GUNS N' ROSES — "The Spaghetti Incident?" (review)

GUNS N' ROSES — Album · 1993 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
Pekka
At some point during the Use Your Illusion sessions Guns n' Roses, or at least Axl Rose, planned on releasing the fruits of those sessions as a four disc box. Included would have been all the original material that was eventually released on two CDs packed to their extreme, but also a big bunch of cover songs. Two of them were included on the original album, Knocking on Heaven's Door and Live and Let Die, and the rest of them saw daylight as "The Spaghetti Incident?" in 1993.

The band made a clear decision to put out the most pompous numbers on Illusions and saved the hard rocking punk covers for their own album. Bookended by two softer numbers - Since I Don't Have You by the Skyliners and the understandably hidden track of Look at Your Game, Girl by Charles Manson of all people - the album mostly includes tracks from punk legends like Fear, The Misfits, The Damned and U.K. Subs and more hard rocking material by Nazareth, Soundgarden and T. Rex, all played in the heavy handed metallic rock sound known from the Illusion double.

As they didn't tour or play a single show in support of the album, it was mostly put out as a means to clean out the closet after years of activity. And that's exactly what this album sounds like, the memorable numbers being few and far apart. All of the bands covered here were undoubtedly big influences on the evolution of the group, Manson and Soundgarden perhaps excluded, but compared to their at best unbeatable original material most of these songs feel like forgettable rockin' just to pass the time, though there's definitely drive in these performances.

A couple of tracks do rise from the rubble: New Rose and Attitude are aggressive punk tunes that let Duff McKagan take the mic and show that he is quite capable as a rock vocalist, and Ain't It Fun, a duet between Axl Rose and one of his heroes Michael Monroe from the Finnish glam rock pioneer Hanoi Rocks. Listening to this song one can see them face to face singing at each other, spit flying and smiles widening. There's good parts here and there in the other tracks too, but ultimately they're mostly passable material with no big points of interest.

An interesting curiosity but not much more. A prime example of Collectors/fans only material.
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