Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy

December 9, 2008

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

After nearly two decades in the making, Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy is released.  Those expecting Use Your Illusion III or at least the Appetite for Destruction II are going to be upset.  Those expecting Axl Rose to bring this legendary band back for 2008 will be surprised.  Remember, this is 2008.  Artists like Kayne West and Cold Play rule the world while Metallica is still desperately trying to recapture former glories, MTV and VH1 do not play music videos, the USA is back in Iraq, Sebastian Bach went country, Ice Cube appears in family movies, Ice-T plays a goody-goody gumshoe on Law and Order, Motley Crue has a cruise, Kiss has cologne, coffins and coffee and the new AC/DC can only be purchased at Walmart.  1991 surely wasn’t yesterday.

With a laundry list of musicians, Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed are the only ones remaining from the band’s heyday.  Even with five guitarists (six if you include Axl) and two drummers on the album is surprisingly cohesive.  The title track starts off with some ambient nonsense before surging into a awesome rocker littered with groove and all kinds of guitar brilliance.  It’s not the Guns N’ Roses you wanted, nor is it some pale version of it’s former self.  However, with “Shackler’s Revenge” most listeners will wonder how Stabbing Westward reformed and got Axl Rose to sing.  With a guitar tone that fell out of a Rob Zombie album and all kinds of electronic and industrial beeps and boops and just enough rock n’ roll, somehow Axl pulls this one off.

“Better” is completely contemporary.  It rocks, it rolls and it could be found on alternative, rock and top 40 stations all at the same time.  The guitar solos from Robin Fink and Buckethead are spectacular as is the smooth groove and pop sensibility.  “Street of Dreams” seems to recapture the epic nature of “November Rain” and again it works by delivering a pop-laden yet soulful rocker. 

Things get epic with “If the World.”  Orchestras, that Rob Zombie guitar sound again, sweeping vocals, pianos a drum beat that would better suit Beyonce and sexy bass line, it’s hard to figure out where this song came from.  The same could be said with the bombastic “There Was A Time.”  More orchestras and a nice groove, this is a ballad with a lot of balls.  There is even over two minutes of some serious guitar soloing.  “Catcher in the Rye” follows the exact same formula and if you like dense rockers, it doesn’t get better than this.

“Scraped” will probably terrify everyone with Axl’s attempt to channel Mariah Carey’s vocal hysterics at the beginning of the song.  But before it goes diva-licious, the song becomes the heaviest track on the album.  It features driving and thunderous riffs, spectacular shredding from Bumblefoot and Buckethead, and something seriously catchy about the song.  Even at just over 3-minutes, this groovy piece almost seems out of place with its aggression.

“Riad n’ the Bedouins” is a painful listen with its squelch and squeal.  Sebastian Bach lends a hand with the bluesy, beautiful and monumental “Sorry.”  “I.R.S.” approaches more familiar territory and would make a great single.  The rock meets pop here makes for one of the easiest digestible tracks on the album. “Madagascar” goes completely off the rails with it’s collection of movie samples and speech highlights from Martin Luther King Jr.

Axl tackles on Broadway with the operatic and orchestral bombast of “This I Love.”  Rockers will fall over with confusion and those that dig serious and tortured songwriting will want to nominate Axl for a Grammy.  The sweeping and overproduced “Prostitue” closes the album and will leave you in a state of either shock or awe.

Chinese Democracy is very much akin to Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  Both albums were exceptionally ambitions, dense, well crafted, audibly brilliant, contained some of the best performances from the band members and ultimately confused everyone.  Multiple listens helped, but each listener when on a different voyages with each listen.  Peter Gabriel walked away at the band’s creative zenith and Axl Rose decided to go it alone.  Both men, by this time in their careers, could be viewed as both mad marvels and goofy geniuses.

Axl sounds perfect here and he and his massive collection of overqualified coconspirators have released one of the most exhaustive albums in the history of music.  With so many layers, so many different approaches, so many emotions, it’s a horse pill.  Yet after the initial shock of the contemporary pop tactics, Chinese Democracy peels like an onion and reveals a diamond.  With what the band created on Use Your Illusion I and II so many years ago, Chinese Democracy sounds like the perfect follow up made for the fickle audiences of 2008.  There is nothing akin to “Welcome to the Jungle” or “Mr. Brownstone” here.  Think of “Estranged” and “Live and Let Die” updated for an Ipod and fuel-efficient SUV world.  These songs are intense. You won’t find most of Chinese Democracy to be bar toe-tapers or arena anthems.  Instead, Chinese Democracy fells like a slice of some of Axl’s most private, terrified, focused, cryptic, lost and brilliant moments all rolled into one.  This musical Howard Hughes is back and in the downloaded, 500-channel bailout world, Chinese Democracy with it’s rock and pop collision just doesn’t work as well and nor was it worth the 17-year wait.  The Gn’R Greatest Hits fans are going to be irate, confused and feel betrayed. 

If you listen to Chinese Democracy once, it comes off like Kiss’ Music from the Elder.  But if you sit down and share some serious time with Axl, you’ll find an album that even with a few missteps, is so polarizing and brilliant it will be continually revisited, rethought, and reexamined by music lovers much like Genesis’s The Lamb. 

Axl has provided the golden ticket, be respectful and patient and you’ll get the goods.  If you are looking for simple stimulus and a free Dr. Pepper, prepare for failure.  In the end, Chinese Democracy is all up to your interpretation.

Release Date: September 26, 2008
Label: Geffen Records

TRACK LISTING

1. Chinese Democracy
2. Shackler’s Reveng
3. Better
4. Street of Dreams
5. If the World
6. There Was a Time
7. Catcher in the Rye
8. Scraped
9. Riad N’ the Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute

TO THE TOP

*By clicking "Submit" you agree to the following Terms of Use. You agree not to post any material that is obscene, slanderous, or threatening, or that may violate any law of your country of origin or the United States or of international law. Should you wish to restrict viewing of your email address by third parties, you must select "Hide My Email." You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Metal Psalter from any claims, actions, suits, damages, or other costs arising out of any breach of these Terms of Use.

*Comments: