Use Your Illusion I

Use Your Illusion I is the 3rd studio album by hard rock band Guns N’ Roses. It was the one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other named Use Your Illusion II, thus they are sometimes seen together as a double album. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts behind Use Your Illusion II. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7x platinum. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums column.

The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N’ Roses. Although they did not abandon the hard rock tendencies vivid in their first album, Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated, for the first time, more or less, elements of blues, classical music, and country. For example, lead singer Axl Rose plays the piano on several tracks of both albums. In addition, with the Use Your Illusion Tour, both the music and stage presence of the band became more theatrical, in the tradition of progressive rock. This fact is evidenced by the numerous music videos produced in conjunction with these albums. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry (Original)” whose videos are generally held by fans to be part of a trilogy. The third song, “Estranged”, is on Use Your Illusion II.