You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
I felt this deserves its own topic since this is basically one of the biggest and most influential magazines in the world. I said when the leaks happened that the media was gonna cut their losses, write their reviews, and consider this the album. Thats most definitely becoming the reality. Uni and the GNR camp have got to be shaking in their boots over this. The 2006/07 leaks got some coverage, but people weren't writing album reviews back then.
Anyways, on to the two articles....
Chinese Democracy Review
Why should I '” a guy who doesn't like Guns n' Roses or heavy metal '” review Chinese Democracy? Because I have it. The cool kids cutting class and smoking in the woods have no choice but to let me hang out now.
Track 1: Better
This does not sound like 1994. The first 30 seconds are like a Rihanna song with this woman singing the chorus. Then Axl and the guitars break in, hard. It's catchy and rocking and modern sounding, and his voice sounds all over the place, in an impressive way. The chorus is from the woman, and there are some sound effects '” like a rap song. And there are two short guitar solos, either from Slash, Buckethead or Bumblefoot '” the first of which has a silly, fun Eddie Van Halen quality. All I get from the lyrics is that, apparently, Axl is upset about the way an ex treated him. She, apparently, is "crazy." I'm guessing she has a different take. I totally like this song. Grade: A
Track 2: Chinese Democracy
This is what took 14 years. The song actually starts with every person in China talking before there's any music. Then it starts with a riff that sounds a lot like "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions. But then it gets a lot more interesting and catchy and rocks pretty hard. At first, you think it's about democracy in China '” and it might be '” but I'm guessing it's about a woman who changed for the worse and pissed him off. I like it, but not as much as Better. Grade: B+
Track 3: IRS
This is a really good song. Like this could sneak into a GnR Greatest Hits album and no one would notice. It starts with a sweet little wail about how a woman has changed to be no good. Then, to resolve this matter, he says he's "gonna call the President/ gonna call a private eye/ gonna get the IRS/ gonna need the FBI," which I can't get out of my head. It interrupts its super-rockingness with little bits of mellowness to keep me interested, and then some weird named guitarist rocks out and Axl's right back to calling the President. I play this all the time. I would love it a lot more if some band that wasn't heavy metal played it. Grade: A+
Track 4: Madagascar
This is that crappy song the band played when I was at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and they sucked and he was fat and out of breath and I kept saying I was pretty sure it was a fake Axl Rose. It's Axl's attempt to do Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. It's vaguely Middle Eastern and slow and bombastic and a little trippy. But it's boring. And why does it end with all those clips of Martin Luther King Jr.? Grade: C
Track 5: Rhiad and the Bedouins
This song, oddly, starts with him wailing almost exactly like Robert Plant in Kashmir. Then Axl sings really fast. Kind of a nicely sung and interesting chorus, but the rest of it sucks. Slash/Buckethead/Bumblefoot seems to get to do whatever they like. Grade: C+
Track 6: New Song #2
Skwerl didn't know the name of this song, but I'm guessing its "Message For you" because Axl sings it more clearly than any thing else. And I'm guessing the message is "You done me wrong, girl." It's not a bad song, but it's very serious about itself and a little boring at the same time. It sounds like if it had come out earlier, Michael Bay would have used it for the soundtrack for the Transformers. Grade: B
Track 7: If The World
Pretty good for a metal ballad. I can almost picture the hot, big-haired, leather-pants girls I went to high school with having sex to this. With me. Because I have Chinese Democracy. Grade: B+
Track 8: The Blues
I'm pretty sure this is a song from some upcoming Broadway show: it's mostly just a piano and lots of emotive singing. Axl should totally be a Broadway singer. He's got the range and the histrionics. Picture Mandy Patinkin singing this: "So now I wander through my day/ Tried to find my way/ To the feelings that I felt/ I saved for you and no one else/ And though as long as this road seems/ I know it's called the street of dreams/ But that's not stardust on my feet/ that leaves a taste that's bittersweet/ That's called the blues." Again, Axl thinks some woman he loved has turned into a real bitch. Grade: B+
Track 9: There Was a Time
Again, an artsy intro. Then a ballad that kind of swings, if heavy metal ballad can swing. Oddly the verse is catchier than the chorus. And the guitarwork is kind of pretty and bluesy and mournful, as if it were hurt by a woman it trusted but then went and did it wrong. These guitars are so hurt the song lasts almost seven minutes. Grade: A-
Overall grade: B+
*Joel Stein wrote that by the way.:thumbup: Biggest review yet of this record.*
Pirating Axl Rose's Record
I have Chinese Democracy. This is the Guns n' Roses album that lead singer Axl Rose has devoted himself to working on for 14 years, the same amount of time it took to carve Mount Rushmore. More than $13 million is reported to have been spent so far to make it, way more than any other album ever. It still has no formal release date. Every few years Rose assures his fans that it's about to be released, and then it isn't. It's gotten so ridiculous that the album title is used to mean something that is long promised but will never happen, like "That marriage proposal is total Chinese Democracy. Move on, girl."
