Chinese Democracy Review Thread

[TWT]

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

Opinions are like arseholes. I'd like to investigate Angela Jolie's opinion more deeply.

[Red1]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/chinese-democracy-review-no-holds-barred-183692

The first really negative review I have read and very hard to read.

[Killingmachine]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/chinese-democracy-review-no-holds-barred-183692

The first really negative review I have read and very hard to read.

"This album is conclusive proof that Izzy Stradlin was the genuine songwriting talent in Guns N' Roses."

This sentence may be right, but I'd add, Izzy + Slash +Rose was the genuine talent in Guns n' Roses. On the other hand, Chinese Democracy it's no a AFD or Illusion III, but it s a great album anyway.

[wells]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/chinese-democracy-review-no-holds-barred-183692

The first really negative review I have read and very hard to read.

that review is just too fucking funny even to read ... amazing how people that try to be cool because of not liking it turn themselves to clowns in a single review ... not even worth 2,5 minutes of anyone's life ...

v. ..

[Red1]

What's frustrating is that one of the reviewers ML is the former long-standing editor of Guitarist Magazine - the most highly respected guitar magazine in the world - so you think he would be writing positive things about the guitar work.

The bit that slags off the TWAT solo almost made me choke!

[axe]

First they say:

"Three MusicRadar staffers (Chris Vinnicombe, Joe Bosso and Michael Leonard) listened to Chinese Democracy separately ? so as not to influence each other ? and these are our honest opinions of the world's most expensive album ever. We didn't compare opinions before writing."

And after that they use almost the same words and terms pretty much on every song. What a coincidence! How can one agree with another opinion when he hasn't compared opinions before writing his own?

[patcooper]

i think everyone should defend gnr and chinese democracy over at http://forum.gorillamask.net/forumdisplay.php?f=8
they have a chinese democracy thread there and the majority of posts are trashing gnr and the new record. i say join and post your great opinions about the greatest band in the world. i cant do it on my own.

[Death Cube K]

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/11/21/554975.html

Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet talks shit and gives it a 3/6

[Spirit]

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/11/21/554975.html

Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet talks shit and gives it a 3/6

Good to see that almost all comments from the readers at the bottom of the page are attacking the writer for doing a shitty review. After all, the people buying the record is the most important thing, and it seems like 99% are loving it.

[axe]

Finnish newspaper Iltalehti put a few local rock stars or "stars" to review the record. 5 was the maximum, and they all gave it 4+ to 5. However, all these guys are well-known Axl supporters. The paper also put their readers to vote: 33% gave it a full 5. http://www.iltalehti.fi/popstars/200811218627042_ps.shtml

[Death Cube K]

Good to see that almost all comments from the readers at the bottom of the page are attacking the writer for doing a shitty review. After all, the people buying the record is the most important thing, and it seems like 99% are loving it.

Db are a bunch of wankers. Always has been. They had their mind set about this album in 2002. They just had to fill in the blanks and publish it.

[Spirit]

Good to see that almost all comments from the readers at the bottom of the page are attacking the writer for doing a shitty review. After all, the people buying the record is the most important thing, and it seems like 99% are loving it.

Db are a bunch of wankers. Always has been. They had their mind set about this album in 2002. They just had to fill in the blanks and publish it.

Yeah, to paint a little picture of how serious they really are, they actually published a review of each of the leaks a while back with the headline "We've heard Chinese Democracy". Talk about misleading the public.

[Death Cube K]

Yeah, to paint a little picture of how serious they really are, they actually published a review of each of the leaks a while back with the headline "We've heard Chinese Democracy". Talk about misleading the public.

Funny when they read the RS article and said "the first review is......positive???"

They have always had to bullshit a few bands...GNR..Motley Crue...TNT...they give crap no matter what

[Dr. Blutarsky]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/chinese-democracy-review-no-holds-barred-183692

The first really negative review I have read and very hard to read.

I couldn't get thru even half of it.  Every sentence is negative, EVERY SENTENCE! Hardly objective. I think they had a bias before they heard it.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/11/21/554975.html

Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet talks shit and gives it a 3/6

 I don't know Norwegian, but if the review is that bad maybe that is a good thing. 

[Red1]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/chinese-democracy-review-no-holds-barred-183692

The first really negative review I have read and very hard to read.

I couldn't get thru even half of it.  Every sentence is negative, EVERY SENTENCE! Hardly objective. I think they had a bias before they heard it.

