Chinese Democracy HTGTH member reviews

[Buddha_Master]

If the World ----should of been the James Bond theme song for Quantum Solace!!!!!!

I was disappointed with QOS. I loved Casino Royale, and would argue it is the best Bond film. If The World is too good for QOS.

I didn't get a chance to see the new bond movie. I really did like Casino Royale. I suggested The World because it has that James Bond element in it as far as the music. Was the bond movie that bad???

Oh I totally agree. It definitely has a Bond feel. Its too bad that shit White/Alicia Keys song was used. That "Whoawhoawhoaa wowowhoa part" makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The visuals for this sequence was shit too. Royale's was nice and trippy. Anyway yea. I still think Craig is the best bond and his motivations were cool. It had some cool moments but I can't stand quick cut editing shaky cam like that last Bourne movie. Casino was just better in every way. Should have been the same director. The story was whogivesashit (other then maybe setting up something cool for the next one), pretty whogivesashit villain, and shit directing. 

[gilee7]

GNR should make a music video for "If the World" where Axl is dressed like Bond and running around shooting bad guys and stuff.

[Izzy]

Rather than rate or rank or compare or try and quantify how good the album is...

...i'm just going to listen to it instead

Does it really matter if its better or worse than AFD, i judge it on its own merits rather than how it stands up next to another album

Do i love it? Yes

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

If the World ----should of been the James Bond theme song for Quantum Solace!!!!!!

I was disappointed with QOS. I loved Casino Royale, and would argue it is the best Bond film. If The World is too good for QOS.

I didn't get a chance to see the new bond movie. I really did like Casino Royale. I suggested The World because it has that James Bond element in it as far as the music. Was the bond movie that bad???

Oh I totally agree. It definitely has a Bond feel. Its too bad that shit White/Alicia Keys song was used. That "Whoawhoawhoaa wowowhoa part" makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The visuals for this sequence was shit too. Royale's was nice and trippy. Anyway yea. I still think Craig is the best bond and his motivations were cool. It had some cool moments but I can't stand quick cut editing shaky cam like that last Bourne movie. Casino was just better in every way. Should have been the same director. The story was whogivesashit (other then maybe setting up something cool for the next one), pretty whogivesashit villain, and shit directing. 

I think (I may be wrong but I noticed this) that all Bond movies are made that way. They focus on one and do a superb job than the follow-up is less interesting. This goes back all the way to the beginning of Bond making. Dr. No (the first one) is excellent. Than came With Russia with love which was o.k. Than Goldfinger came out and it was great. I agree with you the first song "You know my name" was excellent!!!
Anyhow........the new G&R cd is great!!! I checked the Billboard charts it's not there yet but it just been released. I hope this cd knocks out all of those non-rock cds out of the ocean. The album is the only great thing that happen this year aside from the other releases of AC-DC; Metallica; Motley Crue.....everything else is .......well............I'm sure you can read my mind on that.....: )

[Rhino]

2006/07 tour no album
2008 Album no tour (so far)
whats goin on I know people who bought the album and are like lets go see them when are they coming to Halifax or Toronto ect....

no one knows.

anyway the album couldnt possibly be any better...now lets hear it live.

[Dickeye]

2008 - Album
2009 - Tour

 

[thesloth]

First off they are short a guitar player.  SO they need to get that figured out.  Then they need to start booking venues ect.  That will not happen until next year.  Also who knows what is in the works it takes lots of time to plan tours it is not just a lets do it now sort of thing.  ACDC had being rehearsing for months before the tour was announced. 

[MrMojoRa]

I'm guessing Spring next year.

[audjon]

First off they are short a guitar player.  SO they need to get that figured out.  Then they need to start booking venues ect.  That will not happen until next year.  Also who knows what is in the works it takes lots of time to plan tours it is not just a lets do it now sort of thing.  ACDC had being rehearsing for months before the tour was announced. 

Particularly in GN'R world 

[dont_damn_me]

After listening to CD non stop since last thur i'm ready to post my review. It took a while to digest the album and destcribe my feelings, but heres how i feel in short.

