Chinese Democracy Review Thread

[Continental Drift]

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

Disagree. Different opinions are fine. We should stick up for Axl and the band though against those that have some sort of vested interest in seeing him fail and use their influence to the best of their abilities to make it happen. Pareles for sure qualifies under that category... and Perez Hilton is running a close 2nd.

This album only gets released once. If the general public decides to take a pass on their own... fine. It would be a shame to see it get de-railed by non-objective douche bags with an axe to grind though.

Just my opinion.

[badapple81]

Quite simply:

The album is beautiful, awesome.

It's to 10 years worth in my opinion. But I don't think it has been worked on for 10 years straight. Let's keep that in mind. It's been a drawn out process getting it done, legal issues, replacing members throughout etc. So I don't think it should be reviewed in terms of it's strength vs time.

The lyrics are unforgettable and just beautiful, particulary This I Love and Prostitute. I haven't quite made my mind up yet but my gut feeling is that the music doesn't quite stand up to the lyrics on those tracks. Of course it's early days.

Better, There Was A Time.. all just epic, beautiful tracks.

[badapple81]

I've already changed my mind on This I Love. The music is simpler than I imagined but compliments the beautiful lyrics and Axl's soft voice just perfectly.

[Eazy E]

USA Today (3 out of 4 stars):

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

Ali

Skip:  "There Was A Time"

....

Are you KIDDING ME?!?!?!

[Continental Drift]

I've already changed my mind on This I Love. The music is simpler than I imagined but compliments the beautiful lyrics and Axl's soft voice just perfectly.

"This I Love" is vintage Guns N' Roses. That's one of the primary tracks that destroys the argument that this is NOT a Guns N' Roses album IMHO (with help from "Catcher In The Rye", "Street of Dreams" and "Prostitute"). Those tracks are the thread that reaches back to the Illusions disks. Axl pulled it off. This is not only a great album... it's a great "Guns N' Roses" album in every sense.

[badapple81]

I've already changed my mind on This I Love. The music is simpler than I imagined but compliments the beautiful lyrics and Axl's soft voice just perfectly.

"This I Love" is vintage Guns N' Roses. That's one of the primary tracks that destroys the argument that this is NOT a Guns N' Roses album IMHO (with help from "Catcher In The Rye", "Street of Dreams" and "Prostitute"). Those tracks are the thread that reaches back to the Illusions disks. Axl pulled it off. This is not only a great album... it's a great "Guns N' Roses" album in every sense.

You have nailed it.

The variety and the extremes he takes this album too IS vintage Guns N' Roses, just as he/they did on UYI.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

The more I hear it, the more it hits me...this album is phenomenal. Been streaming it on MySpace most of the evening.

[NEWportTimbo]

Most casual fans of music who barley know GNR always view them through SCOM,Paradise City, and November Rain for the most part.  Because of that they listen to the album through those ears.

Some reviewers are not unlike those casual listeners...

Timbo

[badapple81]

I think casual listeners will enjoy tracks like Chinese Democracy, Street of Dreams and This I Love.

I can't stop calling it The Blues.. always have to correct myself and delete it!

[NEWportTimbo]

I think casual listeners will enjoy tracks like Chinese Democracy, Street of Dreams and This I Love.

I can't stop calling it The Blues.. always have to correct myself and delete it!
[/quote

I am still having a hard time getting into This I Love.  I am listening to it right now, and it is just hard for me to appreciate.  I guess I have to give it time.


Timbo

[NEWportTimbo]

well i screwed up my above post, but you get the idea...

[Eazy E]

Chinese Democracy has been added to www.metacritic.com which compiles reviews and provides a score for the album, right now it has a 60/100 (Mixed/Average - based on 6 reviews).

Edit - They also have artwork posted different from the bicycle picture, I thought the picture that's up there now was fan-made?

[Smoking Guns]

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

Agree.  They are non fans, we know the fans love it!  Getting positive reviews from non fans is awesome and that is what I want to read!  With that you will get some non positive stuff as well.  Who fucking cares. 

[Eazy E]

How fucking LAME is this review?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/09/guns-roses-axl-chinese-democracy
Imagine if 'Chinese Democracy' had never come to pass. Axl Rose would have retained an air of Machiavellian mystery and we would've remained complicit fall guys for the best joke played on the music industry. Now that this half-cocked hard rock anachronism is here, the only laughs are unintentional. Axl: you blew it.

... and that's it.

