Guns N'Roses

[sodascouts]

So they FINALLY released Chinese Democracy. Any thoughts?

[MikeA]

So they FINALLY released Chinese Democracy. Any thoughts?

Have you listened to it Soda? I haven't.

[sodascouts]

I haven't listened to it yet, no - I was kind of hoping to get some opinions first!

[TimothyBFan]

Here is a topic near and dear to my heart!!! I LOVE my GNR!!!! I bought Chinese Democracy the day it came out and it is really good. Ok --it's not the original GNR or anything but it is typical Axl Rose for the most part. His voice sounds great (IMHO). There are several songs on it that I love and a few not so much but for the most part it is pretty good. Really like Shackler's Revenge and Riad n' the Bedouins.I wasn't expecting it to be GREAT, because it just couldn't be, no matter what Axl chooses to call his band, it's not THE GNR. To me GNR will always be Axl, Slash, Duff McKagen, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler but of course that will NEVER happen again! I had to settle for Velvet Revolver for the longest time and now I have Chinese Democracy also. So I will just be happy with that. What other choice do I have?

[hickfromhell]

I think its way over produced. It sounds clean...but just a little too clean. The GNR that I know had this raw live-type element on their studio records...and thats what I loved most about them. And my mentor in my studio production internship said it best, "after 14 years of working on a record, how many original takes do you think are actually on there?" In my opinion...most of the time its those original takes that make a record magical. Other than that....I feel the same way about Chinese Democracy as I do about Metallica's St. Anger record...and that is, If they called it by a different band name as to set it in its own category away from the other records...its a really strong album. Like you said TBF, it is definitely Axl Rose...but not so much GNR.