Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 2

It happens to every successful artist in every field.  They become too big to say “no” to.  It happens with authors; it happens to film directors. 

 

And it happens to musicians. 

 

Appetite for Destruction was such a successful album that it gave the band room to satisfy their every musical indulgence without any record company interference. 

 

I can’t help but think that if a bit of discipline was involved, they could have cut the two Use Your Illusion albums down into one tight 10 song classic.  Instead you get two albums which have moments of brilliance, but also quite a bit of filler.  I know that there is a case to be made for “good value for money” but maybe “less is more”. 

 

For comparison purposes it’s worth looking at two of the best double albums in history to see how long they are.  The Beatles White Album runs to 93 minutes and Prince’s Sign of the Times runs to 80 minutes.  Whereas, the total running time for the Use Your Illusion albums (1 and 2) goes for a whopping 152 minutes. So, by my calculation, you could cut half the songs from these two behemoths and still have a huge double album.   

 

Sadly, that didn’t happen. 

 

I doubt either the band or the record company was complaining at the time (these two albums sold millions) but it’s certainly not as good as their debut.