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Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
More kudos for Mr Bedouins 
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
I'm telling you, if this album was released in 2002 the way it was in the demo's it would have been hailed big time. The worst thing that happened was that it went from a single album with a lot of left overs and ideas, to a trilogy, then to four albums. I think things got spread out thin. Too much thinking went into other albums (like saving The General for the last album) than focusing on 'THE' album. Also, something happened with the band in 05-06 when Axl started partying again. I don't know what, but that's when Merck was talking about renting studios and Axl not being able to work because he couldn't find his "muse." Maybe he lost confidence in the music and started adding shit to it.
The sad thing about CD is that great songs are layered with needless effects, guitars, multi vocals... Basically its been produced to death. I can't really argue with a lot of negative reviews mainly because the songs were better before.
It's a strange day, man. Real strange. Mostly because I'm still pumped for future releases.
I think most of the tracks have been improved with a fuller sound, but I understand your point. These songs will probably sound better to you in a more organic, live setting. 
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
More reviews, all over the place.
This will end up being the brilliance of this album. Everyone will like a little something different.
I personally think Riad is the 'lame duck' on the album, yet the Spin reviewer thinks it's one of the best. Prime example.
- ShoGunslinger
- Rep: 1
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
Agreeing with Madagas...the finished tracks that I've heard have a fuller and finished sound that improves upon the demos. If anyone remembers the late 80's demos of November Rain, Don't Cry and Back Off Bitch that were floating around...they were good demos too. The finished products had a more polished sheen to them and other than BOB were the better for it. This is going to be a killer frikkin' album. Just remember critics are like teachers as the saying goes...teachers teach because they can't do. These guys (critics) write for magazines/newspapers because they can't rock...haters the lot of them.
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
I am holding back judgement until I hear it on an actual CD. I might seem like I'm bitching... Okay, maybe I am... But I do love the songs. I just think the original The Blues and Chinese Democracy were on the verge of being brilliant and there's no telling what a fully mixed version of those songs would have been like in their rawer forms... Songs that I think were genius.
Mainly I'm bummed because of seeing how successful this would have been if released way back in the day when people were begging him to release it. Plus, I'm just not a Bumblefoot guy. I don't like what he did with CD, The Blues, and now I hear he's added guitar to Better... Ughh... Maybe because it just sounds like he's adding something over music that was there before he was, that he isn't really a part of, like an outsider of the band who doesn't really fit, at least to my ears anyway. Maybe it will grow on me. But I still got hope for the future of this band. Especially if a certain person came back to the chicken coop.
And from what I can tell, the reviewers that actually matter are giving the album the thumbs up, from what I see.
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
i really think you are in the minority on bumble's addition to CD. i thought from the moment i heard that track in 2001 that it needed guitar in the verse. he added legitmate GNR flavor to that track.
now if you want to tell me TWAT was better without a vocal choir at the beginning and end, I'm with ya on that.
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
Spin:
Guns N' Roses codependents are rejoicing over Chinese Democracy's long-awaited release, perhaps the most-delayed album in rock history.
But think, for a second, about our fragile economy: According to a 2005 New York Times story, Axl Rose spent more than $13 million recording this thing; if left unsatisfied, his appetite for construction might keep the West Hollywood service industry afloat for another decade. Is now really the best time for this gravy train to pull into the station?
You bet.
An outrageously overblown pop-metal extravaganza, Chinese Democracy feels like a perfect epitaph for all the absurdity and nonsense of the George W. Bush era -- one final blowout before Principal Obama takes our idiocy away.
The music toggles between two primary modes: grinding industrial rock and keys-and-strings balladry. (Imagine Rammstein covering Wings, basically.) Yet to that blueprint Rose and his battalion of musicians (including no fewer than five guitarists) append every trick new money can buy: hip-hop beats, Middle Eastern–influenced riffs, space-cowboy atmospherics, and, of course, Rose's still-astounding vocals, often multitracked into a paranoid boys chorus.
Singling out highlights seems antithetical to Rose's double-widescreen vision, but with their memorable melodies, "Better," "This I Love," and "Riad N' the Bedouins" (say what?) rise above the aural onslaught.
Blast ’em at top volume as you wave good-bye to our yellow
Re: Chinese Democracy official reviews thread
FINANCIAL POST REVIEW:
There are pockets on Chinese Democracy as good as anything Axl Rose has ever recorded. Even if the 14 new tracks don't improve on Appetite for Destruction, they're a long way off from every rock fan over 30's worst nightmare: a fat Axl with dreadlocks making a techno record about political life in Beijing with some dude in a Kentucky Fried Chicken hat.
The album's opening title track (and lead single) is a misfire, but the next three songs, Shackler's Revenge, Better and Street of Dreams will make you wonder if Slash was nothing but a mascot with cool hair and a great name.
The songs are built on massive guitar riffs, and many of them, such as Sorry and I.R.S., become Alice in Chains-like anthems by the end of the second chorus - about three minutes in.