I love IRS, my fav. rocker, classic gnr!!  Sorry,Prosititute, Streat of Dreams(the Blues), This i love, Madagascar, and There was a Time are axl masterpieces!...(There was time being the lesser of my favs, but guitars and production are amazing in it)  Better rocks, Catther in the Rye has a single feel to it....Riad and Scraped are good rockers,same with Chineese Dem....Shaklers is a heavy tune especially near the end, i could see this in a movie with some kind of horror situation!!....kicks ass.......If the World has a different vibe for the ablum, another big improvment from the leak, a really cool tune once it grows on you....overall, great album and will go down as a classic....9/10 stars.

[damnthehaters]

I truly enjoy this album!  It feels to me that there are a lot of people out there that just can't get over the fact that the original band isn't all together, or the fact that this album doesn't sound anything like Appetite.  I would encourage people to get past that and listen to this album with an open mind.  Does it have 14 great songs on it?  No, but what album even has half that many great songs on it?  I personally think two songs are phenominal in Better and This I Love.  I think these songs have a chance to be a really big success in mainstream. And then there is another six songs that I enjoy listening to, about three that are mediocre for me, and only three that come across as bad.  When you come across an album that has 11 songs on it that are worthy of listening to, I believe that is a great record.  I think in time, after more promotion, and given fair listens, this album will become a years best and ultimately one of the great records of this decade.  In just about every review that you read, the writer lists different favorites from the review before.  To me, that means good things.

[Jessica]

I finally had time to buy it and only listen to it since last night, i also put in in MP3 player.

I am over the moon with this album, it is music with a big M.

With some of the old line up's songs, it was like " i did this in my garage in 5 seconds" and musically speaking, it was cacophony.

Now, THIS Chin Dem is work, it is absolutely beautiful, varied, worked.

I'm not going to go into each song in this thread, but This I Love has taken me to the deepest of my self, emotions, it is such a beautiful song that i cry on my own when i hear it and have a hard time not to when people are around in public transports.

On this  song alone, and i am not saying this because it's axl, it is THE most beautiful song i heard in a very long time, if not ever.

The price i paid for this album is not high compared to the quality of the music i got in return.

Guys, you are IT.

[Donner]

Probably like many fans of the old lineup who haven't been following the progress over the creation of CD over the years, I was a bit apprehensive about it at first.  I actually didn't care for it at all after the first 2 listens.  HOWEVER, this album really clicked for me around listen 3 or so, and I haven't stopped loving it since.  Sure, it's different than the preceeding Gn'R albums, yet at the same time feels familiar.  Not sure if that makes any sense, especially since all of these songs are brand new to me.

Anyway, here's how I'd rate the tunes-

Chinese Democracy - 8/10
Shackler's Revenge - 6/10
Better - 9.5/10
Street of Dreams - 10/10
If the World - 8/10
There Was a Time - 9/10
Catcher in the Rye - 8.5/10
Scraped - 8/10
Riad N' The Bedouins - 10/10
Sorry - 10/10
I.R.S. - 9/10
Madgascar - 8/10
This I Love - 10/10
Prostitute - 10/10

[otgm]

3/5. Better, There Was A Time, Catcher In The Rye, Street Of Dreams and Sorry are solid songs but the rest is sub-par. Hence only 3/5... too much filler. Shackler's Revenge, Scraped and Riad 'n' The Bedouins are just downright bad.

[irishtwilight]

To me it sounds like Use Your Illusion meets Modern Rock.
Which if the album had been put out in the 90's or hell even
2002 one would have a whole different outlook on it. That
said the album is an Axl Rose solo-album for sure done under
the GNR name. He would have been better off calling it the
Axl Rose Project or something, but whatever, the bigger problem
here is that after 13 years how could these be the best songs he
could come up with? There is not one great song in the bunch!!
That said I don't hate the album or anything. I do really like the
3 (4,5,6) guitar attack throughout, especially when Buckethead
is leading the charge. Plus, Brain is the best drummer that GNR
has ever had (I really liked the 2002 GNR line-up).
More to come ....

[veritas55]

My thoughts:

Overall, some great songs that are often buried by, yup, too much production.  It's as if Axl had to cram every available track and space with instrumentation, particularly guitar licks.  The problem with that is that you need contrast and open spaces in songs at times.  Many of these songs are so densely packed that it is almost exhausting to listen to the entire album all the way through.  I honestly think stripping back on the overdubs would have revealed even greater songs.  Still, I admire the ambition, the uniqueness of what he was trying to do.  I just think he lost a bit of the value of song structure by cramming so much into the songs -- it made them leaden, at times.  Sometimes less is more. 