People need to register on there and post their opinion NOW.

[sandman]

Boston Herald. interesting stuff in here. he makes some good points.

Hell freezes over; ?Chinese Democracy? released

Guns N? Roses return is an Axl Rose coup

By Jed Gottlieb
Friday, November 21, 2008 -

Chinese Democracy (Geffen): A-

What are the dudes who said Guns N? Roses doesn?t work without Slash going to do now?

First things first. ?Chinese Democracy? is great - you can hear it right now as a free stream on MySpace [website] and buy it Sunday at BestBuy. It?s not ?Appetite for Destruction,? but it?s way more consistent than the bloated ?Use Your Illusions.?

Forget that we?ve chased the carrot of new G N? R tunes Axl Rose has cruelly dangled before us for 17 years. Forget that this is likely the most expensive album ever made at a reported $13 million. Forget that the cast from ?Appetite? is long gone. Just listen and you?ll hear the awesome opus Rose intended ?Illusion? to be. Because Slash, Izzy Stradlin and the rest ruined Rose?s vision of ?Illusion,? ?Chinese Democracy? is defined by their absence.

?Chinese Democracy? succeeds because Slash is missing. Slash fans need to face facts: the guitarist was never right for Rose (too much Joe Perry, not enough Brian May); post-?Appetite,? he?s consistently failed to capture his early mad-hatter-run-amok fury.

The guitarists on ?Chinese Democracy? - Buckethead, Bumblefoot, Richard Fortus, Robin Finck and Paul Tobias - use Slash?s dirty blues as a starting point but take it places G N? R?s iconic axe-man could never, and would never, want to go. And the results are wicked cool.

?I.R.S.? tilts between a gentle lilt and a classic ?Appetite? grind. Beneath the lilt are lyrical blues lines. Over the top of the grind are supernovas that reference Tom Morello, Yngwie Malmsteen, Vernon Reid and Slash, too. ?Scraped,? ?Better? and ?If the World,? all vaguely electronic, use this same approach: bursts of straight, lyrical rock guitar, bursts of fast, twisted notes that sound like they?re coming from a malfunctioning cyborg.

The absence you notice most is Stradlin.. G N? R?s second guitarist wrote the band?s straightest rock songs (?Patience,? ?Mr. Brownstone,? ?Think About You?). No Izzy means no good Stones? cops. And because Rose doesn?t do simple well without Stradlin, the weakest tracks on ?Chinese Democracy? are its most typical, specifically the title track and ?Shackler?s Revenge.?

But no Izzy means Rose is free to write what he wants: sagas equal to his best ?Illusion? experiments. Half of ?Chinese Democracy? consists of big, bold, piano-driven operettas directed at his old band mates, himself and his haters.

?Sometimes I feel like the world is on top of me/breaking me down with an endless monotony,? Rose sings on ?Scraped.? Then he adds, ?like a daily affirmation, I am unconquerable.?

So what?s Rose retained from his past life? His Queen fascination is in full bloom. His wicked yowls, howls and growls remain intact, and his obsession with ?Cool Hand Luke? has held - this time incongruously paired with Martin Luther King Jr?s ?I Have a Dream? sound bites and Kashmir-like strings on ?Madagascar.?

Oh, and there?s his ego. Now everybody knows Slash wasn?t the genius in the band.

Download the brooding, black, brilliantly un-?Appetite? tell-off, ?Sorry.?

jgottlieb@bostonherald.com

[mrarkadin]

Has anybody noticed that metacritic has some fake cover up for Chinese Democracy? I wonder if it's a mistake considering they've been a lot faster to put up negative reviews than the positive notices. This record has made me paranoid.

[Red1]

Not sure if it's been posted yet, but the reviewer in The Sun newspaper in the UK gave the album 2.5 / 5

[Olorin]

Looks like The Guardian has released a proper review, its an average review. 3 out of 5.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/21/guns-n-roses-chinese-democracy

I have to agree about the selection of songs sounding like a compilation album, its one of the first things I noticed.
 The sound levels seem to fluctuate occasionaly throughout the record, sometimes within a song. Its like they literally plucked 14 songs from the vault and just put them on the record, not taking time to master them as all whole. To my ear all the songs obviously have been mastered individually, at different times, perhaps by different people using different programs. I thought the final album mastering session would have disguised all that.