Chinese Democracy Leaks

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

I didn't hear either of those. I only hear Axl channeling Geoff Tate from Queensryche. IMO "Sorry" sounds like half the songs on "Promised Land".

[BUTT 0]

Apparently that booklet that leaked a few weeks back was the real finished thing, and it's freakin' chock full of typos and missing lyrics. How awesome.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

I have Chinese Democracy. Axl Rose is still the king.

 

No one can touch this.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

If you don't want to d/l it, you can listen to the whole thing on myspace.

 

 

http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses

[Kinetic 0]

So what's the deal with the Dr. Pepper? Can I just go into any convenience store and say "Hey, did you hear about Chinese Democracy?" and assume that they'll know what I'm talking about?

[jimmy no nose 0]

I think you go to drpepper.com on Sunday and fill out a form then they mail you a coupon for a 20 oz.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Too bad I don't drink soda.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Alright, I listened to it on their Myspace, and here's a tl;dr about what I thought of it track from track

 

Chinese Democracy-Decent, but not spectacular. The lyrics are pretty unspectacular.

 

Shackler's Revenge-Not winning me over. Sounds too overproduced really.

 

Better-I hate the Trip Hop beat in the intro, but afterwards, it's pretty spectacular. Axl's voice sound's great.

 

Street Of Dreams-Probably the best song on here. It's a great ballad, and a highlight in the G n' R catelogue.

 

If The World-Ugh, no. This song is terrible. I'm getting sick of the Techno/Industrial Pro Tools shit.

 

There Was A Time-Another Ballad, this one's pretty good, albeit too overproduced.

 

Catcher in the Rye-Another Decent but not Great track. Nothing bad, but nothing to write home about either.

 

Sorry-Not impressed. It just kinda of trudges on, and feels unspectacular.

 

Riad N' The Bedouins-Terrible intro, but a pretty great song. I still wish he'd drop the Pro Tools shit.

 

I.R.S.-Pretty Boring. I didn't like the original, and this one doesn't do it for me either.

 

Madagascar-Holy shit, a Martin Luther King quote, and a Michael J. Fox Quote in the same song? The most overproduced, over bombastic song on here, and possible the funniest song I've heard all year.

 

This I Love-Pretty good. A step in the right direction. Axl's vocals sound great again.

 

Prostitute-Good but not great, though a decent closing track.

 

Final Verdict: 5/10 Not a total disaster, but ends up being too overproduced and gimmicky (the Pro Tools shit is going to sound dated eventually) to really like. Some good, some great, some bad, and one hilariously bad. Worth the 15 year wait? I honestly don't know. At least he finally released it.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

I've sampled the new album on MySpace just this morning, sounds amazing. In-depth listen tomorrow.

 

Man, Riad is fuckin' insane.

 

 

Haha. After reading this for like the 20th time, I just realized u meant sampled it on myspace was referring to the guns n roses page. Wow....

[BUTT 0]

I wish I had it in me to laugh at "Madagascar." But I just can't, because this is a song I first heard seven years ago, and I didn't have a very refined sense of irony back then. It's just that song with the I Have A Dream and movie quotes. Nothing funny about that.

[Copper Feel 0]

Listening now. I'll edit my thoughts into this post when I've finished.

[1234-5678 0]

I will post a full review this weekend too....and then await the bashing, lol.

[BUTT 0]

THE GOD HAS SPOKEN

 

Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy

 

November 21st, 2008 | 6:10 pm est | Stephen Thomas Erlewine

 

To put Chinese Democracy in some perspective: it arrives 17 years after the twin Use Your Illusions, the last set of original music by Guns N’ Roses. Seventeen years prior to the Illusions, it was 1974, back before the Ramones and Sex Pistols, back before Aerosmith had Rocks and Toys in the Attic, back before Queen had A Night at the Opera — back before almost anything that Axl Rose worships even existed. Generations have passed in these 17 years but not for Axl. He cut himself off from the world following the trouble-ridden Illusion tour, retreating to the Hollywood Hills, swapping every original GNR member in favor for contract players culled from his mid-’90s musical obsessions — Tommy Stinson from the Replacements, Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails, Buckethead from guitar magazines — as he turned into rock’s Charles Foster Kane, a genius in self-imposed exile spending millions to make his own Xanadu, Chinese Democracy.

 

Like Xanadu, Chinese Democracy is a monument to man’s might, but where Kane sought to bring the world underneath his roof, Axl labored to create an ideal version of his inner world, working endlessly on a set of songs about his heartbreak, persecution and paranoia, topics well-mined on the Illusions. Using the pompous ten-minute epics “Estranged” and “November Rain” as his foundation, Axl strips away all remnants of the old, snake-dancing GNR, shedding the black humor and blues, replacing any good times with vindictive spleen in the vein of “You Could Be Mine.” All this melodrama and malevolence feels familiar and, surprisingly, so does much of Chinese Democracy, even for those listeners that didn’t hear the portions of the record as leaked demos and live tracks. Despite a few surface flourishes - all the endless, evident hours spent on ProTools, a hip-hop loop here, a Spanish six-string there, absurd elastic guitar effects - this is an album unconcerned with the future of rock & roll. One listen and it’s abundantly clear that Axl spent the decade-plus in the studio refining, not reinventing, obsessing over a handful of tracks, spending an inordinate amount of timing chasing the sound his head - that’s it, no more, no less.

