Use Your Illusion II is an album by Guns and Roses. It was the second of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. Use Your Illusion II was the more popular of the two albums, debuting at #1 on the US charts.
The Use Your Illusion albums were a stylistic turning point for Guns and Roses (see Use Your Illusion I for discussion). In addition, Use Your Illusion II is more political than most of their previous work, with songs like "Civil War", a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and "Get In The Ring" dealing respectively with the topics of violence, law enforcement, and media bias. The thematic material deals less with drug use than previous Guns and Roses albums.
The Use Your Illusion albums can be taken as a single cohesive work, and certain elements of Use Your Illusion II underscore this intent. For instance, both albums have a version of the song "Don't Cry". In addition, certain lyrics give meaning to the name of the band and the title of the albums:
From "Breakdown":
- Funny how everything was roses when we held onto the guns.
From "Locomotive":
- You can use you illusion; Let it take you where it may...
The mood of the album is unfortunately broken by the song "My World", considered by many fans to be the worst Guns and Roses song, and certainly very different musically from any other Guns and Roses has written, with the possible exception of the song "Oh My God" written for the End of Days sound track.
Track listing
- Civil War
- 14 Years
- Yesterdays
- Knockin' On Heaven's Door
- Get In The Ring
- Shotgun Blues
- Breakdown
- Pretty Tied Up
- Locomotive (Complicity)
- So Fine
- Estranged
- You Could Be Mine
- Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics)
- My World
