Knee-Jerk Reaction to Chinese Democracy
Here's my review summarized in a single word: No.
OK, that doesn't mean much without some context, so here are some questions to go along with it:
Is Chinese Democracy a great album?
Is the album a throwback to classic GnR?
Is this GnR at all?
Does it live up to all the hype?
Was it worth the 14-year wait?
Should you plunk down your hard-earned money and buy this album?
Again, the answer to all those questions: No.
The album is a hybrid of rock, fake-rap beats, and Axl crooning like he's trying to win American Idol. It is definitely not GnR, so don't expect to hear Use Your Illusion III. For that matter, don't even expect Use Your Illusion II.I (do Roman numerals even support decimals?). The first track, "Chinese Democracy", is the best track on the album. It has a great first-track-on-an-album sound, like Axl is announcing his return and his intention that he will rock all of our genitals off with a masterpiece of musical fury. However, these hopes are soon dashed, as the album is all downhill from there. In fact, the album is immediately downhill, into a valley, and plunging down through the Earth's surface with the second track, "Shackler's Revenge", which happens to be the worst song on the album. It's just plain terrible.
I'll be honest, the album is not all bad - there are some decent songs in there, with some good melodies and some good guitar solos. There's also a lot of music here - most of the songs are pretty long. However, as has been pointed out on this site before, Axl (and whoever else was involved in the studio) overproduced the shit out of this album. It's ridiculous - there were several times when I thought my web browser had switched over to streaming music from The Phantom Of The Opera, because I thought I was listening to the score of a musical. But honestly, I'm not that surprised. What could anyone possibly be doing for 14 years with an album? I'll tell you what - drugs, drinking, women, and occasionally dicking around with an album to the point that it's the musical equivalent of an average-looking Hollywood starlet coated with pounds and pounds of makeup until you think she's attractive.
The album is decent. It's not bad, but it's not good either. And it shouldn't have taken 14 years to make.
I still think Axl is a huge dickhead for releasing Chinese Democracy under the name Guns N' Roses. For this reason alone, you should refuse to buy this album. Other musicians (like Scott Weiland and Chris Cornell) had the decency and common sense to release their solo efforts under their own name, not the name of the band they left. Axl evidently has no such decency and no such common sense. I refuse to call this a Guns N' Roses album because it's not - it's an Axl Rose album.
Don't buy this album. Give it a listen, illegally download your favorite tracks, and don't patronize this man until he gets his act together.
OK, that doesn't mean much without some context, so here are some questions to go along with it:
Is Chinese Democracy a great album?
Is the album a throwback to classic GnR?
Is this GnR at all?
Does it live up to all the hype?
Was it worth the 14-year wait?
Should you plunk down your hard-earned money and buy this album?
Again, the answer to all those questions: No.
The album is a hybrid of rock, fake-rap beats, and Axl crooning like he's trying to win American Idol. It is definitely not GnR, so don't expect to hear Use Your Illusion III. For that matter, don't even expect Use Your Illusion II.I (do Roman numerals even support decimals?). The first track, "Chinese Democracy", is the best track on the album. It has a great first-track-on-an-album sound, like Axl is announcing his return and his intention that he will rock all of our genitals off with a masterpiece of musical fury. However, these hopes are soon dashed, as the album is all downhill from there. In fact, the album is immediately downhill, into a valley, and plunging down through the Earth's surface with the second track, "Shackler's Revenge", which happens to be the worst song on the album. It's just plain terrible.
I'll be honest, the album is not all bad - there are some decent songs in there, with some good melodies and some good guitar solos. There's also a lot of music here - most of the songs are pretty long. However, as has been pointed out on this site before, Axl (and whoever else was involved in the studio) overproduced the shit out of this album. It's ridiculous - there were several times when I thought my web browser had switched over to streaming music from The Phantom Of The Opera, because I thought I was listening to the score of a musical. But honestly, I'm not that surprised. What could anyone possibly be doing for 14 years with an album? I'll tell you what - drugs, drinking, women, and occasionally dicking around with an album to the point that it's the musical equivalent of an average-looking Hollywood starlet coated with pounds and pounds of makeup until you think she's attractive.
The album is decent. It's not bad, but it's not good either. And it shouldn't have taken 14 years to make.
I still think Axl is a huge dickhead for releasing Chinese Democracy under the name Guns N' Roses. For this reason alone, you should refuse to buy this album. Other musicians (like Scott Weiland and Chris Cornell) had the decency and common sense to release their solo efforts under their own name, not the name of the band they left. Axl evidently has no such decency and no such common sense. I refuse to call this a Guns N' Roses album because it's not - it's an Axl Rose album.
Don't buy this album. Give it a listen, illegally download your favorite tracks, and don't patronize this man until he gets his act together.
Trackbacks
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11/21/2008 5:07 PM
Blogs N' Roses wrote:
Guns N' Roses has broken a MySpace record. Yes, MySpace keeps tracks of records. Chinese Democracy was streamed over three million times, with the title track being played 826,000 times. That translates to 25 listens a second...and this still proves nothing. I tried to log on to the site six times and nothing would play. That is probably more due to my porn box, what I call my computer, having some type of virus. But still there are six of the 826,000 hits. I am eager to hear it, even with the slightly negative reviews from two other staff members ... -
11/21/2008 5:07 PM
Blogs N' Roses wrote:
Guns N' Roses has broken a MySpace record. Yes, MySpace keeps tracks of records. Chinese Democracy was streamed over three million times, with the title track being played 826,000 times. That translates to 25 listens a second...and this still proves nothing. I tried to log on to the site six times and nothing would play. That is probably more due to my porn box, what I call my computer, having some type of virus. But still there are six of the 826,000 hits. I am eager to hear it, even with the slightly negative reviews from two other staff members ...
And I thought I was being negative...
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