GNR Chinese Democracy review - BrownsFan72's Blog

BrownsFan72's Blog

GNR Chinese Democracy review

Posted on December 12, 2008 at 05:51 PM.

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I'm 36 so I was rocking to Appetite for Destruction, GNR Lies, and Use Your Illusion I and II when I was in my late teens and early 20's. So I was pretty pumped to finally see Chinese Democracy released. I will preface my thoughts on the album by saying no matter what people think of Axl Rose and all that go's with being Axl Rose and the problems he seems to create for himself at every turn there is no denying he seems to be the last of the great front men from a bygone era when there wasn't illegal downloads, You Tube, and camera phones at every turn.

The album has sold 261,000 copies in its first week of release even though there was no press promoting or tour dates or even a sighting of Axl to be found once the album was turned over. The press have already declared it a UNDER PERFORMER!!! along with the demise of the album after only 2 weeks. It is amusing considering the album is only available at Best Buy and iTunes to consider the album a under performer. It may have been a bad marketing decision but the haters are never going to like this album no matter what is released so the question is... is the album any good? The answer is yes.

This is not Appetite but feels more like a 16 year in the making follow up to Use your Illusion. Even though all the band members are gone other than Axl, the Album still feels and sounds like GNR.

The best tracks on the album are Chinese Democracy, Better, I.R.S, Street of Dreams, Shackler's Revenge and Madagascar.

There is no Sweet Child O'Mine or Welcome to the Jungle on this album, just hard hitting tunes with great hooks and Axl continuing to show his great vocal range throughout the album and sometimes showing his range 3 or 4 times in a single song. Some of the songs are overdone and left me with the feeling that Axl continued to redo the songs trying for perfection which is impossible and at times probably would have been better off just going with the songs on first gut and stripping them down instead of going insane all these years with each song. The best example of this is the song "Madagascar" which is a great song that is overdone with a MLK segment in the middle of the song which seems out of place. The song held its own without the speech.

So if you go in with a open mind and give the tracks a few spins in your car or home before judging you will probably find yourself singing along the best lines in the song I.R.S......

"Gonna call the President
Gonna call myself a Private Eye
Gonna need the IRS
Gonna get the FBI
Gonna make this a federal case
Gonna wave it right down in your face
Read it baby with your morning news
With a sweet hangover
And the headlines too, now"

Chinese Democracy Rating- 4 out of 5 Stars