OT: Chinese Democracy Appr. Thread

[astream]

Hi guys,

it took me 3 years after its release to check it out. I wanted to get rid of the hype, isolate myself and listen to it after I had forgotten what the world thought of it. For the record, I bought it through iTunes (as with all music I buy nowadays).

I know there are old threads about this record but want to have fresh opinions, now that it might be is easier (?) to have an objective view on it.

I would have preferred the name to have been "Axl Rose". I don't think there needs to be a discussion as to what is genuine or true "GNR" and what is not within the music.

What do you guys think about the album?

In my opinion, it is a classy piece of music and a record I have on "repeat" at home.

 

[timmyc]

Yeah I actually thought it was good. No doubt an Axl & Friends cd, but forgetting who, what, how long its release took, all the other bullshit aside, on face value it is a good solid record.

 

[MrF33n3y]

I love it. I'm also really not up to getting in the debate over what's GN'R and what isn't (I'm a moderator on MyGNR Forum, so I see enough of that argument as it is). But frankly, CD is my favorite Guns N' Roses album, and I really can't wait to see what the current band can do in the studio. The CD songs are GREAT live too...I've seen every song live in person except for Riad N' The Bedouins and Prostitute

I'm going to see them again tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre, and Wednesday in Albany, can't wait!

 

[AlexStomp]

This threaded prompted me to revisit this album. I haven't listened to it since I bought it when it was released. I supposed I did it injustice by expecting appetite part 2. Some good stuff on there. Has me thinking, Wilkes barre is four hours from me in DC. Hmmm...

 

[mrthrax]

i couldnt get thru the record,its fucking terrible,the only good song is better,my alliance is with slash,in saying that there live show is still pretty cool,axl needs 3 guitarsits to replace slash and they still dont sound anywhere near like the classic lineup,guns n roses were a nasty rock band and thats nowhere to be seen on chinese democracy

 

[MrF33n3y]

This threaded prompted me to revisit this album. I haven't listened to it since I bought it when it was released. I supposed I did it injustice by expecting appetite part 2. Some good stuff on there. Has me thinking, Wilkes barre is four hours from me in DC. Hmmm...

Go tomorrow night...you won't be disappointed! They've been doing shows a little over 3 hours lately, and they sound killer.

i couldnt get thru the record,its fucking terrible,the only good song is better,my alliance is with slash,in saying that there live show is still pretty cool,axl needs 3 guitarsits to replace slash and they still dont sound anywhere near like the classic lineup,guns n roses were a nasty rock band and thats nowhere to be seen on chinese democracy

Axl didn't need 3 guitarists to replace Slash, he needed 3 guitarists to play the new songs live. Going back to '01, he had a really great shredder in Buckethead, and a really great melodic player in Robin Finck. Neither could play at all like the other, and he needed both styles. That being said...there really isn't much reason for DJ to be around nowadays, as Bumblefoot and Fortus could easily cover all the leads, but DJ has grown on me A LOT since his early shows with the band.

 

[Social Distortion]

I would have preferred the name to have been "Axl Rose"..

This right here is all that needs to be said.

It is a very solid album, not a single bad song on it...but unfortunately it has and will be critiqued as a Guns N' Roses album, which does the music no justice. When people say that "the real GN'R sounds like Welcome To The Jungle, not like Prostitute", I agree to a point, but it's not really fair to say so.

I'm a ridiculously huge GN'R fan, I've literally studied everything there is to know about Guns for almost 20 years, and I appreciate Chinese Democracy for what it is, a very good Axl Rose solo album, but to be honest I don't listen to it nearly as much as Appetite and Illusions. The album kind of makes me sad thinking about what could have been. But I do love Shackler's Revenge, Better, Madagascar and Prostitute. Even Oh My God, which IMO should've been rerecorded for the album.

I should also point out that GN'R live today is a great show! It's a totally different beast compared to the original band, but they are a very good live band. Axl has never sounded better than in 2006.

 

[Mikey-Bong]

I like the album. It's kind of Use Your Illusion III.

I do agree that he should have released it as a solo album, but he probably thought the GNR name would help sell more copies. He was apparently wrong since the cd tanked.

Does anyone believe there will ever be another album from GNR?

 

[mrthrax]

Go tomorrow night...you won't be disappointed! They've been doing shows a little over 3 hours lately, and they sound killer.