1. Chinese Democracy.    Love the intro, the build-up, and the sound of the guitars.  Bumblefoot's little added riff in the verses has grown on me, but I liked the more stripped-down leaked version where it was just drums, bass, and Pitman's little tinkling keyboard effect.  Again, that relative silence created a great contrast for the guitars screaming in during the chorus.  Love Finck's initial solo tone.


2.  Shackler's.   I really like the chorus and the drumming is epic on it.  The heavy industrial effects are unnecessary. 

3.  Better.   Probably one of the best songs on CD, not only because it is catchy and well-written, but the production is a little less heavy-handed.  There are not a zillion riffing guitars underneath every verse.  The falsetto part is really great and different.

4.  Street of Dream.  I still think the way he sang it live in Vegas in 2001 was better.  But the strings are really good, the guitar solo is good, and the song is solid.  The Blues remains the better title.

5.  If the World.    Very cool sounding song -- beautifully produced.   Again, there are contrasts and gaps in the wall of sound, which opens up the song.  Have to say that this is the only song where I don't particularly like Axl's vocals -- to my ear at least, they sound almost too grating and too forceful for what could be a gentler song.  Just personal preference.

6.  There Was A Time.   I think this is a highlight song.  Great lyrics on this one and an epic, other-worldly great guitar solo by Buckethead (who is neck-and-neck with Axl as the star of CD).  Fantastic orchestration.  I should mention the lyrics again because CD is surprisingly weak in lyrics compared to what Axl has done in the past.  Think of the lyrics to Coma, Locomotive, Estranged, Sweet Child - -he has written some amazing lines, but I didn't find as many in CD.

7.  Catcher in the Rye.  Now THIS is the one song where the final production really hurt the song, in my view.  I don't care so much about May being gone (although his tone and tasteful solo was better).  But the vocal effects and Beatle-esque sound effects in the verses are lost with layers of guitar.  However, the real crime is the mixing on the last set of verses, which have not only beautiful lyrics but were sung so greatly by Axl.  Now, bumblefoot's riffs almost drown out Axl's singing and I think they really detract from what should be the focus at the end: that great final melody, with those words, as sung by Axl.  I would take the demo version ten times over this one.  My final beef is that I preferred the synth break in the demo over the final version.  The one improvement is that the "la la la"s portions have a neat vocal effect on them and they sound better.

8.  Scraped.  Sorry, this does nothing for me and felt like filler.

9.  Riad and the Bedouins.  I liked it.  He sings his ass of on this one.  Not a "classic" but solid.

10.  Sorry.  This is a great song.  Again, note how the production is a lot less heavy-handed on this and so there is that great contrast between the openness of the Pink Floyd-y verses and the intensity of the guitars on the chorus.   Another highlight.

11.  IRS.  Not as big of fan of this one and Frank's drumming (I think) as the demo, which I thought had something a little more unusual going on in the song with the acoustic guitar and Pitman's weird effects.  It's become more of a mainstream "rocker" which is fine, but I like Axl's early attempts to do something a little more odd with this song.

12. Madagascar.  I just can't get into these raw vocals.  I completely understand why they fit the song and what he is going for, but they are just too raw for me to enjoy the song the way I did when I first heard the live versions.  I also think the sampling idea with the beats is great, but choosing so much MLK is an odd choice, and doesn't work for me.  His voice and those speeches represent something iconic and different from what Axl is seeking to do here.  When I first heard this song live, I thought it would be an epic, classic song, but it just quite didn't reach that level of perfection in the studio.

13.  This I Love.  Ugh.  I frankly think this one is embarrassing and fairly awful.  I understand what he was trying to do, but there is no room for error when doing a song like this.  The lyrics could be from a Celine Dion song.  It just didn't work for me.  Axl baring his soul worked on Estranged, but not here.

14.  Prostitute.  Surprisingly, probably my favorite song.  I LOVE Brain's drumming on this one, and (yes here it comes again), the contrasts in the song between the verses and the chorus.  I wish the piano was a little more upfront in the verses, but the orchestration is great and it sounds and feels "big."  The whitewash, synth outro is fantastic and a great way to conclude the album.  This and TWAT are probably the songs that gave me the clearest sense of where Axl was heading with CD -- the modern hard rock sound he was looking for.  This one sounds unique: heavy AND light. 

