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Re: Song Idea for GNR
CD is a perfectly fine album, 3 great songs, and the rest is interesting.
The overproduction and mixing is godawful however. It feels lifeless which is a shame because the songs are good.
What I don't like about CD is that it's merely a compilation of material. Nothing is cohesive. That's something they need to rectify with the next one.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Song Idea for GNR
Yeah I've been frustrated partially because I love everything.
Like old GNR was my favourite band growing up - so the old band stuff is untouchable to me - just classics.
Then I really liked the songwriting on CD, I found Madagascar really inspirational lyrics, loved the vocals on TWAT, and a whole lot of other moments.
To be honest I even enjoy the controversial semi-industrial and experimental stuff like Oh My God, Silkworms, Shacklers, Scraped etc - as their own thing. I know it's not classic GNR, but if I get past the expectations, whatever they are I enjoy them - even the venom of silkworms I find strangely compelling at times.
What gets to me is it seems so pointless that things remain hidden, we got *some* of the CD tracks but as you say - mixed questionably and with the wrong artwork, and many of the other tracks remain in the shadows.
Meanwhile we didn't get a return to classic GNR yet either.
I know it sounds demanding and they don't owe me or whatever. I just can't get the idea out of my head that the clock is ticking and there's just so much good stuff either locked or away or that simply could have been that it seems so damn wasteful. It actually even makes me depressed I think.
Perhaps I need therapy but then I think we all do or we wouldn't post about GNR for decades hahahah
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: Song Idea for GNR
I don't buy the economics of music argument. Springsteen makes bank and he records while touring, releases new music every 2 years, and repeats.
Springsteen isn't reconvening one of the most iconic bands in history, though. He has always been there. AC/DC has always been there. They're in the phase where they need a new album to generate interest and build a promotional push around. Axl and Slash are in a fairly unique situation here...
Re: Song Idea for GNR
Oh My God is a great song, easily in top 10 Guns`songs for me. Probably the heaviest song Axl has written.
Lyrically Axl was n`t at his best on CD while there are some brilliant pieces like Catcher, overall his lyricism on the album left more to be desired.
It`s not that Chinese lyrics are flat out bad, it`s just they are too self-centered, whiny and nauseating. Granted, self-pity is rampant on old stuff as well but CD elevated it another level, it almost borders on unbearable. I don`t want to hear a multi-mllionnaire rockstar bitch and cry about ex girlfriend or how everyone has wronged him.
Re: Song Idea for GNR
AFD is their best album by a mile but it does nothing for me today.
The 2002 band is my favorite band of all time so I obviously I want to hear more of the CD Era songs unadulterated.
I just hope I don't have to wait for Axl to kick the bucket to hear them.
Lyrically Axl was n`t at his best on CD while there are some brilliant pieces like Catcher, overall his lyricism on the album left more to be desired.
I agree about the lyrics but for the reason that his desire to be more abstract makes him up his ass and incomprehensible.
The title track of the album is my go to case. Is it about depression, oppression, the Chinese government? Blame what on the Falun Gong? Fuck off.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Song Idea for GNR
I've read a few people say they find the CD album lyrics to be a lesser quality.....personally I don't really agree....I feel there's just as much introspection on the UYI albums.
I'm not going to hang shit on those albums because they're some of the great works of all times, but all I'm saying is there's just as much personal thinking stuff going on there - I mean you have estranged and coma that seem to deal with suicidal thoughts, you have multiple lost love songs like NR and Breakdown, you have multiple rants at the media like Shotgun Blues and Get in the Ring, you have personal feuds like Right Next Door to Hell, and the same sort of "it's hard to be famous, why make me famous if you don't like me" stuff like Bad Apples and Don't Damn Me etc.
Love all those tracks by the way - I'm just saying its actually a very similar thematic record. CD has love songs, songs that address Axl's state of positive/negitive thinking at the time, songs that address the media/critics and songs that seem to touch on personal issues - law suits/friendships etc.
To me it is very much in keeping with the other stuff. Axl has always been a personal writer. The nature of things is just that these days his feuds are with lawyers rather than the cops throwing him up against a wall more often 
As for it being cryptic....I take that point...my take is I think Axl specifically does that now to avoid media and fan criticism when people single out particular lines. Like how he seems concerned about what is written about him in the media, I notice the more he writes the more he goes to metaphor and analogy, and lines that imply things and perhaps hold particualr meanings to him that may not to everyone who knows less about his situation. Just a theory - I find it fun and poetic...but I agree that it's happening.
Re: Song Idea for GNR
There's no problem with being more abstract and indirect, the problem is that Axl either repeats thematic material or it's incomprehensibly written.
The entire record is about love lost, Axl scorned, and personal redemption. 14 songs, three themes.
His direct first person style is less lucid than his work on UYI and his metaphors are extremely on the nose.
This problem isn't even discussed if the album is more cohesive and not held to the impossible standards it was subjected to.
It doesn't help the title track is a limp noodle.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Song Idea for GNR
At the same time though I think the old material is canonised because it came at the right time and the right place for us.
They are magical songs because of the time, but when you look at them with fresh eyes, something like Don't Cry isn't lyrically better than Street of Dreams to me.
Something like catcher in the rye is stronger lyrically than a lot of older material too.