Axl didn't need 3 guitarists to replace Slash, he needed 3 guitarists to play the new songs live. Going back to '01, he had a really great shredder in Buckethead, and a really great melodic player in Robin Finck. Neither could play at all like the other, and he needed both styles. That being said...there really isn't much reason for DJ to be around nowadays, as Bumblefoot and Fortus could easily cover all the leads, but DJ has grown on me A LOT since his early shows with the band.

ispose with all due respect there is only 1 slash and it would be hard for the fill ins to either copy his style which is impossible to do while also put there own spin on it,good on em for keeping it going none the less,i saw them play the v8 supercars gig last year and they were great.

 

[SeaStorm]

I was actually predisposed to like it, because when I saw them in 2006, they played like 4-5 unreleased songs from it and I thought those songs sounded *awesome* in concert, so I was super pumped for it when it came out. Then I got it and there was not one song on it that I liked. I tried it for a few weeks and then retired it to the shelf, not having found one song I ever wanted to hit Repeat on.

Fast forward to last month and my city's upcoming 2011 show. Ready to give it another try, I listened to it every day for two weeks. A slight improvement: there's now one song I absolutely love (Chinese Democracy) and one song I like (Shackler's Revenge). The rest are just kind of meh: not so bad that I'd skip them, but not so good that I look forward to hearing any of them.

For me, it probably comes down to Chinese Democracy being the one song that sounds like traditional GnR, which is what I like. Unfortunately, I ended up getting sick and having to sell my ticket to the show, so I missed this tour

Regardless of the music, his voice still sounds great.

 

[scooterville]

I liked the few songs that i've heard from the album. If you ask me.....Velvet Revolver should have been called G-n-R and the new G-n-R should have been called 'Axle'.

 

[Social Distortion]

I like the album. It's kind of Use Your Illusion III.

I do agree that he should have released it as a solo album, but he probably thought the GNR name would help sell more copies. He was apparently wrong since the cd tanked.

Does anyone believe there will ever be another album from GNR?

I wouldn't say the cd tanked, it's sold about 5 million worldwide, which is more than The Spaghetti Incident and Live Era.

I liked the few songs that i've heard from the album. If you ask me.....Velvet Revolver should have been called G-n-R and the new G-n-R should have been called 'Axle'.

If you ask me, Velvet Revolver should've been called Mediocre Rockband.

 

[anomynous]

It's the best GnR album


Yes, I'm being dead serious. It's definitely better than both VR albums and Slash's solo.

 

[tomass74]

There was a couple pretty good songs but most of it was absolutely terrible. Axl's voice sounded weird and thin and some of those drum loops were just annoying as hell. It has to be one of the most awkward sounding albums I have ever heard in my life..

 

[scooterville]

There was a couple pretty good songs but most of it was absolutely terrible. Axl's voice sounded weird and thin and some of those drum loops were just annoying as hell. It has to be one of the most awkward sounding albums I have ever heard in my life..

Mediocre Rockband at best!

 

[Mikey-Bong]

I wouldn't say the cd tanked, it's sold about 5 million worldwide, which is more than The Spaghetti Incident and Live Era.

5 million? More than I had heard. Where did you hear that? Not saying you're wrong, just heard it didn't even hit 1 million.

But to say it sold more than a cover album and a chopped together live album doesn't make it sound too impressive.

 

[the Medication]

Someone needs to do an ethnography of the Anthrax NFMB user group

 

[Social Distortion]

5 million? More than I had heard. Where did you hear that? Not saying you're wrong, just heard it didn't even hit 1 million.

But to say it sold more than a cover album and a chopped together live album doesn't make it sound too impressive.

Google. It was 3 million in 2009, and it's closer to 5 today. These are worldwide.

But yeah, of course it's disappointing when you consider how long the recording process was, but 5 million these days is very good IMO. Just not good enough for this album.

 

[Mikey-Bong]

Someone needs to do an ethnography of the Anthrax NFMB user group

Go for it. I would but I just googled "ethnography" and I still have no idea what it is.

 

[Mikey-Bong]

Google. It was 3 million in 2009, and it's closer to 5 today. These are worldwide.

This is a quote from wikipedia...yeah, I know...

"To date, the album has sold 614,000 copies in the US according to Nielsen Soundscan.[62]"

If this is even close to the right number, it's hard to believe that it sold 5 million worldwide.