Post by Nudeviking on Apr 18, 2018 3:32:13 GMT -5
Chinese Democracy (2008)
Ah Chinese Democracy! An album some 11+ years in the making which I am convinced only ever saw the light of day because Axl Rose wanted to stick it to Dr. Pepper for some bizarre reason. Countless thinkpieces were written about Axl Rose and this album in the years that passed between "The Spaghetti Incident?" and the ultimate release of this album. The Offspring joked that they were going to name one of their albums Chinese Democracy to get back at Axl Rose 2003 stealing Offspring frontman, Dexter Holland's hairstyle of horrible white guy braids. Buckethead was involved. The entire thing was looking like it was going forever just be a rock n' roll punchline, but then it was actually released and everyone promptly forgot about Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy.
To be most forthright this album is the entire reason I started this foray into G n' R's discography. I never heard the album when it actually came out and somehow it's already been 10 years since it was released so I figure if I'm going to listen to it I might as well write some words about it. These words are those aforementioned words.
Pre-Existing Prejudices
I saw Guns N' Roses at some point in either 2002 or 2003 during one of Axl's "Seriously guys, Chinese Democracy is coming out any day now!" tours so it's possible I may have heard some of these songs performed live though if I did I have absolutely no knowledge of what those songs may have sounded like so I might as well be listening to them for the first time here.
Songs
"Chinese Democracy"
We get distorted samples of Chinese people talking and what sounds vaguely like Peking Opera before some sleazy guitar riffs start up. There's weird atmospheric sci-fi synth stuff and Axl Rose wailing. This feels more like something like Powerman 5000 than Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses minus Slash guitar solos is weird. We gets samples of a bomb exploding to close out the track.
"Shackler's Revenge"
This is such an early 2000s nu metal song. It's got chugga chugga guitar riffs and pitchshifted guitar noise solos.
"Better"
Programmed drum beats during the intro. This is pretty great. Even with the industrial flourishes it's probably the most Guns N' Roses-esque song on the entire song. There's great riffs and wailing guitar solos and Axl Rose growling and pretty much everything you'd expect from a Guns N' Roses track.
"Street of Dreams"
Generic Guns N' Roses piano ballad. This is kind of a come down from "Better." I'm not about this song. It's kind of boring.
"If the World"
What is this goddamn song? We've got flamenco guitar, 70s porno riffs, late 90s "trip-hop" orchestras, and Axl Rose crooning all over it. Random Downward Spiral rip-off guitars show up. I have no idea what is going on here. We get guitar heroics because there's not enough stuff going on in this song already. This song is too bonkers for me to actually hate.
"There Was a Time"
We start with music box sounding keyboards and more programmed drums while Axl sings about sleazy shit. More trip-hop orchestras. We get some portions that are pretty generic Guns N' Roses guitar riff rock and then an Axl Rose piano part. This song is too long. Guitar solo! A choir of Axl Roses singing now. More guitar solos. I might be okay with this song if the last half of it is an extended outro. MORE GUITAR SOLOS! I think we're getting a four minute outro to this seven minute song. THIS SONG BETTER FADE OUT AT THE END! More guitar action! Axl's wailing again and the chorus of Axl Roses is back. BAH! We're not getting the fade out, we're getting the back to the intro close to this song. Either way I was worried that song was going to suck but they pulled it off and made it pretty good.
"Catcher in the Rye"
Some decent guitar solos on this one. Like a lot of these songs there's too much shit going on in a lot of these songs. I guess that's what happened when a dude works on an album for 11 years. Some of the stuff in this song is cool, but it's just too busy.
"Scraped"
A chorus of people saying "Eh eh!" while Axl shrieks to start off. Industrial funk rock riffs. WAH GUITAR SOLO ALL UP IN THIS MUG! Axl Rose is dueting with himself. Ending comes from out of nowhere.
"Riad N' The Bedouins"
More ambient sci-fi synth noise before random Jane's Addiction riffs. I kind of like the riff during the chorus.
