Appetite for Destruction

I love this album. Axl is one of the greatest rock lyricists of all time, and slash is fucking fire

3 great tracks

What else is there to say but 🤘🏽?

This album is shit. Sweet Child o' Mine is head and shoulders above all the other nonsense dross.

Possibly the best American rock album.

HELL YEAH! Give me more punk rock, brahhhhhh!!!

It is possibly the purest rock album of its filthy era.

Finally something good after a long run of mediocre albums, fuckin' Guns N' Roses are here to kick your ass. Loaded with hits and drenched in sleazy vibes, this record is honestly almost too good for a debut album. From the first blast of "Welcome To The Jungle," this thing is a total adrenaline shot. It completely ditches that polished hair metal vibe for something way grittier and more dangerous. Slash is on fire here, and tracks like "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" are absolute anthems for a reason... the energy is just off the charts.

That said, it’s definitely a wild ride with some rough patches. Axl’s screaming and sex noises gets a bit exhausting by the time you hit the end, and the lyrics are pretty toxic and haven't aged well at all. Once you get past the massive hits, some of the deep cuts kind of just blend together into filler. But even with the dated sleaze and the grating moments, you can't ignore how huge this record is. It’s a messy, loud, and iconic piece of rock history that’s hard not to respect.

This is a dirt bags anthem. I was eleven even this come out. For Christmas I got this album and U2 Joshua Tree in CD. I’ve listened to this a bunch but even as a kid I knew this was music for dirt bags and never felt comfortable listening to it. It gave me the same feeling as listening to hip hop as a white guy. I liked it but I wasn’t the guy they were singing to. The music is great, the singing is fine, and the energy puts other hair metal to shame. Choice dirt bag lyric, “Turn around bitch, I got a use for you. Besides, you ain’t got nothin’ better to do. And I’m bored.”

Oh my stars, I know a good number of people who really like Guns N' Roses.

Do I like them? Sure, I do, I guess. They're not my favorites from their era, but I appreciate the influence they had on later groups and music projects.

I used to listen to the big 3 of this album a lot back in the day, mostly when in the car with my dad; he appreciates some classic rock here and there with me.

This album is solid hard rock. The guitars and vocals are top-notch, and it's a fun listen overall!

4.5/5
Too bad I can't give half stars on this site.

Predictable music, stupid lyrics; now I remember why I don't like Guns n Roses.

My dad loves this band, and I don’t blame him. I mean, we’ve all heard “November Rain.” As overplayed as it is, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” still bangs. And “Welcome To The Jungle” fucks HARD. I mean, come on. Appetite… for destruction. APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION! It’s menacing, it’s hard, it’s rockin’, the lead singer is a cunt and the lead guitar player is a Jew. That doesn’t really matter but as a Jew myself it’s fun.

Anyway. Anthemic, surely, but consistently good less so. “It’s So Easy” sucks, and “Out Ta Get Me” is famously pretty bad. But once you get past the campiness and sleaziness of the music, it’s actually a pretty incredible album. Better vocals than AC/DC, and more progressive than a lot of bands in this same vein. I mean, these BPM shifts, outros that are practically a different suite, all the while sounding super super good. “Paradise City” is one of the best hard rock songs ever made, and I can’t believe it exists. “My Michelle” is a bit over the top for my tastes, but it still blows me away in some of the passages. “Nightrain” is a nice pillar of the first side, and “Mr. Brownstone” is similarly a bit over the top, but still great.

Every note played, every distorted guitar sound, every wail of Axl Rose’s voice, I feel like a kid in the 80s hearing real rock for the first time. That sounds stupid but I can only imagine what it was like, to hear something that speaks to the mind so directly, with just the sounds it makes. It isn’t the apex of rock music, but it is obvious as to why it is beloved: because it feeds the kid inside of us that longs simple, heavy, AWESOME rock.
8.7/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Paragon of rock music. Essential listening for anyone with a love for rock.

Time for a wee bit of roooooooock music (as Ms. XCX would say). Just bangers. Some album tracks are mid, others are great. The singles fuck hard.

