Track Listing

Review

Following the overblown nature of Use Your Illusion and the two year long world tour which followed, it's perhaps understandable that Guns N' Roses would do a complete 180 and return to the punk roots of their youth. Initially conceived as an EP, The Spaghetti Incident grew to eventually become their last studio workout, and in effect Gilby's one and only studio Guns recording. Covering songs by the Sex Pistols and Iggy and the Stooges seemed like the perfect way to re-ignite the flame under the band that the increasing fame and fortune had managed to partly extinguish. Avoiding the obvious most well known tracks they blasted and sometimes roared with a passion and enthusiasm that only well loved cover versions can bring out after the burn out of the longest world tour in history and the ensuing dramas that accompanied it. Duff, in particular, plays a major part, taking lead vocal on several tracks and pushing the project along in a way that only a true to heart first generation punk could do. The collaboration with Michael Monroe brings another example of the band's idols and roots being re-visited, Monroe's Hanoi Rocks being cited as a major early Guns influence.

The album, though filled with a passion lacking in areas of Use Your Illusion, really doesn't hold any great treasures for the die hard Guns listener. Tracks such as Ain't It Fun and Raw Power would be average album tracks on a GNR original album, yet stand out like shining beacons on The Spaghetti Incident. Some nice touches, a tribute to their heroes definitely but in the end a poor last offering from a great band who all too often found themselves burdened by the weight of expectation to produce another Appetite, Sweet Child or November Rain.

Review by Alan Hylands

As punk albums go,  The Spaghetti Incident? lacks righteous anger and rage. As Guns N' Roses albums go, it's a complete delight, returning to the ferocious, hard-rocking days of  Appetite for Destruction. The Gunners  play Stooges and  New York Dolls songs exactly as they do Nazareth; as straight-ahead, driving riff-rockers. After the epic Use Your Illusions the band sounds like it's having fun, not caring about making "art" like "November Rain" or "Estranged." Unfortunately, the tacked-on Charles Manson song leaves a bad aftertaste, but not because of the song itself; the inclusion of the song seems like a publicity-seeking stunt, a way to increase their sales while trying to regain their street credibility. And as The Spaghetti Incident? proves, they didn't need to stoop so low.

Review from www.allmusic.com