Chinese Democracy: My Thoughts

I’ve sworn off buying Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy and I’m kind of glad I did. A friend let me borrow a copy and I really don’t know what to day to make this sound like a great record. I’m not a Gn’R fanboy so I will never say that I love this album.

You know those jig-saw puzzles have so many pieces and every one of them looks the same? It’s kind of like that in a weird way. It sounds like the entire record was pieced together like a giant, strange puzzle. I wouldn’t call it Guns N’ Roses. If it was Guns N’ Roses with most of the original member I would be wondering what the hell happened. It doesn’t sound like a Guns N Roses Album, it sounds like an Axl Rose solo album.

It has a few songs that are pretty good like Catcher In The Rye is pretty good as well are the other slower tunes. Other songs feel slightly strange like the porn thematic “If The World“, but it continues to be a good song. Scraped can be a rather annoying song and reminds you how much protools were used in recording this record. The ambient intros kind of become redundant after a few listens. Sometimes it’s really nice to hear Axl’s voice and sometimes you just don’t feel it through the constant high-pitched screams.

Now this may sound contradictory to everything I just said, but musically this album is pretty good but not in a Guns N’ Roses way. It doesn’t have that feel that a Guns N’ Roses album has. It doesn’t have that punch to it that Appetite For Destruction had to. It doesn’t have the rebelliousness that Gn’R Lies had or the epic feelings that Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 had. What it has is Axl Rose making some pretty good music with a shit-load of other musicians. I can’t call it a bad record…just not a Guns N’ Roses record. I really don’t see myself listening to this often or at all.

Now that that is over, we can move on.

Image: Total Assault PR Assets