Classic Rock review

[Ignatius]

I noticed some blatant contradictions in their review. They said all the leaked songs they had heard before they still loved. Well, they were quite positive about the "If The World" leak and yet somehow they diss it here. Second, the three unheard songs are the weakest according to them, yet they praise "Scraped". They also loved "Catcher In The Rye" in demo form, yet they diss it a little here.

In that sense, the review was disappointing. It seemed to contradict itself.

Ali

You beat me to it...

My thoughts exactly. So, the leaks are great  - We loved the leaks - but the new songs in the album are dissapointing. The album doesnt achieve the expectations then because the tracks that didnt leak werent just as good as the ones that did leak??

The review is bad simply because as Ali mentioned, there are contradictions everywhere.

And as somebody else pointed out, the review focus on reminding the reader that a full review will be available on the Dec 10th issue. So yeah, a fair and honest review  


On a side note this is the trend that the non positive reviews will follow. They will all mention how long's taken the band to release the album blah blah or how greatly are Slash and Izzy missed.

[Saul]

 (the three tracks that haven?t been released in any form ? Scraped, Sorry and This I Love ? are possibly the biggest disappointments on the album).

I had to call bullshit after that part. It's all based on opinion and preference obviously but my god, IMHO these are 3 of the strongest tracks on the album. Just last nite I had these 3 tracks on repeat for about 90 minutes.

Chinese Democracy, IMHO, is untouched by anything released today or even in the last 5 years or longer. I just can't think of a rock/heavy album that has come out in the last ten years that tops 'Democracy'

[Mudkicker]

I really don't understand why they do these one listen reviews, there is no way you can understand any album afther one listen.

I reckon they didn't like Sorry and This I Love because they hadn't leaked before so they couldnt get there head around the tracks or understand them like the other tracks that had leaked, also putting down catcher because it hasen't got brain may work on it.... is very annoying, i wounder if they would of liked if they hadn't heard the demo.... if so then you can't really blame axl for that !

 

while, yes, albums have the ability(and often do) to grow on you, first impressions mean alot just like with anything else, that is why they do one listen reviews.

[GeraldFord]

5. If The World ? 4.55
With a flamenco guitar intro and funk rhythm track, If The World is the album?s first serious mis-fire. The R?N?B feel grates, and while there are some guitars to add a crunch, the song isn?t good enough to carry Axl?s ridiculous ?Lad-di-da? vocals and over-emoting. It?s thinks it?s a James Bond theme ? in reality it?s Madonna?s La Isla Bonita as played by Limp Bizkit. A dog.

I really don't know if they are listening to the same song as we are...

[SLCPUNK]

There's one aspect that will be constantly mentioned in all reviews, overproduction, some songs in the album have too much of everything, and sometimes less is better.

I happen to think the production is fantastic. Just seems well thought out.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

The review lost all credibility when it called IRS a "ballad."  Of course, if Mick Wall had any hand in the review, you knew there would be some snarky potshots.  I wonder if that douche was involved

Next

[The Catcher]

How the fuck can someone love the leaks but dislike the final tracks?

[falungong69]

The review lost all credibility when it called IRS a "ballad."  Of course, if Mick Wall had any hand in the review, you knew there would be some snarky potshots.  I wonder if that douche was involved

Next

mick wall seriously needs to go to hell.  that guy has hurt  axl so much with the things he's written.  theres no way a guy like that should be allowed to write for any newspaper or magazine.

[Bodhi]

im noticing a few critics tearing apart "This I Love".  So I am 100% confident that this will probably be my favorite song of all time...I can't wait to hear it..

[duga]

How the fuck can someone love the leaks but dislike the final tracks?

Why not?

[TomFriend]

im noticing a few critics tearing apart "This I Love".  So I am 100% confident that this will probably be my favorite song of all time...I can't wait to hear it..

True - that's the one cut I haven't seen any of the reviews praise yet.

[mrarkadin]

Classic Rock comes off very badly here. I don't mind the negative reviews, but this is like a knife in the back.

First, can you imagine someone reviewing the new Radiohead album saying "The Beatles made 8 albums that were better than this in less time."

