5 Years of Chinese Democracy

[Angeles_]

Simply breathtaking. Amazing. The best album ever.

[RNRS]

Still haven't bought it. Have downloaded it, obviously, but never played it all the way through. Think there's a few bright spots on the album but most of it is just not my cup of tea and has not much to do with the GnR I grew up with.

[stumbleine]

Axl's masterpiece.

this is correct.

CD is like a journey through Axl's soul.

it's AXL.the realest man alive.

just don't call it GNR.some of us will never accept Axl's delusions.

[wasted]

Only history can judge us.

[Iron MikeyJ]

It is my favorite album of the decade 2000~2009, by quite a large margin honestly. It blows away the latter stuff of that decade imo. The only music (pop,rock,rap) that gives it a run are early 2000/2001, that are really 90's left over bands. I agree that it is very late zeppelin sounding, more In through the out door than physical graffiti imo. But I personally love in through the out door, so that awesome imo. I also hear Roger Waters in it as well, which is also great.

Having said all of that, I would pick both Illusion albums and Appeitie over it. I like CD better than Lies, but only because of quantity not quality. CD just has more songs I like. I really like Spaghetti, but prefer CD (its original music). So that makes it 4th favorite out of 6 gnr albums. But like I said, I really love them all.

For me to say CD is better than one of the Illusions it would have to have a song like YCBM, which it does not. Shackler's is the closest imo (and I do like shackler's) but YCBM is still better imo. That song just F'ING rocks.

So ya thats my 5 year anniversary tale, great album, best of its decade, but 4th best by gnr.

[magisme]

Every time I give it another chance it still sucks.

[ZoSoRose]

Man....half a decade.

Come on, axl. 5 years is forever and you haven't grown up yet

I'll see myself out

[yourcrazy]

An excellent album. Nothing can live up to 14 years of hype, but a great album none the less. Had this come out in 99 like it should of it would of been huge.

[Axl_morris]

Strange that the GNR facebook only made reference to the spaghetti incident anniversary.

[Damn_Smooth]

Man....half a decade.

Come on, axl. 5 years is forever and you haven't grown up yet

I'll see myself out

And don't come back until you get some fresh material.

[ZoSoRose]

Man....half a decade.

Come on, axl. 5 years is forever and you haven't grown up yet

I'll see myself out

And don't come back until you get some fresh material.

My bad

Seriously though, I do love the record. I became a fan in around 05-06 but I ate up all things GNR quick. I remember reading about the new band (was gutted I missed seeing a show on the 06 tour by like 2 weeks, didn't find out they were here fast enough) and was especially intrigued by "Chinese Democracy." I youtubed it and was shocked there were songs up. I listened to all the leaks and was surprised, I thought they were really good! The music was different, the songs all had similar elements to all things rock n' roll and pop, but they also seemed a lot different and complex at the same time. I have many fond memories of listening to those, discovering the old and new band, discovering this place, growing as a fan.

I didn't have to wait out the 14 years as many of you have, but I still waited those 3-4 years as a fan for the record to drop. It finally did, it was an exciting time. Still think its an awesome album. Its different than AfD-UYI, but I can honestly say I think it is a great album. Its too bad it came out too late, and was quickly forgotten about and faded to obscurity. As frusturated as we all get, I don't think it deserved that. I remember being surprised by how much all the critics seemed to like the music on it even though none of my friends (except one, who became a huge fan because of it) would listen to it because there was no Slash, Duff, or Izzy on it (mainly Slash). I truly believe the album having "Guns N' Roses" on it hurt it way more than help it.

Is it Guns N' Roses? No, it is not the same band that existed from 86-93. Is it worth losing that band for? Defiantly not. Was it worth 14 years and all the bullshit? Probably not...

Is it a great album? I think it is, and it will remain one of my favorites for its music and the memories it gave me.

It's sad that we are here 5 years later with nothing else. But are any of us really surprised?

[Facekicker]

It is so great I can't even listen to it. I mean I can hear it, but I can't listen to it. It's like hearing dolphins communicate.

[saber_]

It lacks that analog warmth that tape provides. It sounds a little too crisp and digital-ey in a knife-edged sort of way. If that makes sense.

As for the songs, I dug 'em. I'll never forget hearing If The World at the end of Body of Lies, and later hearing Sorry on XM.

To my ears, I can hear precursors to this album on UYI I & II. Also, a few of the songs remind me of some of Steve Vai's stuff, which I'm into.

[niceguy]

Agreed, Atari video game sounds are so moving.

[Damn_Smooth]

Agreed, Atari video game sounds are so moving.

Is that your new gimmick? Just pop into a thread and spout off something that has nothing to do with anything, then leave?

Good gimmick, I guess.

[Bobbo]

Lol, "masterpiece". I mean really, c'mon...

[Rovim]

The only masterpiece Guns ever released was AFD. Chinese is still an album I listen to 5 years later on a regular basis though. Catcher is a classic for sure.

[Amir]

Still my favourite album. I think AFD is overall a better album, but the highs of CD just hit me really hard. The lyrics may not resonate with me as much as they used to, but I still love them for the most part. Still listen to CD, Shackler's, Better, TWAT, Maddy, TIL and Prostitute almost every day. Sorry and IRS quite often. Put on Scraped as a pick-me-up. Catcher every now and then, I like it from 2:00 (the solo) onwards, but there's too much going on in the intro, just the piano and vocals would have sufficed. SOD is boring but I like the outro. Only noticed the awesome drums in Riad the other day, but that song would have been awesome as a stripped-down rocker that CD needed. Still find new things in the mix after all these years. Wish the synth-y stuff was higher in the mix in Prostitute, as well as the original guitars in the title track, but the only songs where the mixing really bothers me are Catcher and Riad. Madagascar is the perfect blend of hard rock and epic film score music that I was looking for for years and that got me fascinated with this album and Axl in general when I first heard it. Maddy and Sorry were my initial favourites back in Nov '08, didn't get into Better and TWAT for months afterwards. Settled on TWAT and Prostitute as songs that mean most to me.

