Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy - guest review
Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy - guest review
Tracklist
01. Chinese Democracy02. Shackler's Revenge
03. Better
04. Street Of Dreams
05. If The World
06. There Was A Time
07. Catcher In The Rye
08. Scraped
09. Riad N' The Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute
Guest review by
Doc G. March 02, 2009
The album opens up with a very effective fade-in, then a perfect kick-off riff which almost says "drop what you're doing and look this way"; unfortunately the remainder of the track is fairly bland aside from a few eye-popping solos. The interesting compositions and guitar work come in on the track to follow and continue throughout the album with a few cheesy ballads thrown in. The variation in this album is incredible, pulling influences in from far too many genres to list, which can be off putting for many when it comes to songs that have R'n'B rhythms, 'If The World' being the biggest example. The guitar work is simply incredible as far as technicality goes, but looking at the line-up Axl has hired it's no surprise. Much of the off-the-wall compositions and guitar work has to be credited to Buckethead, who (to the best of my knowledge) has never done anything predictable or typical. To top everything off, Axl shows he's still got a very capable vocal range, as well as a good ear for exceptional vocal harmonies.
This is an interesting album - dynamic, varied and experimental; something that doesn't exactly work out a lot of the time. Think of it this way: while running all over the park, you're bound to step in some dog crap. Whilst dabbling in many genres, the ballads, (to put it lightly) for the most part are pure pop shit. Take 'Street Of Dreams' as the best example, it sounds suspiciously like Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles', in other words, not something you want on a hard rock album. Though the biggest problem with album is definitely the overproduction (yeah, yeah, 15 years in production, quit laughing). The industrial influenced songs like 'Shackler's Revenge' and 'Scraped' fit well with the pristine production, but many really well written songs seem to lose power because they are so glossed over from the meticulous production.
Overall it's not a bad album, nothing great, and certainly not worth the circumstances surrounding it, but interesting nonetheless.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Doc G. | March 02, 2009
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
13
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Posts: 383  |
Posts: 383
It's a really difficult album in my opinion. I mean, the people that were waiting for it's release were fans of "Appetite For Destruction", first and foremost. Now nobody could really expect a return to the sleazy gutter-rock, but an album that's more about fusing every genre Rose has been listening to in the last 17 years than about simply rocking out isn't easy to stomach. Even after 3 months I'm not sure what to make of "Chinese Democray". At least "There Was A Time" is so good I'll never regret buying this.
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| THE_BLACK_GOD
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Posts: 9726 Written by [user id=31891] on 08.04.2009 at 10:25 Doesn't appear so. Axl hadn't credited them nor had they claimed to have any hand in its creation. Plus its hard to tell considering how many people have had a hand in its development. Apparently Shaquille O'Neal was even involved in this somehow a few years back...yes, Shaquille O'Neal.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| THE_BLACK_GOD
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| Posts: 9726 |
Posts: 9726 Written by [user id=31891] on 08.04.2009 at 10:43 Well, lets not forget his short-lived rap career: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLAVsPMzPRU
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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Posts: 1689 Written by Doc G. on 30.04.2009 at 08:33 Shit! Oh man, now I won't have the peace of mind necessary to sleep, just when I thought that Kazaam was my wort nightmare... http://komodo17.free.fr/Pochettes_2/Images/Face/Kazaam_f.jpg
---- "Les vers savent qu'ils n'ont pas d'ailes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se cachent sous terre"
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Posts: 383 |
Posts: 383
Does anyone still listen to this? I mean, when AfD came out, it was on permanent rotation. But I hardly ever listen to this one here and I am getting the feeling that the good to average reviews everywhere were more of a personal excuse than anything else.
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Posts: 9726 Written by DayFly on 02.11.2009 at 13:00 I still listen to it from time to time, though rarely in it's entirety. Only a handful of songs continually draw me back.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| JohnDoe
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JohnDoe
Account deleted Quote: i do the same thing, I skip the slow songs/ballads; the rest of the songs are more than OK with me. 
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| soadbyob
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Posts: 552  |
Posts: 552 Written by [user id=36287] on 06.05.2010 at 15:55 which, by it's own merits is good enough. Just not that GnR band of 20 years ago.
---- I drink moosepiss
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Posts: 1295
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Posts: 64459
Reading this I think they should change a name to Axel Rose and sucker boys, its not GnR
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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