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Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
perhaps he could have contributed something really interesting.
I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but judging from what we've heard I believe that he was able to create or show a different side of himself for this project. And I also believe that it all rules down to that this has been a collaborative effort by some damn good people and deep down: a band.
The influence from a lot of his records are there in his playing but how could they not be?
It's the same person, but at the same time it feels like something new and something that has never quite been done before and I think that it's fucking fantastic. It really shows what an amazing writer he is by himself and in a band even though how broken it might have possibly been. I also feel confident in that Axl Rose knew and know what Buckethead was and is capable off and he would be an idiot not to not have used that talent full on.
And in the end - who knows what the unheard songs may sound like? All I know is that I love what he's done in Guns N' Roses and that it's a damn shame that he's gone.
I truly hope that they will be able to solve it somehow because he sure is welcome back.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
Its kind of like seeing this really pretty girl at the bar sitting at a table. You sit down and buy her some drinks. After a few drinks she is ready to fuck and she says, "Neemo, take me home and fuck me hard." You say, "Baby, lets go to pound town, I'm gonna tear you a new one." When you get up from the table you see she has the biggest fucking ass of all time. You then realize you are going to settle for a blow job with teeth. Ya its a blow job, but with teeth. Yikes.
That is my feeling so far about CD. Big Expectations, I will enjoy it, but pissed because it could have been so much more!
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
Its kind of like seeing this really pretty girl at the bar sitting at a table. You sit down and buy her some drinks. After a few drinks she is ready to fuck and she says, "Neemo, take me home and fuck me hard." You say, "Baby, lets go to pound town, I'm gonna tear you a new one." When you get up from the table you see she has the biggest fucking ass of all time. You then realize you are going to settle for a blow job with teeth. Ya its a blow job, but with teeth. Yikes.
That is my feeling so far about CD. Big Expectations, I will enjoy it, but pissed because it could have been so much more!
Man that is a flipping classic analogy 
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
OK, out of my own curiousity, and wanting to put all 9 songs to cd, I burned them to disc, and gave the 3 new leaks a listen on my real stereo. And compared to tweety little PC speakers, it's an improvement. So here goes my updated review:
Rhyiad - Not as bad. Certainly like this the best of the 3.Still think the vox are too high, (I think the vox are all demo's on all the tracks). Vocals bad, guitars have good riffs, why the Robin hate?? Not feeling the solos.
Song 2 - Never has a GnR song been so close, and yet so far!! Axl's usually good at writing songs that are great, or songs that are good, with little in between within the song. This time he does it. The beat is great, the first part of the verse is good, then it's a train wreck.. Then the verse is good, piano drum & guitar have a great thing going, then a mess. Again the vox are too high pitched. The outtra is awesome though.
If the World - As bad as it was on my PC speakers. In fact, worse. Here is where I see James' reference to porn music.
Overall I can see the like for these, the first 2 aren't as bad. You can move me out of the 'Hate them all" category and put me into "Like 1 or 2 of them, but maybe not for long so hurry up with this" category.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
Chinese Democracy out of the bunch is the best at what its trying to be. A rocker. Its focused. Decent mix on the guitars. Axl's voice sounds good. Its doesn't try to be "complex" or too "epic". It knows what it wants to do and does it. Bucket has a great solo here. The Blues and Better are the other too that are "complete" enough for me to enjoy. Back to the drawing board on the rest.
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
Smoking Guns wrote:The music is on the fence of being bad ass. I think they just lack and identity and chemistry. They don't know what they are or what they should sound like. Its a shame. Is Better the New GNR's banner song? Like Paradise City is the Classic Lineup's theme song? What is this band about? I don't get it. They don't know either. The magic that came from 5 friends is gone. There is not magic. There is nobody rising to Axl's vocals. NOBODY. Like some said, great solos by the guitar players, but they are solos, not for the song. Just solos to solo and sound like they were punched in. It sounds to sterile and contrived to me. All these dramatic synthisizer intros are too much. Not bare bones enough. Does Chinese Democracy need a one minute intro? perhaps, but 5 other songs don't. Its not Dio "Holy Diver" for heaven's sake. And Holy Diver is a classic song. They are right on the cusp of being there. BRI, I do "enjoy" the songs, don't get me wrong. But like Bono says, 11 years for this? Are you serious. Fuck the final mix, it won't save these songs. They need new songs to save this. Is this the worst album ever? Fuck no. Is this the worst GNR album ever? Damn right.
No, the worst GN'R album ever is Spaghetti Incident. And actually, I think CD will be more consistent than the Illusions, but definitely not worth the wait. Not even close to worth it.
