Chinese Democracy Review Thread

[mrarkadin]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2008/11/album-review-gu.html

Great review, embarrassing comments though.

That's the public there, can't get through 100 words without getting itchy. This album has provoked some unusually thoughtful notices.

Axl has a lot of Welles in him. Uncompromising genius, misunderstood etc. Welles worked 30 years on his self financed Don Quixote. Production lasted so long that the films stars died off midway through and eventually Orson had to dub in his own voice during edits. He never finished the film and it languishes in canisters somewhere in Spain.

[draguns]

I just want to post a link from my employer regarding the review of  Chinese Democracy: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aSdwlDcL0zyY&refer=muse.

[GeraldFord]

I just want to post a link from my employer regarding the review of  Chinese Democracy: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aSdwlDcL0zyY&refer=muse.

Seems to have liked the album, and then goes on to give it two stars? 

[ShotgunBlues1978]

LA Times review is the best one I've read

Not surprising, since Ann Powers provided the best review of the title track

She seems to have better perspective on what really drives Axl than any of the other reviewers out there and obviously listened to the album thoroughly before reviewing it.  Great stuff

[GeraldFord]

The New York Times review is the worst review thus far. I'm also betting on Erlewine trashing the album over at the AMG.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

The New York Times review is the worst review thus far. I'm also betting on Erlewine trashing the album over at the AMG.

Well, the New York Times was definitely on the negative side, although it's not the worst review I've ever read.  I mean at least the guy tried to back up his opinion even though I completely disagree with him

But I really wonder if authors like that guy even have a slight recognition of the irony in calling Axl or his music pretentious when they write articles that try so hard to be clever, witty and brilliant with their pot shots (and fall way short of the mark)

[Ali]

USA Today (3 out of 4 stars):

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2008-11-20-guns-roses-democracy_N.htm

Ali

[Continental Drift]

The New York Times review is worthless and should be avoided at all costs.

Jon Pareles reviewing anything Guns N' Roses carries about as much credibility as a Sean Hannity biography of Barack Obama.

Complete garbage.

[GeraldFord]

USA Today (3 out of 4 stars):

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2008-11-20-guns-roses-democracy_N.htm

Ali

Chinese sags when Rose indulges melodramatic tendencies in the cheeseball Street of Dreams and overwrought There Was a Time. Bloat results elsewhere as Rose's studio rat-packing brings a brass band, choirs, hip-hop rhythms, movie dialogue and snippets of Martin Luther King Jr. into the mix. And his tech fixation buries GNR's former menacing grit and swagger under ProTools and digital editors.

Okay--USA today still gives the album 3 stars (of 4) which isn't bad. Don't see how TWAT is overwrought though...great song, my God that's a great fucking song...

But I really wonder if authors like that guy even have a slight recognition of the irony in calling Axl or his music pretentious when they write articles that try so hard to be clever, witty and brilliant with their pot shots (and fall way short of the mark)

That's Stephen Thomas Erlewine in a nutshell. Even his name is pretentious.

[sandman]

The New York Times review is worthless and should be avoided at all costs.

Jon Pareles reviewing anything Guns N' Roses carries about as much credibility as a Sean Hannity biography of Barack Obama.

Complete garbage.

Bingo. Cleary the newspaper has an agenda. and for anyone that forgets (or wasn't born yet), here's a little refresher....

(Rolling Stone Interview)

When you were in New York recently, you took offense at a review Jon Pareles wrote in the 'New York Times' and invited him to come onstage to talk about it. (Pareles, reviewing a December G n' R show at Madison Square Garden, described the audience as "oddly restrained." Pareles was invited to come to the following night's show and "tell the crowd why they weren't having a good time.")

I was actually just going to sit down and talk. I wasn't going to make him look like an ass.

Still, he would've been walking into a minefield. No matter what he said, they'd boo him and cheer you.

He didn't have the balls to stand behind what he wrote, and he got exposed.

