Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II

Civil War - 4
14 Years - 3
Yesterdays - 3
Knockin' On Heaven's Door - 4
Get In The Ring - 4
Shotgun Blues - 2
Breakdown - 3
Pretty Tied Up - 3
Locomotive - 3
So Fine - 2
Estranged - 3
You Could Be Mine - 3
Don't Cry [Alternate Lyrics] - 3
My World - 3
Total - 43 stars / 14 tracks = 3.07 stars

I'm starting to worry about myself a bit. Either I haven't been listening to particularly great music lately, or I have become a bitter, lump-of-coal critic who only doles out 4-star ratings to a special select few songs. I'm hoping that it's the former, especially since it's so close to Christmas, it just seems that since the "Greatest Album" list went up, I haven't listened to anything that deserves to crack it. That includes this album.

Like most of what I've been listening to lately, this is an okay album, with a few stand-out tracks (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not). First there's "Civil War," which I liked because it surprised me that GNR had it in them to do a political song. Then there's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," which I wouldn't be able to hate if I wanted to, unless, of course I was listening to Avril Lavigne's version. (Apologies to Avril Lavigne, I haven't actually listened to it, but you're an easy punchline.)

The next (and last song) I particularly liked was "Get In The Ring." It wasn't because I especially liked the music, rather the opposite. Instead, I was impressed by the fact that they were willing to call out everyone (and the publications they work for) who had pissed them off or allegedly misrepresented them. I may not love GNR, but they've got balls.

My least favourite track was "So Fine" which allowed me to play my favourite making-fun-of-bad-songwriting game, called "Guess The Lyrics." It's fairly easy to play. Take a song, and listen to the first line of a verse. If you can guess the second line without having ever heard the song before, you've likely got yourself a bad song. For example, if the first line has something to do with putting your "hands in the air", if you guessed that the response is to "[verb] like you just don't care," you've likely one, and also identified a terrible song. As a general rule, if any song makes me feel like I could be the next Oscar Hammerstein II, I lose some respect.