Guns N’ Roses - The albums ranked from worst to best
Article by Josh Fodden
With Download just around the corner, it just makes sense to talk about and look into the bands playing, specifically the headliners, even more specifically, the Saturday headliner, Guns N’ Roses. Now, controversially I never listened to them much growing up, so when given the chance to rank every album by this band, I thought “cool, okay, a chance to binge listen to a legendary band I never got into”. I did research into what people think are the best and worst albums so I will do my best not to rock the proverbial boat of the Guns N’ Roses fanbase.
So taking that in mind, be prepared to possibly agree to disagree as we go through each album and rank them worst to best.
5. The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)
Singles:
Ain’t It Fun
Since I Don’t Have You
New Rose
Hair Of The Dog
This album is placed here purely because it’s looked at as a “Covers album”. Even though all of the songs are remade in the style of Guns N’ Roses which makes it a fun listen if you know the originals, it doesn’t seem to hold up to the same level of calibre of the other albums in the eyes of the fans, only selling 190,000 copies in the first week. (saying “only” like it’s a small number, but in the world of Guns N’ Roses sales, it really is.)
4.Use Your Illusion I (1991)
Singles
Don’t Cry
Live And Let Die
November Rain
Garden Of Eden
Dead Horse
The first addition of Use Your Illusion is a great blues rock album, really showcasing the different members' influences, in particular, Slash’ playing. The two main tracks on this album are November Rain and their cover of Live And Let Die, but other than those two, there are no major hitters on this album. There is also the famous ‘Second Album curse’ of having the first album being so successful, that it’s almost impossible to be able to live up to same standard in the eyes of the audience and blow them away the same a second time around, especially if the audience didn’t expect such a drastic change from the first to second album.
3. Chinese Democracy (2008)
Singles
Chinese Democracy
Better
Street Of Dreams
This may cause some arguments, it already has with some of the other musicians I’ve spoken to about this. Most fans would probably put this at number 10 on the list of top 5, as a lot of people don’t really even count this as a Guns N’ Roses album and more of a Axl solo project. However, this album is so different to what you would expect from the band, and I kind of love it for that reason. Personally there is some nostalgic love from playing Shackler's Revenge on the Rockband games. Unfortunately the album was looked at as a commercial failure only selling 2.7 million copies as of 2025.
2. Use Your Illusion II (1991)
Singles
You Could Be Mine
Knockin’ On Heavens Door
Yesterdays
Civil War
Estranged
Use Your Illusion II is widely considered to be the ‘Better’ album from the fans and is normally ranked higher than the first edition in peoples list, it also sold more copies with 770,000 in the first week, compared to its counterpart that sold 685,000 in its first week. This album also features a cover, the reworked rock ballad Knockin On Heavens Door, originally written by Bob Dylan. While the genre of this album is pretty much the same as the previous, everything just fits more and works better with this album.
1. Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Singles:
It’s So Easy
Welcome To The Jungle
Sweet Child O’ Mine
Paradise City
Nightrain
Obviously it goes without saying that this album is going to be ranked number one on the list. Not only is it an incredible album, it’s considered as one of the strongest debut albums of all time with almost every track being a timeless classic and selling over 30 million copies worldwide. Featuring one of the most iconic opening songs of any album Welcome To The Jungle, It’s the perfect introduction to the band and slaps you in the face with what is to come for the rest of the album.
It’s very difficult to rank any album by this band as they don’t really have any bad songs, and the standard and level of songs are so high!
And there we have it! The completely opinion based list of the best Guns N’ Roses albums, please let us know your opinion and if anything was missed!