Yeah, since the double album concept failed so miserably and ended GN'R's career back in '91, that single disc is what they should've rleeased instead.
Hopefully, the writers at RS will stick to writing about bands and not managing them. Ever.
The double album concept certainly did not fail miserably. I cannot substantiate this, but I've read that each album sold over 15 million copies internationally. And while the original GN'R fractured starting with Adler, then to Izzy and finally the remainder of the band by '96, to say that the double album caused it is ridiculous.
While its fun to think of how a single album would look, I love the fact that they released two lengthy albums. The only song I've typically skipped is My World. The rest, for better or worse, hold up today better than most other artists of the genre. Axl may put the albums down, and many other people who like to say that there is too much filler, however I loved them from the day they came out and still love to listen to them today.
I can't remember any other album release getting as much hype as UYI. While at 14 years old I was too young for the midnight sales, I clearly remember it being the first ever album I preordered, riding my bike with one of my best friends to the local Sam Goody to pick up the albums and listening to them over and over. The only thing for me that will outdo this is when CD is finally released!
I think he was being sarcastic when he said they failed.
Bottom line is they had too many great songs to fit on one disc. Two albums the same day was a first. And the albums did extremely well. When you consider all of that it makes the entire idea of re-writing history pointless. Why re-write it and pare it down to one album when things went perfectly fine the way it was?
My only complaint about the albums is that they omitted Crash Diet and maybe a couple of other great songs in their vault, but put in My World, Don't Cry (alt), and two covers. MW just isn't good IMO, the others are a bit redundant - they are good songs (and I really love KOHD) but should probably not be there at the expense of other really good original material.