First time listening to the entire Chinese Democracy album - WOW

[DR DOOM]

26 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

I generally think of myself as a pretty good music listener. By that I mean I usually pick out stuff that other people don't or whatever... you know what I mean? Anyway... when the album came out, I didn't really notice a lot fo the copy and paste stuff. There was one vocal in Riad that I was like "OH SHIT. That was a terrible c&p!" but other than that, I didn't notice much. When the RockBand tracks leaked and I got to listen to everything individually, I was like "Jesus H Christ, HOW did I miss all this c&p??". I don't know why I didn't catch a lot of it at first, but it was really glaring after I heard the isolated stuff.

On the topic of the record itself, I still love it and it's still my favorite GN'R record overall. I only dislike one song on it which people always tell me I'm crazy for not liking (CitR).

I was HORRIFIED when I got home and put the album on for the first time, I just couldn't believe it.

The title track and Riad suffer the most IMO, Better, The Blues and TWAT aren't too far behind.

Here's hoping the 02 album makes it's way out someday.

[RussTCB]

Just now, Philipm787 said:

Your favourite gnr record overall? Seriously? When did you get into the band?

Back in 1987.

The biggest argument people usually make against this to me is "...BUT AFD THOUGH!". Here's my thoughts on the situation: I like or love 13 of the 14 songs on CD. I like or love 9 of the 12 tracks on AFD. So overall, I like CD more than AFD.

[Eric Cantona]

1 minute ago, RussTCB said:

 No one would ever get punished for a differing opinion 

Pretty much everyone I know tells me I'm crazy for not liking Catcher though, so I'm used to it.

People call me crazy for liking every GN'R song, including My World....

[DR DOOM]

1 minute ago, action said:

Axl himself worded it perfectly why I don't like Chinese democracy. I believe he said, "appetite was made to dance on, and Chinese wasn't". I think that sums up my main beef with it. I like the swing and "oomph" of appetite a lot more than the robotic rhythms of Chinese. I can see the melodies are there, but I find the album as a whole difficult to listen to. I know a great rocking album when I hear one: ace of spades, rocks, LA women, let there be rock, some girls, Izzy's 177°, master of puppets... unfortunately, Chinese isn't one of them. Appetite is though.

Axl wanted to produce "intelligent" music. It's obvious he wanted to prove he could make a good GNR record on his own: "it don't really matter, guess you'll find out for yourself", he sings in the opening lines.

I don't consider myself to be particularly intelligent though, so therefore this music is not aimed at me. I just like to rock out and have fun. Some people will tell you rock is the music of the "ordinary" people. Like one article said: intellectual people don't "want" to like guns n roses, they are not "supposed" to like them so they listen to something like muse or radiohead. it's a form of "musical elitism". I know a few intellectual people and they all look down on GNR. Then they tell me to listen to coldplay. yawn.

I don't know if there is such a thing as "intellectual" music. All I know is you have good music and bad music. I do know I find most music classified as "intellectual", including Chinese, utterly boring. Please Axl, next time make a danceable record with slash and duff.

The thing is, Chinese Democracy features (for my money,anyway) the least intelligent lyrics of any "Guns N Roses"album, TSI? included.

[Philipm787]

I actually like the album as a whole, 4-5 really good/great songs,  5-6 good/average songs then two or three real stinkers. My biggest issue with it is just how painful it is to listen to the album from start to finish, like fuck me it is a drag. Now I start at better, skip to twat, skip to sorry and finish it out from there? It's okay though, because I accepted that cd is not an album of the gnr band the world knows and loves a long time ago, therefore allowing me to enjoy the album.

[SoulMonster]

How anyone can get ridicule for liking something is beyond me. Liking something gives you additional happiness. It is a plus. People should be envious at other people for liking things they don't because they can enjoy more.

[action]

11 minutes ago, DR DOOM said:

The thing is, Chinese Democracy features (for my money,anyway) the least intelligent lyrics of any "Guns N Roses"album, TSI? included.

goes to show how opinions differ. I find CD to have some pretty clever and deep lyrics. Madagascar, Chinese democracy, catcher in the rye...

thing is, strange as it may sound, I prefer simple but strong lyrics. things like "I don't care about you... fuck you!!". it's as cheesy as it comes, but it works. I usually play this record when my boss was being a dick or something, it's an almost therapeuthic song.

[emybdc]

I'm also a big fan of CD. I think some of Axl's best lyrics are in that album - some of my favorites, at least. Better, Street of Dreams and TWAT are just killer.