Much has been made of the album's tortuous path to completion. Indeed, as a product 14 years and US$13-million dollars in the making, Chinese Democracy can sound over-stuffed and over-produced. (In the album's liner notes, seven different people are credited with "additional Pro Tools.") But Guns N' Roses was always about Axl: his distinct house-on-fire vocals and an attitude more like that of slain rapper Tupac Shakur than his Rose's washed up comrade-in-hair metal, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach.
Madagascar, which Rose has been performing live with the new boys in his band, is a perfect representation of the album. It offers mind-erasing vocals and an enormous, Joe Perry guitar lick before veering off into the cringe zone. It samples Braveheart, Se7en and Martin Luther King, Jr., and also features French horns, an Indian sitar and orchestral strings. It's a good song, but was probably better when it was written around the time Rose was feuding with Living Color and Nirvana - two bands, alas, he outlived.
For all that's been written about Axl's madness and the controversy behind this record - the 27-year-old blogger arrested in August for leaking it online; talent as diverse as Brian May, Trent Reznor and Moby aborting the project in fear - it still contains a defiant Sunset Strip swagger and grind.
The record contains some filler, and songs don't always congeal as a larger whole, but Rose proves he's still vital - snarling and screaming, and bringing ex-lovers and bandmates to their shanna-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees.
Crank up the volume and twist off your Night Train - this massive new album contains some of the year's best rock 'n' roll.
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=967299
TRACK BY TRACK
The new record from Guns N' Roses is a scorcher. Hard to believe I'm actually writing these words, but Guns N' Roses is back. Axl Rose rules and his new 14 tracks are going to make lots of non-believers freak out. Thursday, we had a sneak preview of the record and man oh man, the first single Chinese Democracy does not indicate the direction of the album: the thing is vintage GNR, and makes you think that Slash, Duff and Izzy were little more than well-dressed sidemen. We'll have a full review posted on Tuesday, but after giving this thing a test drive, let no man question the genius of Axl -- Guns N' Roses, the best album of 2008? Could very well be. Rock on.
[NOTE: This isn't a proper review, but a preview of the album. The writer was given the chance to listen to the album once in its entirety. These are his first impressions. We will have a full review once the album is released.]
• Shackler's Revenge – Vintage Appetite. Play this song for any GNR fan and I guarantee they will love it. Huge, huge monster riffs.
• Better -- The best song on the record? Could be. You can almost hear Duff in the background and it has that sweeping optimism of Rocket Queen. This is Axl doing his sensitive thug thing, hard rock has really sounded this good.
• Street of Dreams -- The album's November Rain. Axl on the piano, and that voice: Still better than anything on the radio today. The Killers? Snow Patrol? Feist? Man, listening to this, you can almost see the hurricane in the video. The wedding with Erin Everly and Slash with his top hat and no shirt? Here's some lyrics: "I never wanted you to be so full of anger/I never wanted you to be someone else."
• If the World -- A groovy track with a Blaxploitation monster guitar riff. Sounds like Heavy Metal Shaft.
• There Was a Time -- The record's first cocaine reference, at seven minutes this song changes tones more times than a 17-year-old girl's cell phone.
• Catcher N' the Rye -- Embarrassing title. Pretty lame song.
• Scraped -- This has Axl sort of rapping with himself and is pretty lame. Additionally, on the album's credits there are seven people credited with "additional Pro Tools."
• Riad N' the Bedouins -- This sounds like Alice in Chains, who, like Weezer, is thanked in the album's liner notes. Why does Axl thank Weezer? Who knows. But maybe Spike Jonze could make a video for this song.
• Sorry -- Another awesome ballad. This record is so, so good. Here's some lyrics: "You don't know why I never give in/To hell with the pressure/I'm not caving in."
• I.R.S. -- Great rock n' roll song. Axl has one of the best voices of all-time. At three minutes, the song turns into a juggernaut.
• Madagascar -- This represents both the best and worst of Axl. Why is he sampling Martin Luther King? The song is pretty straight-forward awesome, but Axl makes it over-blown. Love the ambition. Love the song. But clearances for MLK - as well as Braveheart and David Fincher's Seven - probably are one of the inconsequential additions that kept this really great record from coming out for so long.
• This I Love -- Such a great Axl piano ballad, and again at 3-minutes in it becomes a rock n' roll anthem. The Axl Rose high voice is better than anyone from Thom Yorke to Chris Martin. And how much better is Guns N' Roses than either of those whimpy, navel-gazing British bands?
• Prostitute -- Again, echoes of Rocket Queen, probably the best song off Appetite for Destruction.
OK: this record is no Appetite, although we only got a single listen and will write more when the disc is sent out for a proper review. Mr. Brownstone? Welcome to the Jungle? Sweet Child? For men of a certain age, those songs are as ingrained in our consciousness as Family Ties, 21 Jump Street, Alf and Arsenio Hall. I love this new Guns N' Roses record. And if you remember when video music channels actually played music videos, you probably will, too.
