitar. And so on - the album is filled with classic moments ("Civil War", "You Could Be Mine").
Some have suggested that you could make one killer album from the two volume of Use Your Illusion. I think that would miss the point. Firstly, the two albums gave them the space to stretch their wings musically, which "Appetite" being far more condensed and focused didn't. Who would have expected sitar, spanish guitar, bizarre electronica, and so on? Secondly, the two albums very much have their own character. Volume One is far more aggressive and vitriolic, Volume Two is much more reflective and sensitive. GN'R always had both sides to them - hence their name, typically Yin/Yang.
This album is almost a return to a more 60s/70s rock album and succeeds on every possible level. Treat yourself.
The songwriting is I think consistently stunning. There's more, and more varied, emotion too. God only knows why "Estranged" isn't more recognised - it's one of the pinnacles of their acheivement, a cold, disconsolate beginning, shifting (via one of Slash's finest ever lines) to a sneering, callow hauteur, then a sad, yearning instrumental, to a open and warming ending, closing on an almost desperate note. "So Fine", sung wonderfully by Duff, has shivers and sighs of pure emotion, a rock ballad of unusual exquisiteness. "Locomotion", like "Estranged", considers the end of relationships and the realisation of emotional emptiness, Axl's nasal, almost-sneering delivery suggestive of the immaturity he's singing about. "Breakdown", another song that's oddly underappreciated, again suggests a man on the edge of his tether, yearning for the innocence and certainties of younger, simpler days (note the country-style intro - similar to Axl's piece of straw in the "Welcome To The Jungle video - he was an Indiana boy after all!) - which "Yesterdays" does explicitly but with far less style. "Pretty Tied Up", a classic piece of Izzy, is typically Stones-y and also features some outstanding sitar. And so on - the album is filled with classic moments ("Civil War", "You Could Be Mine").
Some have suggested that you could make one killer album from the two volume of Use Your Illusion. I think that would miss the point. Firstly, the two albums gave them the space to stretch their wings musically, which "Appetite" being far more condensed and focused didn't. Who would have expected sitar, spanish guitar, bizarre electronica, and so on? Secondly, the two albums very much have their own character. Volume One is far more aggressive and vitriolic, Volume Two is much more reflective and sensitive. GN'R always had both sides to them - hence their name, typically Yin/Yang.
This album is almost a return to a more 60s/70s rock album and succeeds on every possible level. Treat yourself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As a GnR fan i would have to say this is one of their best live performances, everypart of the shows is just perfect, best part has to be the drum and guitar solo! A definite buy for a GnR fan!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent DVD
I love Guns n' Roses and this is again an good quality performance, and also good quality DVD, so can recomend this to anyone
Published 22 days ago by Mrv Van Der Sanden
one of the best releases in the 90's
Their incorporations of Blues Rock into their 80s-90s Hard Rock sound are brilliant. Never before has a blend of genres sounded this beautifully genius, and Guns N' Roses just... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lord Anon
The dark side of the first "illusion".
It seems that this part of "illusion" is the opposite of the first one. Not because of the songs, but because of the darker themes in songs. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Renato Medurecan
Twenty years on. UYI 2 has still got it!
I caught the bus into town, right after school, on the Monday that this was released (along with this) back in 1991, such was my teenage anticipation. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Little Cat Voom
Get in th Ring!
This DVD features Guns N'Roses in 1992 during their massive world wide Use Your Illusion tour.
I am a big Guns N' Roses fan and saw them at the end of the Use Your Illusion... Read more
I am a big Guns N' Roses fan and saw them at the end of the Use Your Illusion... Read more
Published 12 months ago by j.r
average
lets face it guns and roses made one good album being appetite for destruction this and its other half have some descent tracks on them but there are a lot of fillers i think they... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. G. Richards
Guns n' Roses dvd
The product took a while to get here, but it still got here within the estimated dates. A few little glitches when playing, but nothing unbearable.
Published 15 months ago by Boo
Under No Illusions
After creating possibly the finest debut album in rock history, Guns N' Roses found themselves with the all-important question: How do you follow-up something like 'Appetite For... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. R. Howe
Quick Reviews!
Four years after the chaos exploded, the madness, paranoia, and expectation grew to silly heights. Guns n Roses had already conquered the world with their first album, so what was... Read more
Published 24 months ago by carlosnightman
Overblown, overproduced and really quite stunning.
With this being part two of a double album, there is of course a considerable amount of filler contained within. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2009 by R. Davies
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