Second, maybe Bowie, Elton John, Led Zep, and Queen had better albums, but it partly misses the point because none of them could have made this album, not in a year. Maybe Bowie who was such a style shifter, managed something almost similar over the course of the 70s. But never on one album. And if they are better in less time then so what? On the Road was written in three weeks and Fin's Wake was written in 17 years and many consider On the Road the much better novel, the much more enjoyable novel, but Fin's Wake is something of much vaster, deeper complexity.

Third, I think some of these reviewers should go back and listen to some of these classic records. People have an exaggerated sense of what those albums are because they grew up with those albums and grew to love them slowly, without expectations. To someone coming to them for the first time with the expectations that they will be great albums it is initially clear that there are lower points on all of those classic albums. It's partly what makes them so good. Again, first time I heard Ziggy I thought, Where's all the good songs? Where are the hits? Sgt. Peppers too. And on and on.

If these reviewers are expecting Chinese Democracy to sound that good on a first listen while holding it up to those expectations then they are foolish.

[Alfie Bones]

There's one aspect that will be constantly mentioned in all reviews, overproduction, some songs in the album have too much of everything, and sometimes less is better.

Doesn't bother me, I'm a Meat Loaf fan.  Less isn't more. More is more.

Meat Loaf rules. I'd love to have seen Guns cover some of his shit from Bat out of Hell, but that ship has sailed I guess.

[Black Betty]

Overproduction my ass. That's an easy jab...swing and a miss.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

There is too much going on to give a fair review with one listen...it is a lot to take in if you haven't heard the leaks much.

If the reviewers were expecting UYI part 3 or AFD 2 they could be disappointed.

We aren't talking 3 chord punk rock here. This stuff is epic.

[gunns1]

There is too much going on to give a fair review with one listen...it is a lot to take in if you haven't heard the leaks much.

If the reviewers were expecting UYI part 3 or AFD 2 they could be disappointed.

We aren't talking 3 chord punk rock here. This stuff is epic.

couldn't have said it better myself,
chinese democracy is a world of its own.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

As someone said earlier in this post, no one else on the planet is making music like this.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

As someone said earlier in this post, no one else on the planet is making music like this.

That's actually a quote from the review that The Sun gave CD.

[reed2009]

axl doesnt care wat people think! who cares about classic rock mag review! the album will see a billion copies anyway ! as axl would say "why dont you just......fuck off!"

[Olorin]

Some people need to get some perspective, that wasnt a bad review, there are some quite horrifically brutal and bigoted ones out there.

The editor posted this in the comments thread amongst all the bickering.



"Apology accepted this time, JP - but be warned that if you (or anyone else) writes like that on this site again, you and your IP address will be banned ? not just from this site, but from the new super-dooper one we have coming soon.

So? Am I the only one who thought that the review was basically a positive one?

I look at the words above and I see phrases and words like : "atmospheric", "great album opener","Full on", "A grower", "beautiful bluesy outro", "A classic", "great kiss-offs" (meaning lyrics)"he means it, man","satisfying, exciting modern rock","Brilliant", and er, "half-decent".

And I put those words with the fact that we made it album of the year last year...

And the fact that we've given it so much space on here?

And the fact that we're doing a supplement mag about the making of the album?

And maybe it's just me, maybe I'm not thinking straight, but putting two and two together, I'd hazard a guess that, just maybe, we actually, you know, quite like it?

(On the 'dated' issue. If Good Vibrations came out today I think people would say that it sounded dated, yes. But because it came out at the time, and we've been able to live with it for 40 years, it makes perfect sense.

A new record can sound dated if it uses sounds, production techniques etc, that were fashionable and everywhere for a short period of time but rarely used these days.

You could argue that some of those sounds become just another part of the vocabulary of rock music - but equally, like an over-compressed 80s drum sound, they can just sound wrong.

Either way, it's perfectly legitimate to talk about and feel that way about a 'new' record - especially one that's so famously been 14/15 years in the making.)


Posted by Scott Rowley, Editor In Chief (127.0.0.1) on November 17, 2008 at 05:24 PM GMT
Website: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com # "