The Divisive Legacy & Surprising Future of Guns N' Roses' 'Chinese Democracy

[Fstolo]

Only found out about this album ten years too late. Now, it's like my guilty pleasure. I listen to it more than any other CD I own.  I don't think I really dislike any track, but there are a few I would skip every now and then, because I'm just not in the mood. The first eight songs of my list I listen to frequently and enjoy them every single time.

1) There was a Time

2) Better

3) Madagascar

4) Chinese Democracy

5) This I Love

6) Street of Dreams

7) Prostitute

8) Sorry

9) Catcher in the Rye

10) Scraped

11) Shackler's Revenge

12) If the World

13) I.R.S.

14) Riad N' the Bedouins

 

[wasted]

On 25/12/2018 at 10:22 PM, Rovim said:

I wonder how many unreleased Chinese era tunes Axl got that are just as great as the best stuff on Chinese and how would that sound like with Slash and Duff. versatility is important, Robin and Bucket came up with some solos that Slash didn't exactly blew away and yet I can see how in the studio he could still come up with high quality compositions. just not sure how Axl will handle it, will he replace all the Bucket and Robin leads or will it be more objective in a sense and some of the recorded work will be kept as is but with mostly Slash. More of a Bucket role if anything Chinese makes it on the album and let him loose on his own tunes/new material.

I think it will be like CD but Slash will be Bucket and Bumble...I’m totally making this up if you just joined this plane as we go into a unsaveable nose dive...but yeah Slash will be like the new Ron finishing touches on tracks, but also get a suite like Shackler’s, Scraped, Sorry like Bucket- that’s basically Axl material. But maybe if there’s something Bucket collabed on or solo’d on and it works it will remain. But then there will be at least 7 tracks of pure Slash, Duff and Fortus where it’s basically a fresh batch of bad apples, right? Hopefully Slash listens to a lotta latter day Zepp before playing. We need ancient alien technology here people, back from Nagasaki, we can do this. 

[SAU3R]

I think CD is the most interesting record in the GNR catalogue, it's an album I never get tired of and the only one from GNR which I regularly listen to from start to finish 

If I had to rank it:

1. TWAT - no doubt about it, one of the best songs that GNR ever did, one of the best guitar solos of all the GNR songs, a masterpiece 

2. Maddy - great song with deep lyrics, I enjoy the middle part with the pieces from tape and how it builds up to the refrain again

3. Prostitute - I think this had to grow on me, when I first listened to the album back in 2011, I didn't like the song (at the time I was 13, I didn't really understand what it was about), but it really is the perfect ending to the album, the best closing song on any GNR album (including RQ) 

4. CD - I like the title track for the straight hard rock number that it is and it's become one of my favorites live

5. TIL - even though recent versions were horrible, I like the studio version, good song, very deep and sad,was a highlight in 2016

6. IRS 

7. Street of dreams - NR feeling but without the great solos, even though the solo is still good 

8. Sorry

9. If the world

10. Riad - doesn't deserve the hate it gets imo, still only a mediocre song

11. CITR - I enjoyed it for a long time but recently it dropped on the list, sometimes it's just too much for me 

12. Better - I don't get the hype behind it, it's very catchy but that's it for me, sounds too uninspired compared to the rest of the album 

13. Scraped - shit song, any other hard rock song would've been a better fit 

14. Shacklers Revenge - same as for scraped but even a little worse imo

[patiencepatience]

9 hours ago, SAU3R said:

I think CD is the most interesting record in the GNR catalogue, it's an album I never get tired of and the only one from GNR which I regularly listen to from start to finish 

If I had to rank it:

1. TWAT - no doubt about it, one of the best songs that GNR ever did, one of the best guitar solos of all the GNR songs, a masterpiece 

2. Maddy - great song with deep lyrics, I enjoy the middle part with the pieces from tape and how it builds up to the refrain again

3. Prostitute - I think this had to grow on me, when I first listened to the album back in 2011, I didn't like the song (at the time I was 13, I didn't really understand what it was about), but it really is the perfect ending to the album, the best closing song on any GNR album (including RQ) 

4. CD - I like the title track for the straight hard rock number that it is and it's become one of my favorites live

5. TIL - even though recent versions were horrible, I like the studio version, good song, very deep and sad,was a highlight in 2016

6. IRS 

7. Street of dreams - NR feeling but without the great solos, even though the solo is still good 

8. Sorry

9. If the world

10. Riad - doesn't deserve the hate it gets imo, still only a mediocre song

11. CITR - I enjoyed it for a long time but recently it dropped on the list, sometimes it's just too much for me 

12. Better - I don't get the hype behind it, it's very catchy but that's it for me, sounds too uninspired compared to the rest of the album 

13. Scraped - shit song, any other hard rock song would've been a better fit 

14. Shacklers Revenge - same as for scraped but even a little worse imo

Superfluous acronyms & nicknames

[The Real McCoy]

It's an album that I need to be in the mood for, but I loved it then, and I still love it now.

[fernomenoyde]

01-Chinese democracy

02-Riad (yes, Riad)

03-TWAT

04-SORRY

05-BETTER

06-Shlacker's

07-Catcher

08-Maddy

That's all i hear from CD. And mostly every week.