"Sorry"
Slow and dirgelike. Sebastian Bach from Gilmore Girls and The Last Hard Men shows up to sing with Axl. I don't care for this. It's long and slow and boring.
"I.R.S."
Generic hard rock riffs as Axl yells about getting the FBI and calling the president and shit. Random trip-hop drums and acoustic guitar noodling show up from time to time because why not? Song ends with a goddamn MONSTER GUITAR SOLO!
"Madagascar"
Horns of triumph. Strings. Trip-hop beats. Moaning Axl Rose. Random guitar solos. I'm going to assume that Axl wrote this song after watching the Dreamworks feature Madagascar on basic cable one day. There are random samples from a bunch of other movies in this so my assumption has some merit to it. There are also samples of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches but that doesn't help my theory that Axl Rose is a huge cinephile who wrote a song about a cartoon lion.
"This I Love"
Piano fuckery. Flutes and shit. Another long and boring track. We get a generic wailing guitar solo...and here comes the string section. This song so wants to be "November Rain," but it's just dull.
"Prostitute"
This is a pretty solid power ballad. There's more strings and pianos but there's a driving rock beat and the guitar riffs have some heft to them so it's not as dull as stuff like "This I Love."
Final Thoughts
I don't know what popular opinion of this album is, but I for one would probably have liked it more if Axl had just released it as an Axl Rose album instead of a Guns N' Roses album. It doesn't really sound much like Guns N' Roses at all which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some of the songs here are good and there are a lot of cool parts in the songs that I don't like that seem like they just got overthought out and ended up covered up with too much extraneous stuff. I think the thing that's most surprising to me is how dated a lot of this album sounds. In spite being released in 2008 this is very much a late 90s album in terms of sonic influences. If this album had come out in 1997 or 1998 we'd probably be talking about how ahead of the curve it was, but that's not the case. There are apparently a bunch of other songs that had been recorded during the endless recording sessions that begot this album but if this was the cream of the crop it's probably for the best that Guns N' Roses has yet to release a follow up album to this one.
Best Song: "Better"
Worst Song: "Street of Dreams"
Ah Chinese Democracy! An album some 11+ years in the making which I am convinced only ever saw the light of day because Axl Rose wanted to stick it to Dr. Pepper for some bizarre reason. Countless thinkpieces were written about Axl Rose and this album in the years that passed between "The Spaghetti Incident?" and the ultimate release of this album. The Offspring joked that they were going to name one of their albums Chinese Democracy to get back at Axl Rose 2003 stealing Offspring frontman, Dexter Holland's hairstyle of horrible white guy braids. Buckethead was involved. The entire thing was looking like it was going forever just be a rock n' roll punchline, but then it was actually released and everyone promptly forgot about Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy.
To be most forthright this album is the entire reason I started this foray into G n' R's discography. I never heard the album when it actually came out and somehow it's already been 10 years since it was released so I figure if I'm going to listen to it I might as well write some words about it. These words are those aforementioned words.
Pre-Existing Prejudices
I saw Guns N' Roses at some point in either 2002 or 2003 during one of Axl's "Seriously guys, Chinese Democracy is coming out any day now!" tours so it's possible I may have heard some of these songs performed live though if I did I have absolutely no knowledge of what those songs may have sounded like so I might as well be listening to them for the first time here.
Songs
"Chinese Democracy"
We get distorted samples of Chinese people talking and what sounds vaguely like Peking Opera before some sleazy guitar riffs start up. There's weird atmospheric sci-fi synth stuff and Axl Rose wailing. This feels more like something like Powerman 5000 than Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses minus Slash guitar solos is weird. We gets samples of a bomb exploding to close out the track.
"Shackler's Revenge"
This is such an early 2000s nu metal song. It's got chugga chugga guitar riffs and pitchshifted guitar noise solos.
"Better"
Programmed drum beats during the intro. This is pretty great. Even with the industrial flourishes it's probably the most Guns N' Roses-esque song on the entire song. There's great riffs and wailing guitar solos and Axl Rose growling and pretty much everything you'd expect from a Guns N' Roses track.