Overall, I think Better, TWAT, Sorry and Prostitute are really excellent songs.  I think IRS, Shacklers, Street of Dreams, If the World, and Chinese Democracy are very good songs.  I think Riad, Catcher (the way it's mixed here), and Madagascar are good songs.   And I think Scraped and This I love are "not good" songs.

[kingcanute]

veritas55: That was a killer review, for me the best one.

With so many different opinions on this album in here, I cannot say how surprisingly well your opinions match my own on this album. Not 100 per cent, but still. I haven't heard the demo of CITR, but I want to now ... because I think it's one of the best written songs on the album. That part when the chorus starts to set in really gives me shivers down the spine, and as much as I listen to music every day, that rarely happens anymore. Interesting that you and others seem to prefer the mixing of the demo, so I hope I get the chance to listen to it one day.

[veritas55]

Thanks Kingcanute, I appreciate it.  Obviously, everyone has their own view, and I respect that.

Do check out the leak of Catcher (I think it's somewhat "okay" now that the final product is out, and we all bought it!).  I suspect you will like it substantially more if you agreed with my concerns on the final mix.  Specifically, I think that last stanza of verses ("on an ordinary day") are really beautifully written and sung on the demo, and they stood out as being one of the highlights of the song.  To my ears, listening to the final mix, I feel like I am fighting with Ron's guitar licks, which are mixed so loud, to hear Axl's singing and words, and it just kills it for me.  I suppose if I had not heard the early version this wouldn't be so grating, but it really is once you have heard the earlier version.  To me, that one sequence in this song is emblematic of the overall issue that have with CD:  it's overkill (at times) with the guitar licks literally covering every open moment between lyrics (and sometimes over lyrics), and in this instance it squashes some of the beauty of the song.  Moreover, on the demo you also had this very cool sounding organ over the verses when they kick in, more keyboards throughout, and a different, almost spacey synth for the middle break (rather than the more orchestral sounding synth break currently).  You also had a lot less guitars mixed in (surprise, surprise).  And the "guess I'd have more fun . . . la la la la la" part had a great Beatles effect that is much less pronounced now.  The end result was a song that clearly was an homage to a Beatles/ John Lennon tune (appropriately enough) and was really beautiful, and unusual in its instrumentation.  I still think it's a good song, but, my god, it is just bloated with tracks that I feel like I have to swim through them to get to the underlying vocal melody -- which is very strong and should be the highlight of song, no?

To be honest, I would have loved to hear this album before the last-minute additions of Ron and Frank.  Although Ron did add some cool things, he also seems to have added a million licks between verses in songs, which just clutter the songs up a lot.   And although I like Ron a lot, he simply is not Buckethead -- to my ears, there is a marked difference in the quality of soloing and what Buckethead adds to CD versus Ron.  Buckethead adds an almost ethereal, other-world-like sound that brings a whole new dimension to the songs -- makes them seem epic and "new" sounding.  Ron sounds mostly like just conventional (but very good) shredding.  And Brain cannot be improved on, frankly. 

[mrgnrdvd]

Chinese Democracy - 9/10
Shackler's Revenge - 8/10
Better - 9/10
Street of Dreams - 9/10
If the World - 8/10
There Was a Time - 9/10
Catcher in the Rye - 8/10
Scraped - 8/10
Riad N' The Bedouins - 8/10
Sorry -8/10
I.R.S. -8/10
Madgascar - 9/10
This I Love - 8/10
Prostitute - 9/10


overall 8/10

Great album

love it more everytime i listen to it

Hope this better

Axl sounds great and can't wait for the 2009 north american tour

[Spirit]

Perfect review man, you basically expressed most of my own thoughts about the album and these songs! Very well written!

Great job Spirit!  One of the best reviews yet, to include any written by "official" critics.

Well, thank you! 

I must say, this must be the easiest review I've ever written. Going almost two weeks since I've got the album, it has only grown bigger, meaner and more beautiful at the same time. What I really love about this, is the fact that I (still) have no definite favourite song, it keeps changing by the day.

At this minute (and I mean minute ): RIAD N' THE BEDOUINS