You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
One of the biggest dropoffs in my opinion. The original leak was fierce with a powerful mix. The album version loses punch and tones everything back. The leak was as good as this song was ever going to get, which is really good. They buried the album version with nonsense.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
One of the biggest dropoffs in my opinion. The original leak was fierce with a powerful mix. The album version loses punch and tones everything back. The leak was as good as this song was ever going to get, which is really good. They buried the album version with nonsense.
I will say that Ron's big fretless slide lifts that bit of the song, in the demo it's a bit of a gaping void.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
I agree the power was lost in the mixing. I remember that leak was drool worthy Axl sound...kinda made me go "hell yeah" but the song when you hear it overall suffers from the CD era need to automatically swap genres and shoehorn in a different feeling part.
I know there's lots of that in GNR but it always felt a little frankensteined here to me...like the middle part is actually really cool as it's own thing...just in a way never paid off the promices made by the first verse or something to me. I sorta like all these directions but need seperate songs of them or something. But then its better than I can write so i should shut up lol.
Overall aside from the album mix being bad I like the song though and I liked bumble's little touches on this one.
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
In early 2006... the hardcore fans (including me) went ape shit over the leak. A mix between Vertigo and Slither...it'll be their mega-comeback song......
Uhh.....no.
Once I came back down to Earth, I saw it for what it was....
About three song ideas merged into one. It's a tad catchy yet abrasive. It's not a comeback single.
It also got worse with each leak to the point that the album version is literally noise pollution. The song exists in cut and paste hell. Noticeable even to non fans and it had no chance at radio play.
I'll never forget that story where a station was playing it, about 20-30 seconds in the DJ cut in, said "That's enough of that...", and played something else.
I still can't believe a handful of fans raved on its mixing/mastering. It's garbage.
The GNR camp were incompetent, imbecilic fucking idiots in 2006 for pulling that cease and desist crap when by a quirk of fate/lightning bolt from beyond, the Better leak was starting to chart in Boston and Los Angeles.
The GNR camp forced radio stations to kill their own buzz. It showed how they didn't have the slightest clue what they were doing.
It was even worse than when they pulled IRS off the Trunk show in 2003. That was a one time thing. With Better, it was quickly moving up the charts in two separate places..... meaning the leak was going viral.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
yeah...I love the album...but I think given how a LOT of it is ballads there's kinda a "duty" (lol I bet team brazil would love that word) on the rocker tracks to be rocker tracks.
One of the problems to me is how because the songs are experimenting with being cross-genre and taking different directions they jump around so much it kinda makes them not really sit well in any genre. It's like a movie that starts off as a horror, then becomes a drama, then has a comedy sequence and then a historical flashback, then ends as a doco. Like no matter how well each section is done the result is somehow less than seperate complete works in those genres would be.
A comeback rocker along the lines of the first verse of better would be badass. A metal sounding piece along the lines of the bridge would be hardcore. A blues rocker like the outro would be great. An industrial piece about masturbating robots would be acceptable after a few drinks. But all of them in the one track 30 seconds appart. Where's my foreplay Axl? 
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
Better was rated as one of the best singles of 2008 by some quality music magazines/sites. I think it's one of Axl's finest moments as a singer/songwriter. I think the original 06 leaks were not demos but the Andy Wallace mixes. It's clear Axl had Caram remix the songs. I mean, the dude sat in the studio four about four years and demanded more cowbell on some incredible songs. They didn't need Frank or Ron. It just reeks of insecurity.
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
Better was rated as one of the best singles of 2008 by some quality music magazines/sites. I think it's one of Axl's finest moments as a singer/songwriter. I think the original 06 leaks were not demos but the Andy Wallace mixes.
Well.....yeah.
Until the Village Sessions leak, none of the songs we had heard were actual demos. Fans just called them demos.
They were all finished tracks. All they needed was a final mix/mastering and to be wrapped in cellophane.
I'd like to hear a 2001-02 version of the song and see how it developed.
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
I'd like to hear a 2001-02 version of the song and see how it developed.
By all accounts those 05/06 leaks of IRS, TWAT and Better were the Summer 2003 versions of the songs from when he played the album at that strip club. So at some point between 01-03 he's back in the studio. Whatever version of the album was ready when that 02 tour goes off is probably the best cross point between the earlier raw sound and Bucket's contributions being on certain tracks (i.e. that TWAT solo). At some point in 03 they start rerecording the whole record and the project truly goes off the trails.
Up until 98 you can give Axl (and all involved tbh) a bye because the band is disintegrating and he's having to put together a new lineup. They work for a couple of years and then emerge at the end of 00 and the ball starts rolling. It's slow going, but everything with this band is like pulling teeth and the trajectory is still upwards towards an album release. At least by 02 it's progressed to doing a promo appearance on MTV and a North American tour. It all grinds to a halt after that tour implodes. They shouldn't have done the VMAs and the tour without at least a single and music video ready to go.
- Tortilla_Man
- Rep: 1
Re: Wtf happened to…Better
Almost everything on Chinese Democracy sounded better in its earlier demo form.
