[sean.bonner]

Apparently it leaked...
...apparently.

[BrenTheodore]

Apparently it leaked...
...apparently.

Yes, yes it did. Someone one what.cd 'received' a copy.
Listening right now, but never have been a fan too much, and still am not.

[GBV]

I'll probably give it a listen just out of curiosity, but I have no interest in buying it. I find it funny that Axl is still using the Guns N' Roses moniker. In my opinion, trying to pass Chinese Democracy off as a Gn'R album is an insult to the original band. This album is nothing more than a collection of his solo material played by a glorified Gn'R cover band.

well in the big picture, axl had more to do with gnr songwriting than any other band member did.
while appetite is credited as band effort, axl's name appears way more frequently than anyone else's for credits in illusions I and II. and you can't take away what the success of those albums brought to the band, as well.

he's by no means ALL of guns n roses, but he's more so than anyone else. i think i've seen bigger name "stretches" in music than this one.

Izzy Stradlin actually wrote the majority of the songs on Appetite, as well as a large chunk of the Illusion albums. I'd argue that Gn'R was just as much his band as it was Axl's.

i believe axl's name appears in 20 illusions songs, izzy's 12.
appetite was credited as "band-written songs" though i'd reckon there's more to it than that and perhaps it's somewhat as you suggest.
axl gets "identity" points too for that voice, the stage presence, attitude etc.
can't take that away from him. that's what people associate with gnr. on the flipside people also consider slash integral to gnr for identity sake (to a lesser degree than axl, but the look/sound etc. was burned in people's foreheads) -- but he didn't have much to do with the songwriting, in the big picture.
not sure the iz scores these points.
i think izzy touring as "guns n roses" would be a far bigger sham than axl doing it.

[direwolf74]

They're streaming the entire album on their Myspace page. The album is pretty decent actually, but it's nothing mind blowing. It's certainly not worth waiting 13 years for.

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[northern wave]

This thing is a monster! I love it and it's growing with each listen.
There is so much going on in the songs. Say what you want about Axl,
but he pulled this thing off. It's a true album.
I thought most reviewers would slag it, just because
he's an easy target, but it's pretty much getting rave reviews across the board.

[Phantom51]

It sounds like it was recorded in a week, It is totally crap IMO.

[direwolf74]

It sounds like it was recorded in a week

Really?? I think it sounds like the opposite. There are WAY too many overdubs, vocal tracks, synthesizers, and layers upon layers of guitars on this record. The production & musician credits read more like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster than a rock album. Just a quick glance through the liner notes tells me that no less than 40 or 50 people worked on this thing in some capacity. To me it definitely has the sound of something that was slaved over and re-recorded again and again over a long period of time. I actually like the album, but there's just way too much going on for some of the songs to work. "Schackler's Revenge" is by far one of the worst things I've ever heard, while the two main ballads "This I Love" and "Street of Dreams" are cringe-inducing cheese fests. They're bad songs to begin with, but they might have sounded a little better with a more stripped down less-is-more approach. Unfortunately, Axl's ego is way too inflated for him to record them as anything other than bigger than life productions. "There's not enough going on here, people. I need layers! More layers!"

That being said, there are a handfull of songs on this record that I would call excellent: If the World is a really cool tune, as is Catcher in the Rye, Better, There Was a Time, Sorry, I.R.S., and the title track. Is it the greatest album ever, as the Axl Rose fanboys are proclaiming? That would be a big fat resounding NO. I could probably name at least 30 albums released in the last 10 or 15 years that easily wipe the floor with Chinese Democracy. Is it worth the 15 year wait? Not by a longshot. The fact that it took him this long to finish it is beyond ridiculous. But I'll give the guy credit. It isn't the complete trainwreck I expected it to be. It's actually a pretty solid rock album overall. Nothing more, nothing less.

[mark]

It sounds like it was recorded in a week

Really?? I think it sounds like the opposite. There are WAY too many overdubs, vocal tracks, synthesizers, and layers upon layers of guitars on this record. The production & musician credits read more like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster than a rock album. Just a quick glance through the liner notes tells me that no less than 40 or 50 people worked on this thing in some capacity. To me it definitely has the sound of something that was slaved over and re-recorded again and again over a long period of time. I actually like the album, but there's just way too much going on for some of the songs to work. "Schackler's Revenge" is by far one of the worst things I've ever heard, while the two main ballads "This I Love" and "Street of Dreams" are cringe-inducing cheese fests. They're bad songs to begin with, but they might have sounded a little better with a more stripped down less-is-more approach. Unfortunately, Axl's ego is way too inflated for him to record them as anything other than bigger than life productions. "There's not enough going on here, people. I need layers! More layers!"

That being said, there are a handfull of songs on this record that I would call excellent: If the World is a really cool tune, as is Catcher in the Rye, Better, There Was a Time, Sorry, I.R.S., and the title track. Is it the greatest album ever, as the Axl Rose fanboys are proclaiming? That would be a big fat resounding NO. I could probably name at least 30 albums released in the last 10 or 15 years that easily wipe the floor with Chinese Democracy. Is it worth the 15 year wait? Not by a longshot. The fact that it took him this long to finish it is beyond ridiculous. But I'll give the guy credit. It isn't the complete trainwreck I expected it to be. It's actually a pretty solid rock album overall. Nothing more, nothing less.

i agree with you. except, i actually like shackler's revenge :lol:

and i can think of 10 albums that are better than this, and 1000 that aren't as good. one of those 1000 albums would be IVL. yes, i think that this cd is better than IVL,.

flame on :lol:

[GBV]

i give/gave axl every benefit of doubt on this thing, but overall for my .02 it's utter crap. i'm sad to say. i was rooting for him on this one.