Made in USA in 1998, Serial# GEFD-24463, Playing Time 63:52

The best thing about this CD is the idea for the cover that merges the artwork from the individual "Use Your Illusion 1" and "Use Your Illusion 2" CDs.

If you're on a tight budget, it's worth it, and you can be the proud owner of the edited version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", the full version being on the original CD "UYI 2". Or if you're a die-hard GNR fan, you'll have to buy this for the very same reason.

Releasing the albums as a pair was somewhat daring, and I can't say I like everything on them. But each of them has some material that unfortunately didn't make it on this "compilation".

I'm by no means a big GNR fan, but I think you should do yourself a favor: buy both separately, and forget about this compilation.

As far as I can tell, there's certain types of people this CD is for: Those who don't want to fork out money for both Illusion CDs, those who are only casual GNR fans, and those who are Wal-Mart or K-Mart retailers.

First, upsides. The McCartney cover "Live And Let Die" is a thundering classic that GNR made their own (as they tend to do). "Don't Cry" is a pretty nice power ballad that really works. "November Rain" is one of the best songs of the 1990s, with beautiful lyrics and instrumentals, two great Slash solos, and that perfect ending guitar riff.

"The Garden" is nice and sinister, while "Civil War" is a great anti-war anthem with lots of sonic power. "14 Years" is a bluesy, Stones/Aerosmith-ish lover-trashing song, with Izzy and Axl sharing vocals. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is a remarkable achievement, acheiving a perfect sonic power in a song that, remarkably, is better than both the Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton versions of the song. I mean, you've really got something if you can say you did a song better than Clapton. "Estranged" is the final great track on this CD, and works as a sequel to "November Rain," as the songs' protagonist suffers through a hard breakup and his thoughts turn to suicide. This song clocks in at nearly ten minutes, and it's a beautiful but biting epic, with lots of mood swings and song shifts. They're not jarring, though --they're perfectly appropriate. It's a remarkable song.

Now, the cons. "You Ain't The First" should have been omitted altogether. It's catchy, but not something that belongs as one of the best songs of the Illusion albums. "Yesterdays" seems like Axl's attempt to tap into "Dream On" territory by talking about past mistakes and lost innocents. Unfortunately, it's a horrendous song, and doesn't hold a candle to that Aerosmith anthem. There's also another version of "Don't Cry," which is identical musically but contains different lyrics. It's really quite pointless, as the original "Don't Cry" is far and away superior anyway.

Were I making a mix of the Illusion albums, I would remove the above named tracks and replace them with "You Could Be Mine," "Pretty Tied Up," and "Dust N' Bones". Some nice rockers to contrast with the epic ballads like "November Rain," "Don't Cry," and "Estranged".

And my two cents has now been deposited. Run with it.

Don't waste your time or money. Buy Use Your Illusion I & II. This is a classic example of a record company not seeing any albums from an artists and releasing a cheesy "best of" type cd to get money out of a band's name and to fulfil a contract. Sure this is a great cd, but to own I & II is so much better.

The review below written by "rockon1202" is practically dead-on with my own thoughts; so much, to the extent, that I probably shouldn't even bother writing a review here, but this thing will continue, anyway.

Anytime we have something of a compilation made in an attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator, there will almost always be some problems in pleasing everyone. Hence this attempt here made by someone (or someones) to turn _Use Your Illusion_ into a one-disc, "filler-free" classic.

There are two main issues that fans (or potential fans) have with the _Illusion_ albums: the first issue being that these albums are a little *too* sprawling, ambitious and diverse, as both discs come out to a whopping total of 76-minutes in length per disc. And, as to be expected, many complain about the tons of "filler" that surround the "good" stuff on both albums. You see, many fans probably expected Guns N' Roses to stick to the straightforward hard rock/metal formula found on efforts of past, and hated to see the band stretch out, and fill their albums with spawling epics that bordered on prog-rock.

The second reason is the profanity soaked throughout the discs; actually, this issue here is probably of lesser relevance to many Guns N' Roses fans, but could be of more importance to those who are only familiar with their profanity-free hits. True, I myself become somewhat wary of Axl's excessive usage of this, not because I find profanity to be offensive (which I don't), but mainly because it seemed at times that Axl would just revel in profanity just for the sake of doing so. But, then I am reminded that Axl was an enraged, tortured soul, so at times, it doesn't seem as contrived as it may appear.

Anyway, back to the topic. Like "rockon1202" said in his review, you will notice one common thread amongst each selection on this disc: none of them have profanity, which makes one suspect that the minds behind this compilation were out to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

To add to this, many of the tracks that were left off are some of the best Guns N' Roses have ever made, if you ask me, even if many of them did contain profanity. I mean, listening to this, and thinking that the selections found here are the heart and soul of the _Illusion_ albums, and Guns N' Roses in general, is quite sad and horridly inaccurate, actually; G N'R were raw, angry, offensive, dangerous, yet, alternately, beautiful, moving and sensitive. This package here only represents the latter aspect of these albums, which is a shame: if you want to receive the *full* essence of Guns N' Roses, and the two albums of which the material found here derives (which is what *I* would never want to be without), you're better off buying the _Illusion_ albums in their full, unedited glory. A half-hearted release like this serves as a great injustice to what Guns N' Roses are about.

With all of that said, I must admit to being a bit on the biased side, because both the _Illusion_ albums are actually my favorites from Guns N' Roses (but don't ask me which one I prefer more out of the two: they're *both* stellar, and are like one double-album if you ask me.) However, I do understand how both main issues (listed above) can play into a listener's perspective; not everyone will appreciate the more ambitious side of Guns N' Roses, nor will everyone be tolerant of the profanity-ridden musings that permeate much of Guns N' Roses' music (in that case, what would you be doing listening to G N'R in the first place?)

In the end, I rate the music contained on here 5 stars; the idea of the compilation 3 stars, and 2 stars for the execution. This all rounds off to 3 stars and some small change. On the whole, as far as recommendations go, the explanations above should tell you that I can understand the multiple facets of the camp, but as for me, I wouldn't want to be without the _Illusion_ albums in their full, sprawling and unedited glory.

What the hell don't be cheap buy both UYI 1 and UYI 2 not this piece of s..t mix it is worth the money I could go on for hours about what's missing here