I don't think it's what Axl had in mind for the next GnR album though. Since his band members left GnR he had to work with other musicians, maybe that's why it took him so long to release it. Anyway, I like the concept, like most song (except for Sorry) and I definitely enjoyed hearing some of them live played by Slash.

[december pain]

I remember first hearing the album and being blown away, but I was such a GNR stan back in the day that definitely influenced my opinion. I was more just impressed it came out!

Over time, I've come to hold the opinion that it's a decent album, some real highs, some real lows, not the best album but definitely not the worst. Overall it's pretty good  Definitely in the middle of my GNR album rankings.

Edited April 27, 2016 by december pain

[slash23579]

I fucking love Chinese Democracy, even though I don't really consider it a GNR album. It's hard to consider it a band effort when there isn't a single, steady lineup making it. It's almost like Slash's first solo album, but with musicians instead of singers. It's still a great record, even if its a little overproduced.

[Russel Nash]

2 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I generally think of myself as a pretty good music listener. By that I mean I usually pick out stuff that other people don't or whatever... you know what I mean? Anyway... when the album came out, I didn't really notice a lot fo the copy and paste stuff. There was one vocal in Riad that I was like "OH SHIT. That was a terrible c&p!" but other than that, I didn't notice much. When the RockBand tracks leaked and I got to listen to everything individually, I was like "Jesus H Christ, HOW did I miss all this c&p??". I don't know why I didn't catch a lot of it at first, but it was really glaring after I heard the isolated stuff.

On the topic of the record itself, I still love it and it's still my favorite GN'R record overall. I only dislike one song on it which people always tell me I'm crazy for not liking (CitR).

I love catcher demo. I can't listen to the album version. I don't know where to being with.

[blackieloveless]

There are some brilliant moments on it. agree... otherwise its a big cluster fuck of non cohesiveness .

[Silent Jay]

After 8 years I still have the feeling I don't get it completly with it, it's obsessing. Sound so great I'm lost everytime

I think Chinese's colour is dark red, Shackler is definitely blue, Better is green, obvious, SOD is light red, If The World yellow, twat gray, catcher yellow blue light, scraped red/pink, riad gray/blue, Sorry dark red, IRS yellow, Madagascar heavy green, TIL is black/violet, Prostitute light blue. It's a great palette of colours, the finest piece of art.

Gonna listen If The World and I.R.S.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Silent Jay

[-W.A.R-]

the album taught me that things i thought were true before, were just lies i couldn't see

[Ralphelmo]

I had the same feeling, "wow! what a crap"

[killuridols]

wow is this the real life?

I knew CD would get more loving after people seeing Slash and Duff play some of those songs. People usually hate it because there's no Slash on CD.

I love the album, only songs I dislike are Scraped and IFW, but that's it... I find myself listening to it more often than the rest of the albums because it has the most modern sound. I really hope Axl can release the other music he was making and have Slash & Duff collaborations. Please, guys, it's about time!

[Philipm787]

2 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Back in 1987.

The biggest argument people usually make against this to me is "...BUT AFD THOUGH!". Here's my thoughts on the situation: I like or love 13 of the 14 songs on CD. I like or love 9 of the 12 tracks on AFD. So overall, I like CD more than AFD.

That just sounds crazy to me, a gnr record that's your favourite, that doesn't have Slash or Izzy or any real rock n roll sensibilities (music wise). But that's your opinion, so it's kinda cool really

[weaponsnflowers]

I find the lyrics in many ChiDem songs to be totally fascinating!. Like Catcher in the Rye for example. I get goosebumps when the John Lennon references come up.

"On an ordinary day, not in an ordinary way, all at once the song I heard, no longer would it play"

That's such tragic yet beautiful way to describe how a life was lost. And then the realization that Lennon would no longer be playing those songs. The comfort people got from his songs of course remain, but he won't be playing them anymore. That part of the song is crushing.

The mystique that is Axl Rose is in that record to some degree. All his frustrations and feelings poured on those songs. One can definitely relate to many of the emotions and words on those songs. I can't stop saying just how delicious that album is. I also appreciate what Axl was trying to do, i.e. reinvent Guns musically. He didn't want Guns to be just the "new Rolling Stones". He wanted to go The Beatles road, with the more experimental stuff. And I respect that. It paid off imo. Well, one records worth anyway.

