92
Graduates
Tuesday, September 24,1991
Lifestyl
The Battalion f J
Page 7
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■e an entry 0
Guns 'n 1 Roses use same old magic on 'Use Your Illusion 1
By Rob Newberry
The Battalion
Guns 'n' Roses
Use Your Illusion I and II
Geffen
The wait is over - over three years since
Appetite for Destruction was released, the band
with the most attitude (and ability to cause
trouble) finally gets some new material out.
Well, some of it's new material, at least. And
most of it's pretty good.
To be honest. I'm a little disappointed that
of the thirty tracks released on the new discs.
I'm already familiar with eight of them. "Civ
il War" was released almost a year ago as part
of a Romanian children's benefit album. The
studio version of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heav
en's Door" was on the "Days of Thunder"
soundtrack last summer (I've heard I don't
know how many live versions). And "You
Could Be Mine" was released earlier this
summer as part of the "Terminator 2" sound
track.
I'll admit, the rest of the tunes I already
know, I wasn't supposed to know about. But
"November Rain," "Back Off Bitch" and
"Don't Cry" have been available on bootleg
for two years. Granted - the versions on Use
Your Illusion are better. But not that much
better.
As for the rest of the tunes, they're pretty
much standard G'n'R fare. Lots of blues-
based metal guitar licks from Slash and Izzy
Stradlin, coated with Axl Rose's sometimes
screaming abuse, sometimes sweet melodies.
Overall, I like Illusion II better than I, but they
both have their high points.
Even though "Civil War" has been out for
a while, it shows some of Rose's best lyrical
work. And the sampled portion from "Cool
Hand Luke" and the lines from the Peruvian
guerilla general add a certain element to the
song, give it an all-to-clear feeling that the
problem with war and peace spans more than
our land or our time.
Rose's bluesy piano work on "14 Years" is
a nice addition to the band's sound. The
blues influences on "Yesterdays" also show
Guns at their best - the lyrics are more what I
expect from these guys.
As far as new sounds
go, the almost funk sound
of "Locomotive" is a wel
comed experiment. I'm
not quite as sure about the
synthetic garbage of "My
World," but I'll give Rose
the benefit of the doubt -
I'm sure he had fun vent
ing his anger with all those
effects.
As for Illusion I, I'll
give its best-of to-"Novem
ber Rain" - the lyrics are
catchy enough to roll
through my head all day,
and the instrumentation
and harmonies are good,
even if the whole thing is a
little mushy for Guns 'n'
Roses.
Close to second place
is "Bad Apples" and
"Dead Horse" - the first,
written by almost every
body in the band, sums up
a lot of G'n'R's attitude
over the frustrations that
came with being a young,
very successful band; the second is Rose's
own frustration, with relationships and life in
general.
The blues influence is intact on Illusion I as
well. The slide guitars on "You Ain't the
First" and "Bad Obsession" show Slash's mas
tery of blues guitar, and the second tune adds
Mike Monroe on harmonica for a real bluesy
intro.
I couldn't finish the review without men
tioning "Get In the Ring." After all the press
controversy concerning Guns over the last
few years. Rose backfires with more profani
ty-laden abuse than I think was on their first
record altogether. As he rips into all the mag
azines and writers who've misrepresented the
band, I worry a little bit about what he'd say
about my review. Who cares - he'll never
read it anyway.
On Appetite, the more poppy-sounding
songs made me a fan - "Sweet Child O'Mine"
and "Think About You" show the boys 'n'
girls side of Guns 'n' Roses. On Illusion,
there's quite a bit less of the relationship prob
lem in the music. But I don't miss it. I'll ad
mit to liking the alternate-lyrics take of "Don't
Cry" on Illusion II better than the original ver
sion on I, and it doesn't say much about rela
tionships at all.
The ripping "Rocket Queen" that closed
the first album convinced me of the band's
musicianship; the song is just too pretty for a
metal band. The pretty guitar lines in "The
Garden" (guest appearance by Alice Cooper)
and "Estranged" are almost as good, but
Slash's guitar work is intact all the way
through.
