First time listening to the entire Chinese Democracy album - WOW

[JohnnyGtar]

I just finished listening to the Chinese Democracy album for the first time. I'm impressed. Bigtime.

Seein' as I hooked up Richard with a guitar that he used on that album, I should have listened to it long ago. Yes, I feel stupid for waiting so long.

Kickass record. There are some brilliant moments on it.

 

Edited April 27, 2016 by JohnnyGtar
Amended the title for clarity

[IncitingChaos]

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

[ratrace]

lol

[BorderlineCrazy]

44 minutes ago, JohnnyGtar said:

I just finished listening to the Chinese Democracy album for the first time. I'm impressed. Bigtime.

Seein' as I hooked up Richard with a guitar that he used on that album, I should have listened to it long ago. Yes, I feel stupid for waiting so long.

Kickass record. There are some brilliant moments on it.

 

Wow, you waited almost as much to listen to it as Axl to release it! 

It's an awesome record indeed, there are only 2 or 3 songs that I don't like. Sorry is my favorite! 

[DexAxl]

You probably heard songs on shows and felt bad for not knowing them.  Album is good but it's NOT fucking GNR, that will always in my eyes be Axl solo album. This i love is my favorite.

[JohnnyGtar]

7 minutes ago, DexAxl said:

You probably heard songs on shows and felt bad for not knowing them.  

I'm busted! LOL

[gnfnr2k]

2 hours ago, JohnnyGtar said:

I just finished listening to the Chinese Democracy album for the first time. I'm impressed. Bigtime.

Seein' as I hooked up Richard with a guitar that he used on that album, I should have listened to it long ago. Yes, I feel stupid for waiting so long.

Kickass record. There are some brilliant moments on it.

 

 

Go find the "demos" on youtube of the songs, they are way better than the album version, especially catcher in the rye 

Ill even help you out on that one 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2016 by gnfnr2k

[Ender04]

I remember being blown away when I heard Chinese Democracy. Hadn't been following Nuguns, so I didn't know about the leaked demo's. I was amazed with the sound of the album when I first heard it. For me it felt a logic follow up for UYI I &II, showing an evolution that made sense to me. I always considered it to be a GNR album.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Ender04
typo

[Bumble's Bridge Pickup]

4 minutes ago, Ender04 said:

I remember being blown away when I heard Chinese Democracy. Hadn't been following Nuguns, so I didn't know about the leaked demo's. I was amazed with the sound of the album when I first heard it. For me it felt a logic follow up for UYI I &II, showing an evolution that made sense to me. I always considered it to be a GNR album.

Same, I first heard the CD material when GN'R streamed it on their Myspace page in 2008. I listened to the whole thing with my brother and we were very impressed.

[jekylhyde]

The only crappy song on ChiDem IMO is Rhiad, ugh...

Other than that, great record! (Though, I see it as an Axl Rose solo album.)

Edited April 27, 2016 by jekylhyde

[NicoRourke]

Always loved that album, my GN'R favorite - there's just ITW that I do not enjoy, except Bucket's solo n' Spanish guitar, and some of Pitman's atmospheric sounds.

[dgnr]

1 hour ago, gnfnr2k said:

 

Go find the "demos" on youtube of the songs, they are way better than the album version, especially catcher in the rye 

Ill even help you out on that one 

 

 

 

I never really get into it. It's a good album indeed, at first I hated it, but then it started growing in me. I like 3/4 songs, hate 3/4 also and the rest is just meh. And I have a love/hate relationship with Catcher. Love the lyrics, the melody, it's inspired in my favourite book, but then it's everything so overproduced, including Axl's vocals. I don't know, I never had that 'wow' moment while listening to it 

[maxpax]

4 hours ago, JohnnyGtar said:

I just finished listening to the Chinese Democracy album for the first time. I'm impressed. Bigtime.

Seein' as I hooked up Richard with a guitar that he used on that album, I should have listened to it long ago. Yes, I feel stupid for waiting so long.