Edited April 27, 2016 by weaponsnflowers

[killuridols]

17 minutes ago, weaponsnflowers said:

I find the lyrics in many ChiDem songs to be totally fascinating!. Like Catcher in the Rye for example. I get goosebumps when the John Lennon references come up.

"On an ordinary day, not in an ordinary way, all at once the song I heard, no longer would it play"

That's such tragic yet beautiful way to describe how a life was lost. And then the realization that Lennon would no longer be playing those songs. The comfort people got from his songs of course remain, but he won't be playing them anymore. That part of the song is crushing.

The mystique that is Axl Rose is in that record to some degree. All his frustrations and feelings poured on those songs. One can definitely relate to many of the emotions and words on those songs. I can't stop saying just how delicious that album is. I also appreciate what Axl was trying to do, i.e. reinvent Guns musically. He didn't want Guns to be just the "new Rolling Stones". He wanted to go The Beatles road, with the more experimental stuff. And I respect that. It paid off imo. Well, one records worth anyway.

Excelent post!

I'd love if we had a thread to dissect Chinese Democracy lyrics. I sometimes struggle to understand them but I realize many of them are great. It would also have been nice to have Axl talking so much more about that album, the songs, how he came up with all those ideas, concepts, subjects.... Why he never did that? I'm disappointed

Axl, can you at least write a book about creating 'Chinese Democracy'? So intrigued about so many things!

[Tom-Ass]

Most of it sounds like nails running down a chalkboard to me... I really liked the initial RIR live versions of CD, Madagascar and The Blues.. The studio versions are ok but no where near as good. The rest of the album is a steaming pile.. It will always be a damn shame that Axl didn't just get this out of his system as a solo album

Edited April 27, 2016 by Tom-Ass

[dgnr]

Truth is I don't think anyone hates CD. I hated at first, I was 17, just had found GN'R and listening to Chinese was like 'wtf is this?'. But as I said it started growing in me and sometimes I listen to it. I don't look at it as a GN'R record, I don't listen the GN'R I love in there, for me is Axl solo, but it's a good album. Brilliant lyrics, nice melodies, but way overproduced and I miss drums. It has crap like If the World but also awesomeness like TWAT. I was never opposed to Slash and Duff playing it (or demand 'if they're playing this, they should play VR' ) and I'm really glad they did it. The title track never did anything for me but now I'm starting digging it. 
I feel that my love for CD will just grow with time. 

[Ifdworld]

It's my favourite gn'r record. Which is weird, cuz i already loved every gn'r album before it. But this one i keep on listening the most. I really like the lyrics and Robin's Guitar parts. My only complain is that i think it has a lil too much information on it. but over the time it just really grows on you and you get to discover different things after multiple listens.

[MrSoftie]

9 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

The first time I heard the record I was disappointed with Axl's vocals, but then it grew on me and I started liking the songs a lot. 

 

The songs that I liked on a first listen were Chinese Democracy, Shacklers Revenge, Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye, Madagascar and Prostitute. I now would add TWAT, IRS, and Better as songs that grew on me and I started to appreciate later

Ironically I had the opposite reaction When I first listened to CD in full I thought "Wow he can actually sing!" Songs like TIL and IRS are what grabbed my attention specifically.

And that's how I really got into GNR, before that I was just one of the casual swine I played guitar in a band so I knew the classics.

Now I would say Axl's best studio vocals are of course... Appetite. Out of this world. But I prefer to listen to live versions these days, more raw and exciting now that I've heard all the studio songs there are to hear. 

[Rapidfire]

Good album, but ruined by Raid and Scraped IMO. TWAT and Better are 2 songs which I hold extremely high regards of!

[IncitingChaos]

37 minutes ago, MrSoftie said:

Ironically I had the opposite reaction When I first listened to CD in full I thought "Wow he can actually sing!" Songs like TIL and IRS are what grabbed my attention specifically.

And that's how I really got into GNR, before that I was just one of the casual swine I played guitar in a band so I knew the classics.

Now I would say Axl's best studio vocals are of course... Appetite. Out of this world. But I prefer to listen to live versions these days, more raw and exciting now that I've heard all the studio songs there are to hear. 

I was expecting a much more lower register vocal sound. I honestly thought he'd have his old voice back but I got use to the high voice and if you think about it that voice had a ton of power in it. I still like his falsetto better in the 90's than the CD one. 

 

I I just think the album was too different from gnr classic stuff to really get people to like it, the raw demos still stand up better than the actual CD