Il faut bien reconnaître qu'en matière de déflagration commerciale et de raz-de-marée générationnel, Appetite For Destruction reste un monstre sacré. En 1987, les Guns N' Roses ont débarqué sur le Sunset Strip en dégageant d'un revers de manche le glam metal poudré pour lui injecter une bonne dose de venin punk et de sleaze rock. Le disque est une véritable collection de tubes imparables qui ont tourné en boucle sur toutes les radios de la planète. La frappe de Steven Adler, la basse élastique de Duff McKagan, le groove acéré d'Izzy Stradlin, les feulements suraigus d'Axl Rose et, évidemment, le chapeau haut-de-forme de Slash balançant des solis désormais gravés dans la mémoire populaire : la formule était calibrée pour tout écraser sur son passage.

L'album tourne autour des dérives urbaines de Los Angeles, de la paranoïa de la survie dans la jungle californienne, des descentes d'héroïne et de liaisons toxiques. C'est du hard rock brut, vicieux et suintant la poussière des bas-fonds américains. C'est précisément cette urgence névrotique et cette insolence qui ont propulsé le groupe au sommet des charts mondiaux.

Axl Rose posait d'ailleurs le décor d'entrée de jeu, hurlant dès les premières secondes :

« Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games
We got everything you want, honey, we know the names »

Mais si je pose deux minutes le cerveau et que je regarde cet objet avec un peu de recul critique, l'évidence me saute aux oreilles. Malgré sa puissance tellurique indiscutable et cette énergie viscérale qui vous pousse irrémédiablement à secouer la tête et taper du pied, mon ADN musical bloque et refuse de monter plus haut qu'un 3 sur 5 bien tassé.

Car passé l'impact frontal des gros classiques ultra-diffusés, il faut bien avouer qu'une certaine monotonie s'installe. Malgré la production musclée de Mike Clink, on se retrouve rapidement coincé dans une boucle où l'on a la fâcheuse impression d'écouter le même morceau étiré sur douze pistes, articulé autour des mêmes tics d'écriture et de riffs calqués sur la même cadence. C'est percutant, c'est efficace pour remplir des stades, mais sur la longueur d'un album complet, l'exercice de style montre vite ses limites structurelles.

Mais bon ne boudons pas notre plaisir car Appetite For Destruction reste un classique radiophonique indéniable, et malgré qu'il ne soit pas le chef-d'œuvre de diversité absolue que la légende voudrait nous vendre.

Pretty cool

Standout tracks: Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Sweet Child O Mine

The fact that this is a debut album is absolutely fucking insane. I would've expected this to be the 4th or 5th album by very seasoned professionals in the industry. It gets a five for that alone, and also it's just a great album.

2.5

Listened before? Not the full album

Familiar with the artist? Yes, have heard the hits a million times on the radio

Thoughts: Ehh... Musically I get why it's here, but it doesn't do anything for me, especially lyrically. Other than adding the big singles to an 80s playlist I doubt I'll ever listen again.

Favorite track(s): Sweet Child of Mine

Least favorite: honestly everything beyond the 3 big hits just kind of blends together.

This album is when Guns N' Roses were at their peak, having most of their best-known songs. As you'd expect, it's an excellent hard rock album full of raunchy, dirty rock tunes. The songwriting is great, with excellent hooks married to catchy riffs and choruses. Lyrics aren't very good, but this is a 1980s hard rock album. The important part is that the album's sound is very well suited to the genre, with high-range vocals and guitar heroics well suited to late-1980s hard rock. This is an absolute classic of the genre with how many of its songs still get played today on rock radio, and while its genre isn't for everyone, it is most certainly for me.

This album is ranked #2 of 25 albums for 1987. Other 1987 albums rated by me:
Bad(1/25)-4
Document(4/25)-4
Sign o' The Times(5/25)-4
Strangeways, Here We Come(6/25)-4
Music for the Masses(7/25)-4
Darklands(9/25)-4
You're Living All Over Me(13/25)-4
The New Tango(19/25)-2
Warehouse: Songs and Stories(21/25)-4
Opus Dei(24/25)-4
Scum(25/25)-5

Hvis Axl Rose nu var en lige så dygtig sangskriver, som han er sanger, så ville albummet være væsentligt bedre. Det er simpelthen nogle latterlige tekster, sorry not sorry. Og ja, så kan man sige: "det er nok også meningen", "det er jo bare Guns N' Roses", "det er jo ligesom genren" - ja, præcis

2.4