Music Notes: Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy Leaked Tracks
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).
On a related note: It looks like Robin Finck is back together with NIN and rehearsing for their upcoming tour. He left NIN a couple years ago to tour with GNR with the expectation that Chinese Democracy would be released at some point during the tour. All the delays must be bitterly disappointing for everyone who has worked on the album.
Yeah — the delays only would make sense if there was new material to be
recorded — but I’d heard most of these songs before in demo form. At this
point, no amount of new polishing is going to help — they sound essentially
finished, and further delays only serve to increase expectation.
The problem with delaying an album for so long is that, as an artist, you change over time. The song you recorded three years ago probably doesn’t sound so good anymore. So you go back to the studio and re-work it. By the time you’re finished with that song, you have ideas for re-working other songs. Then somebody quits the project and you have to re-record their parts. Etc, etc … Ironically, the long delays only increase the chances of further delays.
If Axl really thinks he needs to release a new album (and I’m not convinced he does) he should just scrap Chinese Democracy and record something entirely new. Pop music, like all art, is a snapshot in time… not a long, winding journey.
The hardest part of creating something new is knowing when to stop.
“Still, with 14 years and the money spent, I feel the tracks should have been better” I think you’ve said everything with this short sentence. I’m waiting for the album since 2000 but now, I confess, I don’t have the same interest in GNR that I had when I was 14…
Guns N’ Roses — Chinese Democracy (2008)
(9 tracks from CD)
1. Better
2. Chinese Democracy
3. IRS
4. Madagascar
5. Riyadh & The Bedouins (New Song #1)
6. This I Love (New Song #2)
7. If The World (Would End Today) (New Song #3)
8. The Blues
9. There Was a Time
Ripped @192
http://rapidshare.com/files/125244043/JNRS987q4…
Gun’s and Roses Rocks!!!!
GNR ( Guns N Roses) this my favorite band and I mizz they song. I won hear about the guitaris Slash..where is he?
I was waiting for Guns N roses album ( Chinese democary) for a very long time . It’s been fourteen years of silence.
I miss slash on this album. One of the soundtrack sounds like ‘Rock you like hurricane’ Of scorpions. I can’t remember the name.
Odd that all those years waiting the record didn’t live up to the myth is was never going to be able too was it.
I still can’t hear why it took so long
I wonder where Axel could have better spent his money?
Guns N’ Roses rock so hard that they don’t deserve to be on this planet.…..they should be in rock heaven!!!!!
It was never going to live up to the hype was it
Can I just ask…What the **** happened to this band?? They started out as like the best band ever with Appetite For Destruction and then got steadily worse over time. Axel Rose really is a royal schmuck, me thinks!
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this is cool! thanks to GW for Guns N’ Roses — Chinese Democracy (2008) link
Great review! It’s a bit of a let down after spending so long making it, but maybe it’ll grow on me. Some great riffs in there but on the whole, Gn’R have never been the same since the original line up…
Still a great band but not one of their finest!
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