"Street of Dreams"
Generic Guns N' Roses piano ballad. This is kind of a come down from "Better." I'm not about this song. It's kind of boring.
"If the World"
What is this goddamn song? We've got flamenco guitar, 70s porno riffs, late 90s "trip-hop" orchestras, and Axl Rose crooning all over it. Random Downward Spiral rip-off guitars show up. I have no idea what is going on here. We get guitar heroics because there's not enough stuff going on in this song already. This song is too bonkers for me to actually hate.
"There Was a Time"
We start with music box sounding keyboards and more programmed drums while Axl sings about sleazy shit. More trip-hop orchestras. We get some portions that are pretty generic Guns N' Roses guitar riff rock and then an Axl Rose piano part. This song is too long. Guitar solo! A choir of Axl Roses singing now. More guitar solos. I might be okay with this song if the last half of it is an extended outro. MORE GUITAR SOLOS! I think we're getting a four minute outro to this seven minute song. THIS SONG BETTER FADE OUT AT THE END! More guitar action! Axl's wailing again and the chorus of Axl Roses is back. BAH! We're not getting the fade out, we're getting the back to the intro close to this song. Either way I was worried that song was going to suck but they pulled it off and made it pretty good.
"Catcher in the Rye"
Some decent guitar solos on this one. Like a lot of these songs there's too much shit going on in a lot of these songs. I guess that's what happened when a dude works on an album for 11 years. Some of the stuff in this song is cool, but it's just too busy.
"Scraped"
A chorus of people saying "Eh eh!" while Axl shrieks to start off. Industrial funk rock riffs. WAH GUITAR SOLO ALL UP IN THIS MUG! Axl Rose is dueting with himself. Ending comes from out of nowhere.
"Riad N' The Bedouins"
More ambient sci-fi synth noise before random Jane's Addiction riffs. I kind of like the riff during the chorus.
"Sorry"
Slow and dirgelike. Sebastian Bach from Gilmore Girls and The Last Hard Men shows up to sing with Axl. I don't care for this. It's long and slow and boring.
"I.R.S."
Generic hard rock riffs as Axl yells about getting the FBI and calling the president and shit. Random trip-hop drums and acoustic guitar noodling show up from time to time because why not? Song ends with a goddamn MONSTER GUITAR SOLO!
"Madagascar"
Horns of triumph. Strings. Trip-hop beats. Moaning Axl Rose. Random guitar solos. I'm going to assume that Axl wrote this song after watching the Dreamworks feature Madagascar on basic cable one day. There are random samples from a bunch of other movies in this so my assumption has some merit to it. There are also samples of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches but that doesn't help my theory that Axl Rose is a huge cinephile who wrote a song about a cartoon lion.
"This I Love"
Piano fuckery. Flutes and shit. Another long and boring track. We get a generic wailing guitar solo...and here comes the string section. This song so wants to be "November Rain," but it's just dull.
"Prostitute"
This is a pretty solid power ballad. There's more strings and pianos but there's a driving rock beat and the guitar riffs have some heft to them so it's not as dull as stuff like "This I Love."
Final Thoughts
I don't know what popular opinion of this album is, but I for one would probably have liked it more if Axl had just released it as an Axl Rose album instead of a Guns N' Roses album. It doesn't really sound much like Guns N' Roses at all which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some of the songs here are good and there are a lot of cool parts in the songs that I don't like that seem like they just got overthought out and ended up covered up with too much extraneous stuff. I think the thing that's most surprising to me is how dated a lot of this album sounds. In spite being released in 2008 this is very much a late 90s album in terms of sonic influences. If this album had come out in 1997 or 1998 we'd probably be talking about how ahead of the curve it was, but that's not the case. There are apparently a bunch of other songs that had been recorded during the endless recording sessions that begot this album but if this was the cream of the crop it's probably for the best that Guns N' Roses has yet to release a follow up album to this one.
Best Song: "Better"
Worst Song: "Street of Dreams"