Oh c'mon SI isn't even a Gn'R record and everyone knows that. But to be honest I'd take SI over CD any day of the week.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
SI kicks ass...I've never understood the hate...i'm not so much a fan of the Duff lead songs though as I don't like punk singing much. But the tracks Axl is on kick ass. And the production owns. Sometimes i wish recording equipment had been around like that when AFD was written.
As for CD. I didn't mean to be "ranking them not quite as good as the weaker UYI tracks" 
I ment to be more questioning the level of critism we apply to the tracks. I feel GNR has always been a band of varied output both in style and quality. While I love almost all GNR songs in some way, some of
them are definately much better than others. I feel that some of the reviews of the CD leaks have been unfair in that all of a sudden we're expecting an album with nothing but the best GNR hits. And no GNR album has had only the best songs so far. I just wonder if we judged the old GNR albums with the same level of harshness that we apply to these tracks if we would also have found AFD, and UYI in particualr to be wanting. I'm not even saying this is the case. I just think its a danger. You can analise anything to the point where you set a standard that makes it impossible to live up to and enjoy. All i'm saying is I like these songs, I enjoy them, I sing them to myself sometimes in my journies through life, and some of them speak to me in a way. So i'm looking forward to a proper release of them.
As for "crying for slash". I didn't mean to be doing that, but, just as i react badly to raising the bar to an impossible level for CD, I also react badly to critism against slash, and some posts much earlier in the thread seemed to be praising bucket over slash and dissing the old songs. Which to me is madness. Bucket is better than slash technically, as in finger movment, but in terms of adding to the GNR music there is a lot more than that. Anyway - i think we'll all agree it's stupid to put them up in competition against each other - especially for a fan of both like me.
So i wasn't crying for slash, I was crying for a proper guitar input to the songs, to raise them instrumentally to the epic level that the vocal melodies are already at. It doesn't have to be slash. But it has to happen, and that's why the album wasn't finsihed for years IMO. Everyone knew that the guitar parts were 2nd rate on these songs. So they remain as "demos" waiting for the next musican to take them to the next level.
To be fair to the guitarists involved, I think perhaps stylisticly it was Axl's intent to move away from being a guitar band. Like some of the positive posters here I enjoy seeing what Axl can do in different styles. My only question is why the need to blend them all into each track. I'd be more interested in an album where Axl did a pure classic rock song, then a full on industrial song, then a song that's pure rap, then one that's pure soul or blues or funk and so. Where he could show his versitility in each of the styles, and in areas where the old GNR never allowed him to musically tred, but where he could do it independently of the otehr styles. I feel the blending of each of them into each song is what's making the songs feel lost and unfinished. They lack identity and structure that a pure musical form brings.
I think its a fine line. On one hand mixing genres can lead to wonderful things. I mean old GNR is kinda a mix of punk from duff, aerosmith from slash, stones from izzy and queen/elton from Axl. Which makes it great. So i guess its a similar idea here to mix hip hop/industrial/metal guitar/flamenco/lounge music etc...but i'm not sure it's working in some of the songs. It's like they're pushing too much of each type into the one song. And i think that is the reason why a song one person likes is something another person hates. and there is no consensus on which are the good ones. We all like certain genres...and all of these songs have elements of most of them.
Anyway....i can't wait till this album is released as i'd love a finalised version of the tracks. But i can also see what people mean when they highlight certain things missing/strange about them.
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
Its kind of like seeing this really pretty girl at the bar sitting at a table. You sit down and buy her some drinks. After a few drinks she is ready to fuck and she says, "Neemo, take me home and fuck me hard." You say, "Baby, lets go to pound town, I'm gonna tear you a new one." When you get up from the table you see she has the biggest fucking ass of all time. You then realize you are going to settle for a blow job with teeth. Ya its a blow job, but with teeth. Yikes.
Just to clarify, this big-assed bar slut plays dirty rock 'n' roll riffs that drip sex and balls, right?
One thing that I can't get over is all people that are saying "These are basically finished versions! Put the album out!". It couldn't be any clearer that these are unfinished demos from at least five years ago. The only ones that could possibly be passed off as finished tracks are "Better", "Chinese Democracy", and "Message for You". I mean, Axl's taken 17 years between studio albums. Does anyone really think that the final product's going to sound less produced than "Contraband"?
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Overall feelings on the CD era songs....
It depends what you mean by finished. If you mean properly mastered etc...sure these are unfinished...if you mean "work in progress" like the songs will drasticly evolve...then i'd disagree...IRS, Better, CD and Maddy are exactly as they were performed in 2007 around the time the album was "finished".