A lot of people would say that in inviting him to talk about that on your turf, you were the one who didn't have the balls. Why didn't you call him and talk about it personally on neutral territory?

I'm not gonna make the New York Times any more money. It was an obnoxious piece. It was shit journalism. He could've written: "I didn't like the show, personally. I think they suck." Okay, fine. Cool. You can think we suck, and I can think you're an asshole. But don't just try to make it look like nobody enjoyed it.

Couldn't he have been just calling it like he saw it?

Then that's a person with some severe fucking personal problems, and he has no business being there writing about our show. It's a different crowd at a G n' R show now than it used to be. He didn't understand it. Most people that have been into G n' R for years don't understand it, but they can feel it. Having a nice time is weird for people that don't have nice times in their lives. When you don't really know what a nice time is, a nice time is for pussies.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

That's Stephen Thomas Erlewine in a nutshell. Even his name is pretentious.

Oh yeah.  I mean his name sounds like something that was tossed out when the Family Guy writers were trying to come up with names for the writers of the New Yorker (none of whom have an anus)

[ShotgunBlues1978]

The New York Times review is worthless and should be avoided at all costs.

Jon Pareles reviewing anything Guns N' Roses carries about as much credibility as a Sean Hannity biography of Barack Obama.

Complete garbage.

Bingo. Cleary the newspaper has an agenda. and for anyone that forgets (or wasn't born yet), here's a little refresher....

(Rolling Stone Interview)

When you were in New York recently, you took offense at a review Jon Pareles wrote in the 'New York Times' and invited him to come onstage to talk about it. (Pareles, reviewing a December G n' R show at Madison Square Garden, described the audience as "oddly restrained." Pareles was invited to come to the following night's show and "tell the crowd why they weren't having a good time.")

I was actually just going to sit down and talk. I wasn't going to make him look like an ass.

Still, he would've been walking into a minefield. No matter what he said, they'd boo him and cheer you.

He didn't have the balls to stand behind what he wrote, and he got exposed.

A lot of people would say that in inviting him to talk about that on your turf, you were the one who didn't have the balls. Why didn't you call him and talk about it personally on neutral territory?

I'm not gonna make the New York Times any more money. It was an obnoxious piece. It was shit journalism. He could've written: "I didn't like the show, personally. I think they suck." Okay, fine. Cool. You can think we suck, and I can think you're an asshole. But don't just try to make it look like nobody enjoyed it.

Couldn't he have been just calling it like he saw it?

Then that's a person with some severe fucking personal problems, and he has no business being there writing about our show. It's a different crowd at a G n' R show now than it used to be. He didn't understand it. Most people that have been into G n' R for years don't understand it, but they can feel it. Having a nice time is weird for people that don't have nice times in their lives. When you don't really know what a nice time is, a nice time is for pussies.

Wow, that puts a whole new spin on it for me

[FunkyMonkey]

http://www.chartattack.com/reviews/63018/chinese-democracy-totally-worth-it

Let's cut through the bullshit right off the top: Chinese Democracy is the second-best album to have the Guns N' Roses moniker on it. Fourteen years, $13 million, Slash, Izzy and Duff were all lost in the making of Chinese Democracy, and you know what? It was totally worth it.

Axl Rose may be the most divisive musician of our time, but you can't argue with his one-in-a-billion voice, which is in full effect throughout Democracy. The snarly "Welcome To The Jungle," the she-devil scream, the soulful "November Rain" voice? Yeah, they're all here, and then some.

Chinese Democracy is too god-damn necessary. At some point, rockers stopped dreaming of making Led Zeppelin IV or The Replacements' Tim and settled for making generic critic-proof boredom that can be toured on.

Keep screaming for the heavens, Axl. I'll be there. Just give me the next album sooner, please.

He liked it. 

