Guns n Roses - Chinese Democracy
I grew up listening to Guns n Roses. One of my very first tapes to purchase was Appetite for Destruction. Unfortunately the last time the band put out anything new that was really worth listening to was in '91 with the two illusion albums. So in 1999 or 2000, I forget which, when I heard that GnR was going to put out a new album, I got excited, even though Slash (in my opinion, the heart of the band) was no longer with them. Well, and then the years came and went and no new CD. Even when I heard that there was a final release date of November 23, 2008, I didn't hold my breath. But to my surprise, I heard the first single off of the CD in October '08. While "Chinese Democracy" wasn't my favorite song of all time from GnR, it definitely had a familiar sound to it, and it got me excited about the release of the CD. Then I got another taste of the CD with "Shackler's Revenge" which I also enjoyed almost as much as "Chinese Democracy". Shortly after the release date I hit up Best Buy to buy a copy.
The first song, "Chinese Democracy" is the first single, and the title track to the album. It is easily the second best song on the album. It has a very strong GnR sound and feel to it. And this is probably the song most people are familiar with. It still doesn't stand up to some of the older GnR but I can't complain about this song at all.
The second song, Shackler's Revenge, frustrated me when I first played it on Rock Band II, but outside the frustration of playing it on the game, the song was awesome. The intro to the song is great, and vocals in the begining of the song has the evil sound to it that I like. Be warned, this song can easily get stuck in your head. This is my favorite song off of the CD, and when combined with the first song, I had really high hopes for this CD.
And then the next song came on, Better. Parts of this song are amazing, and then there is a poppy, boy bandish sound put into it. And once that crap is put into a GnR song, it just drives it into the dirt. When Axle is singing, and he actually sounds like Axle, the song goes well, but the poppy boy band stuff does not belong in a GnR CD. I understand that bands have to evolve or die, but this song doesn't sit well at all.
The fourth song, Street of Dreams starts out with a familiar November Rain sound to it. And while I loved November Rain, this song wasn't on the same level. The song isn't bad or anything, but it's just not that good either. Unfortunately, when listening to the CD the third and fourth song, my feeling of excitement starts to fade when compared to listening to the first two songs.
If the World, again doesn't fit into the CD. To me, it has too much of a 70's feel to it, and Axle's voice just doesn't quite mix well with the song. Again, this isn't a horrible song, but I expected much better from Axle and company.
"There was a Time" is song number six on the CD. This song reminds me a lot of "Coma" off Use Your Illusion I. The song sounds great, and gave me hope once again, for the rest of the CD.
The seventh song is "Catcher in the Rye". This is another one of those songs that I wish was not on the CD. To me, it's not GnR, and overall it doesn't fit in with Axle's voice or the other songs on the CD itself. This is the first song on the CD that I would actually call a bad song.
"Scraped" is one of those songs that gets stuck in your head, even though you never really want to listen to that song ever again. Again, it's a song that I would have to call bad. It just makes me wonder what was going through the band's head when they decided to put this song on the CD.
The ninth song is "Riad N' the Bedouins". The drums, and guitar are great in this song. And I think this song would have been pretty good with someone other than Axle singing the song, but his voice doesn't fit the type of singing he's doing. The first time I hit this part of the CD I was having a hard time continuing to play it, but it was almost over and I had a glimmer of hope that it would end on a good note.
"Sorry" is song number ten on the CD. The song has a really slow start to it, and around two minutes into the song it picks up slightly. This is yet, another one of those songs that I had a hard time believing it was actually Guns n Roses performing. Overall this is a song that would be better off being done by a different band.
The eleventh song is "I.R.S." everyone's favorite acronym. Unlike the past few songs, this song actually sounds like it should be on a GnR album. The instruments are all played superbly, and it has a great guitar solo. I.R.S. is one of my favorite songs off of the CD, and its one of those songs that gets stuck in your head and you don't mind it for the first hour or so.
The next song on the list is "Madagascar". After coming off a truly bad ass song, this song let me down. Axle's voice, again, just doesn't sound right singing the song. It's like if 50 Cent ever did the" Star Spangled Banner" for the Super Bowl. About half way through the song they play a lot of audio clips from different things like Martin Luthur King Jr.s famous speech, and the famous "What we've got here is a failure to communicate" line used in "Civil War", combined with a few other clips. These clips are the high point of the song.
"This I Love" is song number thirteen on the list. This song is a little slow, but it's not bad. Although this is a song I'd expect from a band like the Scorpions, and no GnR. You can't mistake Axle's voice in this song, but it doesn't have the Guns n Roses feel to it.
"Prostitute" rounds up the final song on the CD. Like so many other songs on the CD, it isn't what I would expect from GnR. And once again, the song isn't bad, I just don't think it's good either.
Even though this CD has some really great songs on it, overall it's a letdown. I guess it reminds me of the era when bands were putting out CDs left and right, with only one or two good songs on it and the rest of the CD being absolute crap. And to make matters worse, the band had all the time in the world to put out this CD, and one can argue that they took that time also. My overall thought after listening to this CD is "I waited this long for this?" and a feeling of disappointment. While I'm not ready to write GnR off fully yet, I just hope their next CD's that they are releasing in this series are better, and that we don't have to wait another ten years to get our hands on it. This CD wouldn't have been too bad for a debut CD, but the members of Guns n Roses are too talented and have too much history for me to say that this is a good GnR CD. Unless you are a hardcore GnR fan, I would recommend listening to the CD online, and buying a few songs that you like instead of paying ten bucks for the entire CD.
Shane's Picks
"Shackler's Revenge" - This is my favorite song from the CD. It
has a great sound to it, and it can be fun to play on Rockband II.
"Chinese Democracy" - I normally don't have the "released
singles" on my picks from a CD, but this one is awesome.
"I.R.S." - I enjoyed this song, even though I was apprehensive
about the name. This is what I think GnR should sound like, and if
they continue taking this sound to their future CD's I think they
will be more successful.