Kickass record. There are some brilliant moments on it.

 

CD is a mess of great ideas. But it does not deserve publication under the brand 'Guns n' Roses'. 

Edited April 27, 2016 by maxpax

[gt72]

I remember buying the cd the day it came out .Giving it a couple listens and saying this is not Guns n Roses and putting it away.When the regrouping was announced I started to listen to it again.Like many others I consider this more of an Axl solo album and it has grown on me some and has some moments but think it could've so much better if it didn't sound so overproduced.

[maxpax]

54 minutes ago, dgnr said:

I never really get into it. It's a good album indeed, at first I hated it, but then it started growing in me. I like 3/4 songs, hate 3/4 also and the rest is just meh. And I have a love/hate relationship with Catcher. Love the lyrics, the melody, it's inspired in my favourite book, but then it's everything so overproduced, including Axl's vocals. I don't know, I never had that 'wow' moment while listening to it 

Its a great album for new melodies, Inspirations, ideas...the Catcher with Brian May sounds like song from the 70s, which is interesting stuff, but how I said...its a very experimental Album and I hope that slash, duff, steven and axl rerecord the whole insanity and release a double or triple album...3 albums on one release day. I mean...come on...that would be unique in rock history and would get a big echo in the media.

[Bumblefeet]

I personally don't get the preference for the demo versions. The solo on Catcher was a patch job (Brian May himself disavowed it), many of the demos have backing tracks, drums, samples and transitions that sound dated and incomplete and luckily got pushed way back for the album mix (CD, Better, TWAT). I own the demos bootleg but I rarely listen to it. The album versions are far superior.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Bumblefeet

[maxpax]

23 minutes ago, gt72 said:

I remember buying the cd the day it came out .Giving it a couple listens and saying this is not Guns n Roses and putting it away.When the regrouping was announced I started to listen to it again.Like many others I consider this more of an Axl solo album and it has grown on me some and has some moments but think it could've so much better if it didn't sound so overproduced.

UYI was also overproduced but perfect. Except My World...which gave us a hint in which direction Axl wanted to go ~> NIN. CD was changed so many times that they washed out the blues, dirty ol' rock n roll, punk and rawness of GnR. And then a guy called Pitman remixed these 1000 ideas of Axl and 100s of different musicians...CD is weird shit. As a solo record great, but as a gnr record it failed.

[DR DOOM]

I like nearly all the songs, but the versions presented on that album are an absolute fucking mess.

The (pre release) live versions and leaks are SO much better.

Ron and Frank basically copy pasted the audio equivalent of cock and balls on every song they "improved".

 

[Tom2112]

1 hour ago, dgnr said:

I never really get into it. It's a good album indeed, at first I hated it, but then it started growing in me. I like 3/4 songs, hate 3/4 also and the rest is just meh. And I have a love/hate relationship with Catcher. Love the lyrics, the melody, it's inspired in my favourite book, but then it's everything so overproduced, including Axl's vocals. I don't know, I never had that 'wow' moment while listening to it 

3/4 good, 3/4 bad? 3/4 good leaves 1/4 for bad / meh.  1/2 great, the other 1/2 IMO good / mediocre.

 

[RussTCB]

14 minutes ago, DR DOOM said:

I like nearly all the songs, but the versions presented on that album are an absolute fucking mess.

The (pre release) live versions and leaks are SO much better.

Ron and Frank basically copy pasted the audio equivalent of cock and balls on every song they "improved".

 

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).

[Eric Cantona]

24 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'd call you crazy for disliking Catcher, but you're an admin and I fear that I'll get punished...

[RussTCB]

Just now, AslatIE said:

I'd call you crazy for disliking Catcher, but you're an admin and I fear that I'll get punished...

 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.

[Philipm787]

27 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).

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

[action]

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.

[spliff]

I like most of the songs when they're played live but when I do listen to the album I usually stop at twat. I pretty much hate the  2nd half of the album (including citr) and prostitute even more so.