Guns N' Roses (Yes and Chinese Democracy, so don't make other threads on it.)

[The Bullet]

Originally Posted by Raust

I really like guns. It's to bad that Axl had to be a control freak and take the band into another direction. I'm not a fan of the 14 year project of Chinese Democracy. Apetite for Destruction - Use Your Illusion II is my favorite era from there music.

That where almost everything they did was released aside from a cover album that everyone hates, and an album that's barely them. It's almost a given that's your favorite era once you say you're not a fan of Chinese Democracy.

I think Chinese Democracy is a good album. It has a ton of filler and UYI2 and AFD were way better, but still. It's a grower, though.

[boo boo]

I think the Use Your Illusion albums are underrated. The rockers still rock, but I admit to liking their ballads. And I really love Estranged too and consider it one of the best songs the band ever did. I remember that being on some VH1 list of the worst rock ballads and some fatass bitched about it having a piano solo or whatever. Goddamn a worthless piece of sh*t network.

[boo boo]

I am currently downloading Chinese Democracy because curiosity finally got the best of me, I will give my opinions later.

Pray for me.

[boo boo]

Originally Posted by HereWeGo

i recomend appetite for destruction
i have it on my ipod and i listed to it all the time

Who are you recommending it to? Everyone ever has heard it.

[The Bullet]

Originally Posted by boo boo

I am currently downloading Chinese Democracy because curiosity finally got the best of me, I will give my opinions later.

Pray for me.

It's a real grower. Took until the 7th listen or so for me to really love it. Keep that in mind.

[boo boo]

Chinese Democracy track by track.

Title track: The ambience at the beginning is cool and the intro starts out somewhat promising but once the actual song kicks in I quickly realise what I had already suspected, that this is not only an Axl solo album not worthy of the GnR name but the fact that this album took forever to complete really shows because this sounds dated already even though its clearly an attempt to be more modern. It sounds like post grunge, blah.

Shackler's Revenge: What in the F*CK is this? That guitar riff at the beginning (Buckethead?) sounds rancid, now hes trying to be industrial and the results are unintentionally funny, but once you get to the chorus you realise that, no wait, this is post grunge still. NEXT.

Better: This one isn't so bad, it still sounds nu metaly/douche rock but at it has some decent hooks I guess.

Street Dreams: There's actually a nice melody going on here but I'm trying to wonder what the hell Axl is doing with his voice. However it starts out interestingly enough but once it gets to the chorus I've lost interest. Eh, not terrible but whatev.

If The World: Now hes trying to do some kind of acid jazz/Portishead kinda thing. But surprisingly I like this one just fine, its a good break from what the album has been so far, basic generic "rawk" that offers nothing new whatsoever and if it wasn't for Axl's vocals I would confuse it with the stuff all those post grunge bands put it out all the time. This one is decent though.

There Was a Time: Pretty bland, it starts out like a Linkin Park thing but then it goes back into more bland radio rock.

Catcher in the rye: Very impressive intro with nice piano, great bass work. But after that it just sounds like another post grunge song and I have difficulty distinguishing them at this point.

Scraped: WTF, acappella Axl? But wouldn't you know it, it ends up being another hard rock song but heres a kicker, I quite like this one. Great drums and a very groovy thumpy riff. A pretty cool guitar solo too courtesy of Buckethead. Best song on the album so far.

Riad N' The Bedouins: I notice that Axl now likes to throw these bits at the beginning of songs to give you the impression that they're gonna be more experimental than they really are. It's not really that experimented to throw in a little ambience before a standard hard rock song. Another pattern being constantly repeated is that every song has parts I like and parts I don't like, a song seems like its going somewhere (in this case back to the roots of GnR) and then it desolves into a chorus that sounds like something from a Chevile album, bleh. The guitar solo is cool, though most of the guitar solos on this album don't even seem to fit the songs.

Sorry: Sebastion Bach said this was gonna be like doom metal, what? Doom metal lite I guess. The lyrics really dominate this one so at this point I can't ignore how banal they are. It's just Axl whining about all the people who think hes a douche I think.

I.R.S.: At this point I'm running out of things to say other than "I like this part but not this part". There's a part that's very Pink Floyd like, but what kind of songs are these when the good parts are so fleeting?

Madagascar: People seem to like this one more than the others and I'm wondering what they are thinking. This is a bloated mess. Axl sounds like he's trying to be Tom Waits, the strings and brass sound tacky and meh, worst on the album I think.

This I Love: This has to have been something Axl wrote around the UYI sessions, it's very derivative of November Rain/Don't Cry but since I have a weak spot for Axl's smaltzy ballads I confess to liking this one. Sweet solo too. Another one of the few bright moments on the album I think.

Prostitute: Eh, this is like Evanessence or something, generic rock riffs and strings, that sums up a good portion of this album, even the better songs are clearly imitations of something else. Overall a pretty underwhelming closer for a very underwhelming album.

Overall I don't think this album is as terrible as people have been saying but it's quite mediocre, there's three songs I can say I genuinely like (If the World, Scraped, This I Love) and everything else either has some fleetingly decent moments or none. I say check those 3 songs out and if you hate them and you probably will then just forget about the rest, I can't believe I actually invested my time into listening to the whole thing. It was pretty painful and I'm not doing it again.

A 2......................... out of 5.

[The Bullet]

Originally Posted by boo boo

. It was pretty painful and I'm not doing it again.

It's a grower, I swear. If you're not gonna listen to me, then it's your loss.

[boo boo]

I gotta admit my expectations were low and to be fair, 3 tracks I ended up liking is actually more than expected. I think Axl is capable of coming up with good ideas but he also comes up with bad ideas and for most of this album he can't keep them seperated.

I'm quite a fan of GnR so I'm not biased against the band or anything. But I can't really consider CD anything other than an Axl solo album.

[TheCunningStunt]

I still haven't heard it, and I don't plan on listening to it any time soon.

[downwardspiral]

I fucking hate this band.