[Tynia]

Don't know if I should put it here, but there is whole article about Axl with some vintage and up-to-date pics in Polish weekly mag called "Przekr?j" entitled: "Thorny Rose" subtile: "Axl Rose - the last real rock star is coming back". The most interesting is the last short paragraph saying about Dr. Pepper joke on G N'R and now giving away the free soda: "They underrated Axl. Or maybe we all didn't appreciate him? Maybe general Rose played with us a strategic game for life? He waited Kurt Coabain and hip-hop to pass, gave us time to get borred with Thom York and neo-rock youngsters without a face, he let us to understand, that eventhough rock idols used to annoy us, but we can't live without them. And he kindly came back". 

[frankovc]

Greetings to all;
Like u guys I have been a GNR fan since I was in my mom's womb.

I always enter here and read the board before getting to work, but I never have time to write.
But NOW I HAVE TIME, and I am mad!!! If you go to the Perez Hilton webpage he is talking sh@#%t Chinese Democracy saying that it's getting only bad reviews.  We need to send him emails about all the good reviews it's getting, cuz the only one he shows is the one in the NYTIMES

[bazgnr]

USA Today just posted the following review:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2008-11-20-guns-roses-democracy_N.htm

 
 By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
The nervy, enthralling thickets of hard-rock riffola and cascades of wrathful pain will come as no surprise to Guns N' Roses fans. The biggest shocker is that Chinese Democracy (* * * out of four) is here at all after 15 years, 14 studios and an estimated $13 million.
Erratic r?sum? aside, much of the 71-minute album, due Sunday at Best Buy and iTunes, packs an undeniable wallop. Axl Rose's feral yowl remains potent and pliable. Though the futuristic industrial sound he once promised is in short supply, he leans heavily on synthesizers, samples and machined beats without abandoning metallic rock drama, especially in convulsive guitar wig-outs. Such hyperactive bashers as Shackler's Revenge and the title track recall GNR splendor, and Rose displays a nimble contemporary touch in techno-poppy If the World.

Chinese sags when Rose indulges melodramatic tendencies in the cheeseball Street of Dreams and overwrought There Was a Time. Bloat results elsewhere as Rose's studio rat-packing brings a brass band, choirs, hip-hop rhythms, movie dialogue and snippets of Martin Luther King Jr. into the mix. And his tech fixation buries GNR's former menacing grit and swagger under ProTools and digital editors. Lyrics? Rants from a hothead narcissist shut-in, bristling with paranoia and spite. Rose conjures magic in a studio, but it's a suffocating lifestyle.

[axlroselegend]

My own review is all the matters people and this album is Awesome!
It is great to see good reviews and all but once Axl (the artist) is happy enough to put record out and I as a fan love the record...i am made up man...Love it
Not going to let any negativity bring me down, i'll defend this album to the hills

Chinese Democracy is a winner in my book.

[neuby87]

the most beutiful album I have ever heard...Period!!! My favs...Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye, There Was A Time, Sorry, and Shacklers Revenge...ahhh every damn song is amazing   

[Continental Drift]

Greetings to all;
Like u guys I have been a GNR fan since I was in my mom's womb.

I always enter here and read the board before getting to work, but I never have time to write.
But NOW I HAVE TIME, and I am mad!!! If you go to the Perez Hilton webpage he is talking sh@#%t Chinese Democracy saying that it's getting only bad reviews.  We need to send him emails about all the good reviews it's getting, cuz the only one he shows is the one in the NYTIMES

YES. Absolutely flood his board with posts and the Rolling Stone review- if nothing else- to influence the people that read that board. Forget about Perez personally though- he's a lost cause who has decided that he gets more attention for cutting on Axl than praising him (and he's probably right unfortunately). Anyway, the reviews are basically running at a ratio of 5 or 6 to 1 in terms of positive v. negative- so Perez is obviously divorced from reality- or pressing his own agenda.

[SLCPUNK]

Please, lets not harass people/boards who may have different opinions, it's embarrassing.