What is it people fail to understand about Chinese Democracy?

[Bodhi]

Subjectively, no one can consider it "alright to pretty good". No way. The songs are on a level that no other bands out there today puts out, and the production is flawless and so is the band.

How is the production flawless?  have you not heard the skip on Scraped? 

Dont get me wrong, i love the albumn.  But the production isnt flawless.

are you kidding me?  This is one of the "busiest" rock albums I have ever heard in my life, with all the things that are going on at once, and it was mastered perfectly.  You hear EVERYTHING and it's not  mess.  Pretty hard to pull that off. The production on this thing is top notch.

[The Catcher]

Anyone who complains about the production on CD is retarded...
That shit is not open for subjective opinion.

[oldgunsfan]

Anyone who complains about the production on CD is retarded...
That shit is not open for subjective opinion.

out of all the complaints that I've heard about this album; the production/mastering was not one of them, in fact, even in the most criticle reviews, the production/mastering was always praised

[faldor]

Anyone who complains about the production on CD is retarded...
That shit is not open for subjective opinion.

out of all the complaints that I've heard about this album; the production/mastering was not one of them, in fact, even in the most criticle reviews, the production/mastering was always praised

I've heard plenty of people complain about the production.  Not in official reviews, but by "fans".

[Limulus]

there cant be any real reason to bash CD production quality. any audiophile would praise what has been done during that stage. complaints could only be other issues f.e. writingwise, complexity (all the layers) and probably some other views about the mixing (guitars could be little louder, voice little lower at points) but there is about nothing to come up against the production quality in general. its absolutely not the new metallica album suffering big time with overcompression and clicking allover <- those are serious problems in a production. also remember there were 3 final production mixes given to the Axl camp and it was decided to use the version with the lowest compression being used leading to full dynamics....which is some kinda erection for audiphiles these days! regarding the production quality they knew what they wanted/did!

thanks for that!!

[sandman]

people arent' "failing to understand" anything.

no promotion by Axl himself. plain and simple.

[peter7411226]

people arent' "failing to understand" anything.

no promotion by Axl himself. plain and simple.

I agree. You cant expect an album to be huge on name recognition alone. Especially in this day and age where you can download stuff illegally. For an album to be huge you have to work very hard. The huge bands (I.E: AC/DC , Metallica) all know this and do the media rounds as well as tour behind there albums. In essence you get what you give.

[Gargh!]

I think you can dislike the production.  It's not that it's sloppy, but I think most songs there's too much going on.  It's not shiny or manipulated vocals kind of overproduced, but it does feel a little suffocating at times.

For what it's worth, I think it's a really good album - but could have been a better one if certain songs were cut from it.

[D]

CD = great on a good sound system


Sounds great on my Ipod with earbuds also

[oldgunsfan]

CD = great on a good sound system

Sounds great on my Ipod with earbuds also

before CD came out, i only heard the songs off my laptop's shitty stock speakers

when it came out, I got to hear t on a proper sterio system and it sounds amazing

[Shutupandsing]

green day promoted their album with videos, in store signings, special shows, etc. Axl did not. Promotion, if done right, can go a long way. Also, I don't think anyone outside of the GN'R message board would ever consider it to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time, not to start shit or anything, but most people seem to think it is "alright" to "pretty good".

Subjectively, no one can consider it "alright to pretty good". No way. The songs are on a level that no other bands out there today puts out, and the production is flawless and so is the band. It's not possible that the GN'R message board community can deem it to be an amazing record and the rest of the world does not. Look at Rolling Stone's review. It was on point, and so were a lot of other reviews. The bias in the media can't explain it all and neither can the lack of promotion. It' something else.

It raised the bar on what can be considered Rock Music imo, and the backlash is a public shame on their part that Axl didn't go whore himself out to promote the album. Remember they have been force fed shit from the alumni for a long time.

