Guns N' Roses: Greatest Hits

As the premier hard rock band of the late ‘80s Los Angeles hair metal scene, Guns n’ Roses managed to strip the music to its essential grinding core without losing the glitz and glamour that initially attracted its legions of hardcore fans. While Appetite for Destruction was a career-defining debut album, the always personally troubled band soldiered on to create a few more epics before essentially disbanding. (Singer Axl Rose remains the only original member still affiliated with the name). Cataclysmic rockers such as “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City,” and “You Could Be Mine” mix well with the band’s pop side (“Sweet Child O’ Mine” and its irresistible guitar hook), their ballads (“Patience”), their epics (“Civil War,” “November Rain”) and their exemplary covers. Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” becomes an arena anthem, The Dead Boys’ “Ain’t It Fun” receives a metal edge, and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” gets the steamroller treatment. Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” gets sent straight over the top. The band was simply too volatile to stay together, but for a few brief brilliant years they defined their era.