Guns N Roses: Ranking Their Albums From Worst To Best

7. Live Era '87€“'93

Though it's really just a scattered compilation that features most of their discography performed at various stages in their career, Live Era is one of the most insightful GNR albums you'll ever hear. Because Live Era represents the rise and fall of the group known as Guns N Roses (and shows how it slowly morphed into The Axl Rose Show), it ends up being the greatest act of storytelling they could hope to accomplish. That story isn't necessarily heartening, and the production often goes against the rough, gritty, downright spastic energy that this band from the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles so forcefully represented in its heyday. In fact, it's...it's kind of a bummer to listen to. Save for a few dynamic jolts to the system ("Out Ta Get Me" kicks off Disc 2 with a mad hatter, visceral swagger that only the duo of Axl and Slash could pull off), the songs on Live Era sound almost too perfect. The most notable on the album is the only previously unreleased song in the bunch, a piano-driven cover of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright." Axl's cover of the Bowie-ish Sabbath track is appropriate, because it's one of the most sprawling, epic-sounding arena rock ballads they ever produced. And that's the direction Axl had decided to take "his" band in the 90s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COp8oKaifY0