 

Such maniacal indulgence is ridiculous but strangely understandable: Rose received unlimited time and money to create this album, so why not take full advantage and obsess over every last detail? The odd thing is, he spent all this time and money on an album that is deliberately not a grand masterpiece — a record that pushes limits or digs deep — but merely a set of 14 songs. Compared to the chaotic Use Your Illusions, Chinese Democracy feels strangely modest, but that’s because it’s a single polished album, not a double album so over-stuffed it duplicates songs. Modest is an odd word for an album a decade-plus in the making, but Axl’s intent is oddly simple: he sees GNR not as a gutter-rock band but as a pomp-rock vehicle for him to lash out against all those that don’t trust him, whether it’s failed friends, lapsed fans, ex-lovers, former managers, fired band mates or rock critics. Chinese Democracy is the best articulation of this megalomania as could be possible, so the only thing to quibble about is his execution which occasionally is perplexing, particularly when Rose slides into hammy vocal inflections or encourages complicated guitar that only guitarists appreciate (it’s telling that the only memorable phrases from Robin Finck, Buckethead or Bumblefoot or whoever are ones that mimic Slash’s full-throated melodic growl). Even with these odd flourishes, it’s hard not to marvel, either in respect or bewilderment, at dense, immaculate wall of god knows how many guitars, synthesizers, vocals and strings.

 

The production is so dense it’s hard to warm to, but it fits the music. These aren’t songs that grab and hold, they’re songs that unfold, so much so that Chinese Democracy may seem a little underwhelming upon its first listen: it’s not just the years of pent-up anticipation, it’s that Axl spent so much time creating the music — constructing the structure then filling out the frame — that there’s no easy way into the album. That, combined with the realization that Axl isn’t trying to reinvent GNR, just finishing what he started on the Illusions, can make Chinese Democracy seem mildly anticlimactic but Rose spent a decade plus working on this — he deserves to not have it dismissed on a cursory listen. Give it time, listening like it was 1998 not 2008, and the album does give up some terrific music - music that is overblown but not overdone. True, those good moments are the song that have kicked around the internet for the entirety of the new millennium: the slinky, spiteful “Better,” slowly building into its fury; the quite gorgeous, if heavy handed, “Street of Dreams;” “There was a Time,” which overcomes its acronym and lack of chorus on its sheer drama,; “Catcher in the Rye,” the lightest, brightest moment here; the slow, grinding “I.R.S.;” and “Madagascar,” a ludicrous rueful rumination that finds space for quotations from Martin Luther King amidst its trip-hop pulse. These aren’t innovations, they’re extensions of “Breakdown” and “Estranged,” epics that require some work to decode because Axl forces the listener to meet him on his own terms. This all-consuming artistic narcissism has become Rose’s defining trait, not letting him move forward, only to relentlessly explore the same territory over and over again. And this solipsism turns Chinese Democracy into something strangely, surprisingly simple: it won’t change music, won’t change any lives, it’s just 14 more songs about loneliness and persecution. Or as Axl put it in an apology for canceled concerts in 2006, “In the end, it’s just an album.” And it’s a good album, no less and no more.

[Guest Czecherbear]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog...-review-gu.html

Like Brando and "Kane" mastermind Orson Welles, Rose is a macho refusenik whose career path illustrates how hard it can be for an ego-driven man to separate lofty ideals from fleshly indulgences.

I'm just glad we never got around to bestowing this genius auteur status on David Lee Roth.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I listened to all the tracks, and I don't think it's very good. I like "I.R.S." all right, and "Street of Dreams" seemed better when it was "The Blues" on the leak. I'm in no way shocked.

[1234-5678 0]

Guns N Roses' Axl Rose has gone AWOL – which has supposedly caused worry in the band camp, considering their new album, 'Chinese Democracy' is out on Monday (November 24). "He's disappeared for a while to focus on the band's comeback," a source is quoted as saying (Daily Mirror).

[Use Your Illusion 0]

See you in another 14, Axl!

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I told you. He's hiding in the fucking bushes waiting to yank the CD from my hands tomorrow morning. Bastard.

[jimmy no nose 0]

Don't forget to get your free Dr. Pepper:

 

http://www.drpepper.com/freeDrPepper/?icamp=hp_dpfree_coupon

[cd213 0]

I tried getting my Dr. Pepper, but every time I signed up for it, the page never loaded and said there was a fatal error. They're going to be giving away a lot of Dr. Peppers.

[jimmy no nose 0]

At this point you're lucky if you even get to the part where you enter your information. The site's basically unusable. I don't think anyone's getting a free drink anymore.

[Guest Czecherbear]

Maybe if I'm lucky, in honor of Dr. Pepper welching, we can get a free bottle of Welch's white grape juice. I love white grape juice.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I got my Dr. Pepper registered!!!!!

 

...

 

I also bought the album...

[1234-5678 0]

Getting ready to head to Best Buy now.....

[bob_barron 0]

Keep us posted, Jaxl!

[1234-5678 0]

Lol....dick.

 

Should I get a picture with the person at the cash register as they ring it up for me?

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Definitely....... only if you give the double thumbs up.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

There should be 'thumbs up' photos for every major step of the way.

 

Getting into the car to go there, walking inside, picking it up off the shelf, the cash register, leaving the store, back in your car, arriving home, placing it into your CD player for the first time, posting thoughts on here.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

I agree.

[1234-5678 0]

There are barely 48 hours to go before the release of perhaps the most widely anticipated album in rock music history. Yet its creator — Axl Rose — is nowhere to be found.

 

According to one gossip columnist, the 46-year-old recluse was last seen at a restaurant called The Bagel Café in Las Vegas. As usual, there were no photographs to prove it.

 

But it is not just Rose's whereabouts that remain uncertain before Chinese Democracy is released. Rumours were also circulating last night about a rift between the volatile rocker and those who manage his business affairs — in particular his Los Angeles-based managers, Irving Azoff and Andy Gould.

 

Larry Solters, Rose's public relations chief, seemingly hired to avoid relations with the public, declined to clarify the situation. “Not able to assist. Sorry,” he e-mailed The Times.