[D]

USA Today (3 out of 4 stars):

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

Ali

Skip:  "There Was A Time"

....

Are you KIDDING ME?!?!?!

If u read my detailed review, I have TWAT close to the bottom as well.

I don't get everyone's fascination with this song........Lyrically its the worst on the album till the outro, the solo is ok........ I think its been hugely overrated over the years........... the chorus really doesn't fit well with the music..............

Im not a huge fan of this song either and I have listened twice on Myspace whereas most other songs I have listened to about 10 times each cept for TWAT, Rhiad and IRS.

[Smoking Guns]

How fucking LAME is this review?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/09/guns-roses-axl-chinese-democracy
Imagine if 'Chinese Democracy' had never come to pass. Axl Rose would have retained an air of Machiavellian mystery and we would've remained complicit fall guys for the best joke played on the music industry. Now that this half-cocked hard rock anachronism is here, the only laughs are unintentional. Axl: you blew it.

... and that's it.

That kind of made me chuckle.... Its like now that the album is hear what the fuck are all of us going to do every day.... I will miss our anticipation, but I am so happy album is out now!

[duga]

Svenska Dagbladet: 4/6.

[badapple81]

First Australian review 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24684923-2902,00.html

November 21, 2008 12:00am

AFTER 15 years, the long-awaited album from Guns N'Roses is finally here, but does it live up to all the hype? Read the first Australian review of it here.

After 15 years, 14 recording studios and a reported $20 million budget, Axl Rose  is finally ready to release Guns N'Roses new album: Chinese Democracy.

The most expensive album in rock history hits stores today after being scheduled for release, then swiftly scrapped, each year for the last decade - becoming a long-running joke.

The laughs stop here: the unpunctual Axl Rose has somehow managed to pull it off.

The signs weren't good. Last year at Rod Laver Arena on the premature Chinese Democracy world tour Rose premiered messy, industrial rock songs that sent people off to the bar to wait for Sweet Child O'Mine and Patience.

But his revolving door of bandmates has provided new songwriting partners and new influences to enhance his kitchen-sink musical vision.

Where ex-bandmate Slash continues to peddle rock cliches with Velvet Revolver, here Rose injects everything from Spanish guitar to a touch of country to electronica into Guns N'Roses world - and it works.

His forte is still the bombastic rock epic - half the tracks here stretch past the five minute mark.

One of the best is the immense There Was a Time, - heavy strings, heavy guitar, heavy choir and who knows what else yet still a great tune set to thrill stadiums.

Street of Dreams has a touch of pomp of November Rain, a strong, string-soaked power ballad - the guitars wail, Axl wails over them.

If the World boasts the Flamenco guitar, while next single Bette provides the catchy radio-friendly hard rock moment the title track - it's the weakest moment here.

The melodramatic Catcher in the Rye displays Rose's love of Elton John, but with liberal guitar over the top, while Madagascar is simply over the top but all the better for it.

Rose vents about an ex on self-penned piano ballad This I Love, while Prostitute ends things in a suitably overblown way - he didn't rack up huge studio and orchestral bills for nothing.

However Rose hasn't gone totally soft. Scraped is wall to wall riffage and there's shredding metal guitars and Rose's Cookie Monster-style gruff vocals on Shackler's Revenge.

Axl Rose may have seriously tested his fan's patience but Chinese Democracy is a pretty fine payback - the kind of ambitious and shameless album rock bands just don't make these days.

[SLCPUNK]

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

Disagree. Different opinions are fine. We should stick up for Axl and the band though against those that have some sort of vested interest in seeing him fail and use their influence to the best of their abilities to make it happen.

There is no need to defend anybodies honor, this ain't the Karate Kid afterall...

[Continental Drift]

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

Disagree. Different opinions are fine. We should stick up for Axl and the band though against those that have some sort of vested interest in seeing him fail and use their influence to the best of their abilities to make it happen.

There is no need to defend anybodies honor, this ain't the Karate Kid afterall...

Not a question of honor... a question of truth and giving the casual fan a chance to navigate through agenda-driven reviews. We don't need to be dicks about it- Pareles and Hilton, personally, are lost causes- so we need not engage them directly. I don't see anything wrong with making a short post on their sites though alerting people that Rolling Stone, for example, gave the album 4 stars and that the album is NOT getting universally slammed as they would have their readers believe.

I agree though- sometimes these things can backfire and you come across looking even less objective than the writer- so "tone" is key.