[Binauralsounds]

On 12/22/2018 at 5:08 PM, Wagszilla said:

Billboard hasn’t read my 3-page analysis of Oh My God.

Can I read it?

[Jw224]

On 25/12/2018 at 3:19 AM, RussTCB said:

That has yet to be proven. While the Euro pressings might be pressed on better vinyl, they would have used the same stampers. Inner groove distortion has nothing to do with the vinyl used and everything to do with the stampers. 

Wow, really? It sounds awful past the first 2 tracks on each side to me. It seriously breaks my heart 

I'm in the UK and yeah, the first few tracks honestly sound pretty great and then it starts to distort like crazy. 

[RussTCB]

2 hours ago, Jw224 said:

I'm in the UK and yeah, the first few tracks honestly sound pretty great and then it starts to distort like crazy. 

Dammit. That's what I thought. Ok, well thanks for saving me the trouble. I won't grab that pressing. 

[DTJ80]

13 hours ago, Jw224 said:

I'm in the UK and yeah, the first few tracks honestly sound pretty great and then it starts to distort like crazy. 

Daft question - is the vinyl you have definitely a non-US one? I’m in the U.K. and got the vinyl brand new however it appears to be a US print (I did get it from EBay). 

[Jw224]

1 hour ago, DTJ80 said:

Daft question - is the vinyl you have definitely a non-US one? I’m in the U.K. and got the vinyl brand new however it appears to be a US print (I did get it from EBay). 

Hm, I haven't actually checked this. 

[DTJ80]

21 minutes ago, Jw224 said:

Hm, I haven't actually checked this. 

To be fair - I had to double check mine as thought it was a European one!!! Nope - it was USA!

[Gunsdrummer63]

I might be in the minority here but I'm convinced TWAT was the follow up to Estranged, not The General.

[Legendador]

1 hour ago, Gunsdrummer63 said:

I might be in the minority here but I'm convinced TWAT was the follow up to Estranged, not The General.

But how can you imply that if "The General" was never heard?

Edited January 9, 2019 by Legendador

[Gunsdrummer63]

Just now, Legendador said:

But how can you imply that if "The General" was never heard?

Good point. Just basing it off the usual rumors. 

[Azifwekare]

3 hours ago, DTJ80 said:

Daft question - is the vinyl you have definitely a non-US one? I’m in the U.K. and got the vinyl brand new however it appears to be a US print (I did get it from EBay). 

Same here. Also in UK but I'm pretty sure I ended up with a US pressing. I always thought it sounded amazing, with the exception of the usual inner groove distortion, especially for an album with a mix like CD, which is why I was so suprised to see people saying how crap it was.

I remember CD and Scraped in particular completely kicked my ass on vinyl. 

Although it's been a while since I listened to the vinyl so it may be worse than I remember. 

[Azifwekare]

1 hour ago, Legendador said:

But how can you imply that if "The General" was never heard?

I know that was how Baz described it, but now that we know a lot more about The General (eg. it being a song about child abuse), I don't get how it would be a sequel to Estranged. TWAT definitely seems closer to that description.

[Legendador]

15 minutes ago, Azifwekare said:

I know that was how Baz described it, but now that we know a lot more about The General (eg. it being a song about child abuse), I don't get how it would be a sequel to Estranged. TWAT definitely seems closer to that description.

Bach described it as a slow grinding song, but it doesn't say too much... Again, the theme of the song is just people in this forum guessing and implying that they are insiders.

Nobody knows nothing. The only people that know something about the song is the people that heard it in full, which is no one outside the band's inner circle.

[DTJ80]

1 hour ago, Azifwekare said:

Same here. Also in UK but I'm pretty sure I ended up with a US pressing. I always thought it sounded amazing, with the exception of the usual inner groove distortion, especially for an album with a mix like CD, which is why I was so suprised to see people saying how crap it was.

I remember CD and Scraped in particular completely kicked my ass on vinyl. 

Although it's been a while since I listened to the vinyl so it may be worse than I remember. 

I actually haven’t got round to listening to mine since I got it - last year! I think the tell-tale sign is on the back. If it has the FBI Piracy logo on it I’m sure that alone means it’s American. I did look at DISCOGS but that didn’t appear to be right.

[F*ck Fear]

01 There Was A Time (For me, this is the best song on the album, hands down.)

02 Better (The closest to Axl sounding like his vintage self. Loved it ever since the first time I heard the leak.)

03 Prostitute (Great fucking song, and a killer ending for the album.)

04 Chinese Democracy (Badass rocker)

05 Riad N' The Bedouins (Riad has always had a special place in my heart. I love the the vocal right after the guitar solo.)

06 Shackler's Revenge (Great rocker with that Buckethead signature sound. I wish Bucket would have a solo on the track, though.)

07 Madagascar (Awesome track, but the 2002 soundboard from Boston is better.)

08 Sorry

09 Street Of Dreams (Another good tune that was better in 2002)

10 Scraped (This could be higher on my list had the intro been more like how it's played live.)

11 I.R.S

12. If The World

13. Catcher In The Rye

14. This I Love (Other than Robin's solo, this track does nothing for me. I loved the 2010 live version, though. Why the fuck didn't he sing this like he did on the remix?)