I got the album June 18, a few hours after a political breakfast at which I met the girlfriend of a guy named Skwerl. It was, as you might guess, a Democratic event. After the breakfast, Mrs. Skwerl, mistaking me for a metalhead (must condition hair more), informed me that Skwerl had just posted Chinese Democracy on his blog at antiquiet.com and gave me the tracks. I have never been this excited about having an album. I play it all the time, everywhere. This is despite the fact that I don't like Guns n' Roses or heavy metal. Which is far outweighed by the fact that I really like having things that everyone else wants.
The nine tracks Skwerl put on his site were pretty exciting (you have not fully rocked until you've heard Axl Rose give it to Hu Jintao: "Blame it on the Falun Gong!/ They've seen the end, and you can't hold on now!"). But they weren't as exciting as talking to Skwerl. Until our conversation, I didn't really understand how piracy worked. Unfortunately, before he could explain, I had to interrupt to get to the bottom of this "Skwerl" thing. After bottle-nursing an injured squirrel back to health in high school and taking it in as a pet, Skwerl was given some other hurt squirrels by squirrel-loving kids in Philadelphia, and then some squirrels saw his generosity, and he soon had a small squirrel army. And when you have that many squirrel responsibilities on top of school and rocking out to Guns n' Roses albums, you don't have time for spell-check.
Skwerl, 27, is in a punk band and used to work for Universal Music. Now he works for a Web marketing company. "Among my friends, I'm the guy known for getting things no one can get," he says. "I'm just that rabid for information." Skwerls are the people who make the Internet useful. To everyone but record companies.
When blogs reported in April that Rose had finally delivered the album to his record company, Skwerl implied on his blog that he'd post the tracks if he got them. So someone who works for the record company sent them to Skwerl, and Skwerl threw them up on a player so people could listen but not download (though, of course, they found a way). The traffic crashed his server in 10 minutes. Within the hour, someone from Rose's camp called. "He was pretty cool. He seemed to be kind of like a warning-shot thing," says Skwerl. An hour later, he got an e-mail from the band's lawyer. "I've gotten cease and desists before," he says. "I sent back a very professional e-mail saying it's down, sorry for any inconvenience, and tried to do damage control." After 14 years of waiting, the record-company execs were not planning to launch the album with 10 minutes on a blog. I'm guessing they wanted to get Axl a whole hour on The View.
On June 23, two FBI agents were waiting for Skwerl in his office lobby and then checked his computer, hoping to find his source. While that makes Skwerl a little uncomfortable and he feels a little sad that Rose, his favorite rock star, is probably angry with him, he still thinks he did the band a favor. Now people know that the album isn't just a myth, that it's coming soon and that people who've heard it are saying it's good. And other than some increased traffic on his blog, Skwerl didn't profit from his stunt. "There were posts on Craigslist saying 'I'll give you $1,500 per track if you just play it for me.' I'm not going to say I'm the most morally virtuous person around after yesterday, but I didn't go that route." He also didn't go the route of driving all the way to someone's house to learn that there's no way any Guns n' Roses fan has $1,500 lying around.
Even if piracy seems unfair, megafans aren't going to stop themselves. Record companies will have to learn that giving music previews away--just as Google gives away its searches--in exchange for ads, sponsorship and merchandise is the new business model. And if I wasn't sure of that before, I was when Skwerl told me that as we were speaking, a live version of one of the songs appeared in his inbox.
But I don't need it. I have enough tracks to send to friends and feel the outlaw glow that I could never have experienced before the Internet. I might even go to a gop breakfast next week. There's got to be some long-lost Lee Greenwood album people are jonesing for.
- Gunslinger
- Rep: 88
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
Great article and yes I agree that this forces the GNR camp's hand...ignoring it would prove futile (sorry guys, always looking for an excuse to say that, lol)
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
He was generous with his grades considering some songs sucked and still gave a B or B+. Again from a non fan too, MADDY IS BORING AS FUCK!
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
This is going to cause problems. If they review the tracks like this - then a load more people with an interest will go out and find a download of the leaks - then when the real album comes out - the reviews will be like "its just the leaks we reviewed last year - snore". They need to release this shit now....stop fucking around...its bullshit...i mean what business problem can take years...do it now or there will be no album.
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
My issue with this is there's NO point in not unloading this album now, even if just on Itunes and then doing a hard copy release(CD, Vinyl) in the coming months.
When TIME MAGAZINE reviews your album, you better have a fucking product in stores or the torrent sites are gonna be running on overdrive.
We're nearing the end of the Chinese Democracy era, one way or the other.
- dave-gnfnr2k
- Rep: 11
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
The leaks are a bunch of rough cuts and Time gave it a B Plus just think if it was the whole album of finished versions
- BrokenGlassNCigs
- Rep: 25
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
I agree. Azoff and Gould have to address this and obviously just plainly put "it's not the finished product. That will be coming later this year." Something like that.
Re: Time Magazine considers the leaks Chinese Democracy
The leaks are a bunch of rough cuts and Time gave it a B Plus just think if it was the whole album of finished versions
Doesn't matter anymore dave. You can fill the rest of my bedroom closet with as many excuses as will fit in there.
This is Chinese Democracy. The world got tired of the joke and is reviewing this thing and ready for whatever is next.