[Shutupandsing]

Considering the fallacious rumors and pictures the "Alumni" painted, Do you consider that this effectively
hampered sales to this juncture? Due to the non-cooperation of the label to assist, and the fact that
nobody went out and media-whored this Album,along with the momumental (gag) cardboard display at best buy- what combinations kept this Album out of the number 1 spot? It is definantely head and shoulders above the cesspool of "rock", so was it this combination of things, all bad within themselves,that kept the album out of #1? I realize it took AFD a year to make it, before anyone brings that up. Opinions??

[D]

I mean if u are listening to CD on two crappy computer speakers, I'd say the production will be shitty

BUT

I got one of those really cheap 20 dollar CD players with the built in speakers, really stock and it even sounds good on that.

[Bodhi]

I mean if u are listening to CD on two crappy computer speakers, I'd say the production will be shitty

nope, its still good...

[ppbebe]

the media is biased for sure but I don't think the rest of the world is against the band.  

I've seen many blogs phrasing the album.  the GN'R message board community alone wouldn't make the 3 million and counting worldwide sales.

plus have the general public ever been supportive to the 'most dangerous' band? Really?

It raised the bar on what can be considered Rock Music imo,

True. maybe that's why most critics can't review it properly.

[peter7411226]

Considering the fallacious rumors and pictures the "Alumni" painted, Do you consider that this effectively
hampered sales to this juncture? Due to the non-cooperation of the label to assist, and the fact that
nobody went out and media-whored this Album,along with the momumental (gag) cardboard display at best buy- what combinations kept this Album out of the number 1 spot? It is definantely head and shoulders above the cesspool of "rock", so was it this combination of things, all bad within themselves,that kept the album out of #1? I realize it took AFD a year to make it, before anyone brings that up. Opinions??

First off its not whoring yourself. If a label puts in x amount of money ( in this case 15 million which has been reported), shouldnt you be responsible for doing your part to make the record sell? The artists part doesnt end after the recording is over. You sign a contract with a label and certain things are expected of you. Its a business. You get what you give. Second: really are you gonna blame the alumni now for the hampered sales? Cmon really. It comes down to lack of promotion. Save for the die hards like us most people around the world still think that the old members are still in the band. Theyve never taken pics of the new band and dont even say who's officially in the band. By the way all of us who work jobs and get paid to do something are whores.

[peter7411226]

Considering the fallacious rumors and pictures the "Alumni" painted, Do you consider that this effectively
hampered sales to this juncture? Due to the non-cooperation of the label to assist, and the fact that
nobody went out and media-whored this Album,along with the momumental (gag) cardboard display at best buy- what combinations kept this Album out of the number 1 spot? It is definantely head and shoulders above the cesspool of "rock", so was it this combination of things, all bad within themselves,that kept the album out of #1? I realize it took AFD a year to make it, before anyone brings that up. Opinions??

Also...In terms of AFD: They worked there asses off promoting that album. Touring , "media whoring" themselves, essentially getting there faces out there and getting noticed. If they dont start to do the same with CD it will be forgotten quickly by the world except us. And its a shame because its a good album.

[ppbebe]

Save for the die hards like us most people around the world still think that the old members are still in the band.

Anyone who thinks that doesn't know who are the old members, I imagine.

[peter7411226]

Save for the die hards like us most people around the world still think that the old members are still in the band.

Anyone who thinks that doesn't know who are the old members, I imagine.

Yeah, but my point is that the new band hasnt really been given the exposure they deserve.

[Bodhi]

Save for the die hards like us most people around the world still think that the old members are still in the band.

Anyone who thinks that doesn't know who are the old members, I imagine.

not always..there are just casual rock fans out there, the ones in their 30's and 40's who have kids and a busy life who can't keep up with the band like we do.  They just ASSUME that Slash is in the band since it has the name Guns N Roses on it.  These are also the same people who have no idea "Chinese Democracy" came out. The amount of people I meet who have no idea the album even came out is disturbing...