Chinese Democracy
I don't normally review albums on this blog. But Guns & Roses have just released their long promised album, and having obtained a copy I wanted to share my thoughts with the world. Or the 2 people that read this blog.
Nowhere near as good as Appetite for Destruction, but realistically what could be? Appetite is one of the best debut albums of all time and was hungry, angry and sexy. Obviously once you get that level of critical and commercial success things are going to change. When I first started listening to Chinese Democracy I thought that it was a poor effort. But then when I took it in to the context of the albums released by G’N’R Chinese Democracy makes sense. Chinese Democracy reminds me of the latter half of Use Your Illusion 2, those long songs all about pain and loneliness. So as a progression this album is an extension of those themes and sounds.
What Chinese Democracy does confirm to me is that Axl was not the hard rocker of the group, his instincts are towards middle of the road melodic rock. This album has no standout guitar riff a la Sweet Child O’ Mine, no hard rockers like Paradise City, You Could Be Mine or Welcome to the Jungle. And the lyrics all seem to be about how lonely Axl is, how no one understands him and madness. Gone are the dangerous songs about drugs & booze (Mr. Brownstone, Night Train,) sex (pretty much any song from Appetite and a fair few from Use Your Illusion 1&2), and just plain anger (Get in the Ring, Out Ta Get Me, Bad Apple).
Having said all that I quite like a few of the tracks. And once I look past that the band is called Guns & Roses and view this as what it truly is, an Axl Rose solo record, then I find I can appreciate it more. If this was a record by some unknown group I would view them as having potential, but the real question is will I go back to this in 6 weeks or even 6 months time and listen to it again? I am not sure I will.
Nowhere near as good as Appetite for Destruction, but realistically what could be? Appetite is one of the best debut albums of all time and was hungry, angry and sexy. Obviously once you get that level of critical and commercial success things are going to change. When I first started listening to Chinese Democracy I thought that it was a poor effort. But then when I took it in to the context of the albums released by G’N’R Chinese Democracy makes sense. Chinese Democracy reminds me of the latter half of Use Your Illusion 2, those long songs all about pain and loneliness. So as a progression this album is an extension of those themes and sounds.
What Chinese Democracy does confirm to me is that Axl was not the hard rocker of the group, his instincts are towards middle of the road melodic rock. This album has no standout guitar riff a la Sweet Child O’ Mine, no hard rockers like Paradise City, You Could Be Mine or Welcome to the Jungle. And the lyrics all seem to be about how lonely Axl is, how no one understands him and madness. Gone are the dangerous songs about drugs & booze (Mr. Brownstone, Night Train,) sex (pretty much any song from Appetite and a fair few from Use Your Illusion 1&2), and just plain anger (Get in the Ring, Out Ta Get Me, Bad Apple).
Having said all that I quite like a few of the tracks. And once I look past that the band is called Guns & Roses and view this as what it truly is, an Axl Rose solo record, then I find I can appreciate it more. If this was a record by some unknown group I would view them as having potential, but the real question is will I go back to this in 6 weeks or even 6 months time and listen to it again? I am not sure I will.
posted by Nick at 9:20 AM
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