Music Notes: Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy Leaked Tracks

June 25th, 2008

Note: I’m not a GNR or metal fan by any means, but it was impossible to grow up in the eighties without an awareness of bombastic hair-metal singles assaulting one’s eardrums.

So… Axl Rose has been working on the next Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, for the past 14 years, spending around $13 million in the process. Yeah, that’s longer than it took Lord Of The Rings to get made. That alone piques my interest in the album, as a possible eclectic musical misfire / masterpiece like The Beach Boys’ Smile.

Demos in various states have surfaced on the Internet ever since 2003, but nine very polished tracks were leaked last week, by a blogger who subsequently got a visit from the FBI.

Anyhow — I procured the tracks (through means I shall not divulge) — here are my initial impressions of each:

• Better: Thumbs up, bounces all over the place stylistically, with tons of hooks, and some extremely crazy guitar solos. Pretty good bridge, although just when it threatens to erupt into awesomeness, daffy keyboard sounds prevail (3:16).
• IRS: Decent, some unusual chords, Axl does his expected howling and hits one impressive high note (3:34) before another crazy guitar solo.
• Madagascar: Boring. Contains a particularly dull section with samples from movies and speeches.
• Rhiad And The Bedouins: Faster song, really great groove. Hope the full album has more of this stuff.
• New Song #1 (This I Love?): Meh. Lots of loops and words of love.
• New Song #2 (If The World Would End Today?): Thumbs down, a funk groove with a flamenco guitar; I expect Ricky Martin to bust in.
• The Blues: Another fave, featuring piano, and most reminiscent of schmatlzy GNR (November Rain).
• Chinese Democracy: Above average. Axl mimics Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.
• There Was A Time: Meh.

The Good

• Some extremely flamboyant, over the top guitar playing, likely contributed by Buckethead (who performs with a white mask and a KFC bucket on his head) or Robin Finck of NIN. It’s a welcome return to the “how many notes can you cram into one lick” school of solos.
• Axl’s voice is surprisingly emotive.

The Bad

• In terms of songwriting, no songs challenge the best GNR stuff — the epic songs with multiple sections. I would think over 14 years, one might have a shot at a song with twelve parts, a full orchestra, a bagpipe chorus, and the entire cast of Rent. What a missed opportunity.
• Extreme overdub-itis — a very calculated sound where crap zooms in and out — all intentional, but any organic live feel has been obliterated since 2004. This also includes unoriginal loops, keyboards, and sound effects.

Conclusion

Out of the nine tracks, only three are keepers: Better, Rhiad and the Bedouins, and The Blues. Personally, the best thing about GNR was it sounded like there were at least three really creative people contributing to their best songs — a band. Here, all we get is Axl dominating the sound and trying to fill in the creative gaps with money, gloss, and talented instrumentalists — it doesn’t really work. But that said — it’s not as awful as I was expecting, and in a few places, it does rock.

Still, with 14 years and the money spent, I feel the tracks should have been better. The jury is out until Chinese Democracy is released properly, but based on these nine tracks, Axl Rose isn’t Brian Wilson — as if that were ever in doubt.

(If you want to hear some of this stuff for yourself, poke around YouTube).