Guns n' Roses
Use Your Illusion II

I could expect craziness from my neighbor. I could expect the squaring of the circle, I could expect summer snow, a pink hippopotamus, pyramidal planets colliding like rhino horns under purple nebulas... I couldn't expect the absence of a Guns 'n Roses album. I try to make up for it by talking about "Use Your Illusion II".

The album (1991), which presents itself as a continuation of "Use Your Illusion I", divides fans and critics between those who think it is a real subsequent album and those who think it is an album of leftovers from the first. The truth is that here too the Guns continue to make history. The album, which opens with "Civil War", demonstrates a powerful yet never banal hard rock, with even a bit of motivation in the content. "14 Years", less imposing, does not disappoint and hits the mark when it comes to rhythm and pleasantness. At number 3, we find "Yesterdays". By now practically a classic in Gnr style, strong and sustained, it features an Axl in great shape. It is followed by "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". I believe that essentially the Guns are a great band, which has marked hard rock and made great hits. But the field in which the Guns were unparalleled is definitely covers (and many of their hits are indeed covers). Knockin' is perhaps one of the best among the covers. The first part continues with "Get In The Ring", "Shotgun Blues", and "Breakdown". The second part opens with "Pretty Tied Up". Here, energy is joined by an almost exotic guitar touch, but only initially.

In general, among the other six songs (14 in total), two stand out as superb: "You Could Be Mine", an excellent piece of work, and the legendary "Don't Cry", which in this album appears with a different text and recording compared to "Use 1". "My World", which closes the album, explains the alcohol rejection that the Guns have long been dependent on. Personally irrelevant, deliberately rough. This is how the last album of original songs branded Guns closes. There will be a Cover album, "The Spaghetti Incident", but it won't be the same. Then nothing more. Orphans of their sought-after sound, we pay tribute to them through this review.