Slash's guitar may even be a little im
proved, although that's not the most notable
change in the line-up here. Axl's piano play
ing was a nice addition, enough to make Guns
See Guns/Page 8
Bad English's latest has hope;
beware of radio station overkill
By Chris Ekiof
The Battalion
Lc
Bad English
Backlash
Epic
A successf ul debut album can
affect a band in several ways. It
they rush to put out a second al
bum, they can succumb to the
dreaded sophomore jinx, pro
ducing an inferior record. Some
groups create a record that is
even better than the first, while
other groups turn out an album
that is almost identical to their
debut.
With veteran performers John
Waite, Neal Schon and Jonathan
Cain, it is doubtful that this "su
pergroup" will fall prey to the
sophomore jinx. They have years
of experience with The Babies,
Journey and Santana.
Bad English achieved multi
platinum success with their 1989
self-titled debut album. Bad En
glish spawned several top 10 hits
including "When 1 See You
Smile" and "Possession". The
songs that became commercial
hits off this album were slow,
soft ballads. However, Bad En
glish also contained a number of
hard rocking tunes that never
made it to commercial radio.
The first release off that album
was "Forget Me Not", an excel
lent, guitar-based song that went
nowhere on the singles charts.
This pattern of success appar
ently affected Bad English's sec
ond album. Backlash. There is a
plentiful supply of ballads cus
tom made for top-40 radio. The
best of these is "Time Stood
Still", a tender love song that will
grasp the hearts of teen-age girls
across the country.
intro has a distinctive Latin
sound that catches the ear. "Time
Stood Still" is a song that people
will like, but gets played so much
on the radio that you will want to
throw up after you hear it for the
3,000th time.
Jonathan Cain's keyboard
H ing takes control oh "The
? Alone With You", another
ballad. Radio stations will prob
ably play this song 100 times a
day, so be ready to get sick of
this song as well.
Backlash does not contain
only ballads, though. "Rebel Say
A Prayer," "So This Is Eden” and
"Life At The Top" are powerful
songs that keep this album from
going too far into the pop music
gutter. However, you will never
hear these songs on the radio be
cause they do not have the light
rock sound that has proven com
mercially successful for Bad En
glish.
The only way to hear the
"other side" of Bad English is to
buy the album. They have
gained a reputation as a sugar-
coated pop rock band due to
their past hits, but that reputa
tion is falsely based.
The members of Bad English
have the musical talent to play a
wide range of songs. Neal Schon
became famous for playing
tremendous guitar solos in his
days with Journey and Jonathan
Cain's keyboard dexterity en
ables him to play along with a
hard rocking song as easily as
with a slow ballad.
Bad English has not changed
their sound drastically from their
first album. Backlash is basically
a remake of the first album with
a bit of the hard edge removed.
Make the
Natural
Choice.
Thursday and Friday, September 26th and 27th
Natural gas is predicted to become the fuel of the future for the
United States. Now’s the time to consider a career opportunity
with a leader in natural gas-Delhi. Delhi’s leadership status
would not be possible without the contributions of the many
talented and innovative engineers who exemplify the “can-do”
attitude we seek. Delhi engineers hold many key positions on our
management team and are essential to the future of our business.
We’re searching for ambitious and enthusiastic petroleum, mechan
ical and chemical engineers who want to join one of the pioneers
in the natural gas gathering and wholesaling business. Delhi has
found new life as a stand-alone entity within the USX Marathon
Group and continues to strengthen as it adds talented engineers
to its team.
Make the natural choice and contact Delhi. Well be on campus
Thursday and Ftfday, September 26 and 27,1991. Contact your
College Placement Office to schedule an interview or write to
us at:
First City Center
1700 Pacific Avenue
Lock Box 10, Dept. AM
Dallas, Texas 75201-4696
Delhi Gas Pipeline Corporation
An Equal Opportunity Employer
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Q. What Career
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Graduating Seniors and Masters Candidates -
On campus recruiting seminar:
This Thursday September 26th, 6:30 pm, Rm. 212 M.S.C. or
Tuesday October 15th, 5:00 pm, Rm. 302 Rudder Tower or contact:
Brien L. Smith, Training Manager, @ 693-5060 and send resume to:
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