Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion II (1991) - CD

“Use Your Illusion II“ is an album by the American band Guns N ' Roses. The album was released together with the album Use Your Illusion I in 1991. Use Your Illusion II was more popular than its sister album, ranking first on the US charts, while Use Your Illusion I “only“ came second. Both albums won seven platinum records.

The album Use Your Illusion was a turning point in the creation of Guns N ' Roses. In addition, Use Your Illusion II is much more political than their previous work, thanks to the songs “Civil War“, “Get in the Ring“ and a cover version of Bob Dylan' s legendary song “Knockin ' on Heaven' s Door“, whose themes are violence, media prejudice and law enforcement. There is also a shift away from drug use.

The first single, “You Could Be Mine“, was released in July 1991 and is featured in the movie Terminator 2: The day of reckoning, although not released on the soundtrack to the film. In the music video for the song, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the character of the Terminator, whose target is Axl Rose. But the song was originally written about the relationship between Izzy Stradlin and his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti.

Both albums Use Your Illusion can be considered as one coherent work with many identical elements. Both albums have the song “Don' t Cry“, but with different lyrics. Both albums contain one cover version, “Live and Let Die“ by Wings (Use Your Illusion I) and “Knockin ' on Heaven' s Door“ by Bob Dylan (Use Your Illusion II). On both albums, at least one song is sung by a band member other than Rose. Duff McKagan sings “So Fine“ and Izzy Stradlin sings “14 Years“ (Izzy Stradlin sings “Dust N ' Bones“ and “Double Talkin' Jive“ on Use Your Illusion I).

The last song, “My World“, came as a surprise to some members of the band, as it was recorded by Axl Rose himself and most of them only learned about it after the album' s release.