All Filler, No Killer

[Bürggermeister]

I picked up the Use Your Illusion reissues cheap after christmas, having not listened to them in a long, long time. I think everyone agrees they're bloated but the argument tends to be there's one great album among the two when you cut away the chaff.

Where is it?

There are four, maybe five, good songs among a sea of utter shite. I wouldn't even say there's one truly great song in the whole sorry bunch. It's a rambling, self-indulgent mess. To go from what is still one of the all-time great albums to this, it's a savage drop in quality. I don't see that one great album at all. Has it just aged spectacularly badly?

[Eoin McLove]

I think pt II is deadly while pt I is less interesting. Definitely more than one album of quality in there to my ears but certainly some shite as well.

For an all killer experience you can't beat the Angel Witch debut. It's so all killer that the B-sides that comes as a bonus with the CD reissue are equally savage.

[Thorn]

I love the Illusion albums, don't get the problem at all . Unless of course you're specifically putting them up against Appetite.

[Eoin McLove]

Ah yeah, well Appetite is just on another level entirely. No question.

[ldj]

There's definitely a 10 song classic in the UYI albums, a lot of the best songs are the longer weird ones like Locomotive and Coma (and yes, the ballads).

The worst songs on it I'd say are actually the shorter rockier songs, which aren't bad really but are just songs that didn't make it to Appetite.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

There was a big thread on UYI a couple years ago in which a few people gave their tracklists for the one disc all killer no filler version:
https://forum.metalwarfare.com/index.php?topic=1535.0

My final take there:

I've played both now a few times in the last few days.

Where UYI I suffers most is the relative streak of piss it ends on: out of the last six songs, four of them are absolutely disposable. From November Rain, jump straight to Garden of Eden, and from there skip straight to Coma. 20 minutes of lesser versions of better songs that make the tail end of the disc a real slog to get through; chucked. But from UYI II, honestly, I think I'd only remove My World, which is just a rotten scuttery fart of a "song" at the very tail end of an hour of pure class. It's not that I particularly like Knockin' On Heaven's Door, but I guess it's just become such a classic part of the G'n'R canon, that it's kind of an obligation that they have a cover of it on an album somewhere.

So, dunno man 

[Pagan Saviour]

There's definitely a 10 song classic in the UYI albums, a lot of the best songs are the longer weird ones like Locomotive and Coma (and yes, the ballads).

The worst songs on it I'd say are actually the shorter rockier songs, which aren't bad really but are just songs that didn't make it to Appetite.

This is exactly it. There seems to be no thought behind the heavier tracks at all and those ones have aged really badly, however the other tracks you mentioned are amongst their best, there's no arguing with Civil War and the like. I think it doesn't help that there's slim pickings on the first record so if you're listening back to back you could be jaded by the time the second one kicks in. UYI II gets much more airplay from me even though it's not dud free.  The following would've done it for me.......

Dust n' Bones
Don't Cry
November Rain
Coma
Civil War
14 Years
Yesterdays
Estranged
You Could Be Mine
Locomotive

[Bürggermeister]

There was a big thread on UYI a couple years ago in which a few people gave their tracklists for the one disc all killer no filler version:
https://forum.metalwarfare.com/index.php?topic=1535.0

My final take there:

I've played both now a few times in the last few days.

Where UYI I suffers most is the relative streak of piss it ends on: out of the last six songs, four of them are absolutely disposable. From November Rain, jump straight to Garden of Eden, and from there skip straight to Coma. 20 minutes of lesser versions of better songs that make the tail end of the disc a real slog to get through; chucked. But from UYI II, honestly, I think I'd only remove My World, which is just a rotten scuttery fart of a "song" at the very tail end of an hour of pure class. It's not that I particularly like Knockin' On Heaven's Door, but I guess it's just become such a classic part of the G'n'R canon, that it's kind of an obligation that they have a cover of it on an album somewhere.

So, dunno man 

Ah fuck, I thought there had been a thread, alright, but couldn't find it. I agree that the better songs tend to be the longer ones and ballads. The rock songs are largely fluff. Yeah, maybe it's just me. I found them to be very hard albums to sit through. There's no comparison to Appetite, definitely, but maybe I'm trying to hard to like them because they were the band who put out Appetite but... nah, they just doesn't work for me. Dust N Bones, Back Off Bitch, Double Talkin' Jive, Get In The Ring, My World, these are just fucking shite by any standard.

[Eoin McLove]

Dust N Bones is savage.

[Don Gately]

Have a nostalgic soft spot for some of those songs. I remember first track played on Irish radio was the Garden by Larry Gogan!

[Giggles]

Dust n Bones is one of my favourite GNR songs. Absolute banger.

[Barrytron]

Thank you. I have been - for my entire life - completely baffled by these dull albums. You Could Be Mine is a classic track...but I just don't hear anything else.

[londonleatherboy]

Was in Golden Discs cork yesterday just wandering and saw a boxset of this for 550 quid...how in the name of fuck can any artist justify such nonsense

[Bürggermeister]

20 for the albums and 530 quid for the stuff which wasn't good enough to even be on those two fucking albums. Take my money! 

[astfgyl]

Went through these two in another thread and although I managed to pick one album's worth out of it, the result even with trimming the fat wouldn't be fit to lace up AFD's boots before AFD got down to kicking the fuck out of it so pretty much agree with op. I do want to like it more because of Appetite but there's too much of it that doesn't work.