The Shocking Truth! *Updated (G'n'R - Lies - Guns n' Roses)

Member Name: jamiemchale

Product:	G'n'R - Lies - Guns n' Roses
Date:	14/02/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good look at early Guns N' Roses

Disadvantages: May be offensive to some, not as successful as "Appetite" or "Illusions"

Guns N’ Roses, one of the most notorious rock bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s were raw, aggressive, angry, artistic, talented and thought provoking, and they really did rock! At this point in their history, the bad had its original lineup of:

Axl Rose – Vocals
Slash – Guitars
Izzy Stradlin’ – Guitars
Duff McKagan – Bass
Steven Adler - Drums

Guns N’ Roses “Lies” was released after their legendary “Appetite for Destruction” album. Lies comes in two parts, the first four tracks being from the 1986 EP “Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide” – A rocking first half, with a good feel and rhythm to it. Not as finely polished as Guns N’ Roses later records, but with the same raw spirit as their hugely successful “Appetite for Destruction”. The first four tracks also have live crowd noises dubbed over the top which gives a great feeling and atmosphere to the songs. The second half is a more acoustic-based set of songs, including the hit “Patience”, and the controversial “One in a Million” – The raw emotions are still evident in these tracks.

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1. Reckless Life
Kicking off the album reckless life is a fairly raw song, shouty vocals, but not so as to ruin the song. This is a powerful, fast track – Perhaps showing the origins of some of the material on “Appetite”
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2. Nice Boys
“Nice boys don’t play rock n’ roll, I’m not a nice boy, and I never was” – Says it all about this song – This is yet another fast, racing track. Well worth a listen.
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3. Mama Kin
A cover of Aerosmith’s Mama Kin (to be found on the self-titled Aerosmith album, I think!) – This is a great song, obviously as Aerosmith are another talented rock band.
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4. Move to the City

Move to the city is an interesting track – Artistically sound, and well formed – A bit more developed than the first three on the album. This is a great noise to listen to, and can also be found with a blues jam added on at the end on the Guns N’ Roses “Live Era” album.
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5. Patience
A famous Guns N’ Roses hit – This laid back track is a great acoustic song – Good to hear Guns N’ Roses in a new light. The song is truly beautiful in places – You think its over, there is a pause, and then the guitar cuts the vacuum again with a powerful strumming rhythm – Great to listen to.
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6. Used to Love Her
This is the song that Guns N’ Roses described as the only one they have written as a joke – A sick joke – But still a great song. Axl described is as a song for the moments when you get really pissed off with your girlfriend (/boyfriend) and you just think about killing them and burying them in your back yard – Make of that what you will….the music behind the song is still good…!
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7. You’re Crazy
This is a chilling acoustic version of the song, also surprisingly titled “Your Crazy”, on the “Appetite For Destruction” album. This is the original version of the song, the Appetite version coming after a studio-muck about by the band. The vocals here are rough, aggressive, harsh, but make for great listening. The simplicity is haunting, great music.
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8. One in a Million
"One in a Million" is a song that landed Guns N’ Roses in trouble, some offensive and discriminatory lyrical content is included in the song targeting several groups in a modern society. Some members of the public, even some band members were unhappy with the record as a whole, however this down-point is made up for by the excellent guitar work behind the vocals. It is weird to like a s
ong with such negative, and stupid lyrics in it.
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You can either buy this album and be disgusted by some of the lyrics (“Used to Love Her”, “One in a Million”), or buy this album and listen to the quality of the music - Guns N' Roses style – great! Buy this if you like any of the other Guns N’ Roses albums – Particularly “Appetite for Destruction”

Jamie

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