The solos in TWAT and TIL are among my favourite guitar solos ever, up there with Slash's for SCOM and November Rain. The Bucket solo on TWAT is just mind-blowing.

[Crash Diet]

It's an OK album, but overproduced which is a shame

TWAT is my fav song from CD

It would be better if comes out in 2001-02, even 2006...

Also i consider CD as an Axl solo album

I really cannot understand people who say CD is their favourite GNR album, but music is always depends on people's personaly taste i guess

[themadcaplaughs]

When the album dropped in 2008, I listened to it incessantly and was so overwhelmed to actually say there was a new Guns N' Roses album out that I listened to it non stop. This was a lot of fun, and because of that the record will be forever tied to that specific time in my life. However, after about 9 or 10 months of listening to it on my stereo at home, in my car, and on my ipod when out of the house, I just had enough. I have no doubt I've listened to Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusions, and The Spaghetti Incident more, but that was over years. I would venture to guess I listened to Chinese Democracy close to 60 or 70 times within this time span of less than a year. Needless to say, I was burned out.

That's not to say I stopped liking it. Whenever a song came up on shuffle, I always cranked the song and listened to it, but it never quite got that same devotion for a while. Then, about a year ago, my friend purchased a pretty deluxe sound system (he's a budding audiophile) and had me bring over some records to listen to on his turntable. Without even really thinking, I brought my copy of Chinese Democracy. Listening to the album, in full, for the first time in three of four years, I was shocked (pleasantly) as a few things...

1. Despite the complaints of over production (which there is definitely validity to), there really are things to discover every time you listen to the album. I noticed little flourishes that I did not notice when I played the record non stop in 2008.

2. Despite what people say, it definitely fits comfortable in the Guns N' Roses canon. I suppose something like "Shackler's Revenge" or the shredding from Buckethead can seem a little out there compared to the previous GN'R releases, but really is no more strange than, say, "My World."

3. The tracks that "work" click on a level that is higher than a LOT of the stuff on the Use Your Illusions record. In particular, "Chinese Democracy," "Better," and "Prostitute" stand as the best released under the Guns N' Roses name, and I'd easily take them over some of the filler on Use Your Illusion.

That being said, it's not perfect. It's a little ballad heavy. Obviously, that was the direction Axl was going with the band, but even one more traditional "rocker" would have really boosted the album. Hell, even an alternate sequencing could have done wonders. "Street of Dreams," "If the World," "There was a Time," and "Catcher in the Rye" are all really good songs, but that stretch of them (right after the great sequencing of the first three tracks) almost gives the album a punch it never truly recovers from.

Finally, "Scraped" and "Riad N' the Bedouins" are both (at best) very average tracks. The first three songs show the band can make good rockers, but these two are just unbelievably bland. Coming after the "ballad stretch," they work because of the change of pace, but neither are particularly stand-out songs.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10. A VERY GOOD album that definitely sits well in the Guns N' Roses canon. I hold on to hope that maybe everything will someday be contextualized with another album, but for the moment it's starting to look more and more like Axl wasn't being dramatic when he said it's nothing short of a miracle we got Chinese Democracy.

[wasted]

There's definitely stuff that could have gone on UYI -Riad, IRS, SOD, Madagascar, TWAT, Catcher, TIL is basically UYI 3.

Then you have the new stuff - Chi dem, Shackler's, Better, If The World, Scraped, Sorry, Prostitute.

There's a nice balance. Sometimes I think people could just hear Chi dem and Shacklers and think "this doesn't sound like GNR at all" but later on side 1 and 2 theres very GNR stuff. SOD, TWAT, TIL. Overall I listen to like UYI, I dip in to songs depending on what I feel like, and there's energy tracks and epics, ballads, there's a lot there, certain tracks are pure Axl, sometimes it just the instrumentation that draws you in. You always hear something new.

[ZoSoRose]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/chinese-democracy-songs/

meh... it isnt that positive but not really negative either. surprised twat isnt on there

[chevelle]

Can't believe it's been five years already. I remember making a special trip to Best Buy just to make sure I got it the first day.

Listened to it from front to back for the first time in a long time, and it's still pretty solid. Certainly not as good as I used to think, but hell, I like it.

[GnR Chris]

Great record. Still play it almost daily. Can't believe it's been five long years.

[Flayer]

Pretty positive actually, just has an unflattering title. Not a bad choice of songs for it, I'd definitely drop Sorry for TWAT though, or for Catcher, or for Shackler's, or Madagascar. TWAT first though.

The thing I find funny about Chinese Democracy is how there really isn't a consensus as to what the best songs (or the good songs) from it really are. I know Better and TWAT are the two most widely praised ones on here, but I've also seen plenty of reviewers and other listeners trash them.

Madagascar, Catcher, Street of Dreams, Prostitute, IRS, Shackler's, This I Love, If The World; I've seen them all get praised as the real highlight of the album and also all get trashed as well.

Only real consensus seems to be that Riad's the one nobody likes, and Scraped isn't popular either.