Happy Bday CD!

[soon]

Chinese Democracy critics, the Rian Johnson's of rock criticism. 

[Sydney Fan]

The leaks that have been happening over the last couple of months is what CD should have been. It just seems the 2008 released version is the dumb downed version or simplified version of the intended 2000 album.

The one issue is that you cant hear any bass, bar 2 songs. Its almost like the ....and justice for all of its time. I just wish in certain songs like prostitute the guitars are more up front, like the way you hear slashs guitar at the hartford 2017 show.

[SurfsUp]

Eh, I think it’s their most interesting record as I enter my 30th year in the world. Love them all, but I really appreciate the detail to arrangement in CD and ya just don’t get that on the other records.

[PirateRadio]

I reserved my copy at Best Buy. I walked into the store on release day and felt DISAPPOINTMENT cuz there were 500 cds on the prop stand. Nobody was even looking at them.

[The Holographic Universe]

7 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I'm so glad to see you and a few others saying it's your favorite. I get destroyed on here on a regular basis because it's my favorite GNR album. 

I've actually had people try to tell me that it's NOT actually my favorite lol. They've literally tried to convince me that I don't think that. 

As a huge music lover why is CD your fav GNR album?

6 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Better is my favorite GNR song, but I'd put TWAT in my Top 10 too. TIL has my favorite solo in any GNR song too. 

The TIL solo is one of my favs as well. 

[Tom-Ass]

1 hour ago, PirateRadio said:

I reserved my copy at Best Buy. I walked into the store on release day and felt DISAPPOINTMENT cuz there were 500 cds on the prop stand. Nobody was even looking at them.

SHortly after that they were literally found in the .99 cent bin

[Wagszilla]

Happy Birthday CD!

The Better outro solo!

Axl’s vocals and Pitman’s super funky techno beats on If The World! Buckets flamenco!

Robin’s TIL solo!

Prostitute!!

I hope to hear more CD era demos within my lifetime. Fingers crossed!

[Sledge]

Lyrically it's my favourite era thus far. Barney Stinson agrees.

The end/outro to prostitute is the most beautiful of any gnr song to date. November rain is by far my favourite song but that ending is angelic

[shotsfired cro]

16 hours ago, RussTCB said:

 

It's a GNR album. Period. This whole "my favorite person didn't play on it, so it's not a GNR album" thing is so tired. 

Personally, I'm very happy it was released as a GNR album seeing as GNR members played on it. 

If you consider Zwan a Smashing PUmpkins album - it is.

Zwan had 2 founding members, CD had - 1.

The fact it says GNR on the cover - doesn't mean there is GNR inside.

The quality sums it up.

None of the CD songs could have made it on the AFD - TSI albums. The only song of those albums that had CD potential was My World, and that says enough.

You can't seriously compare any CD track with Breakdown, Locomotive, YCBM, Jungle, Patience, Dead Horse, Back off, Perfect crime, Estranged, Don't cry, PC...Not in this lifetime (unless you are Jarmo(ron) ).

CD and Zwan are pretty much the worst 2 albums last 30 years by any band.

[RussTCB]

30 minutes ago, shotsfired cro said:

If you consider Zwan a Smashing PUmpkins album - it is.

Zwan had 2 founding members, CD had - 1.

The fact it says GNR on the cover - doesn't mean there is GNR inside.

The quality sums it up.

None of the CD songs could have made it on the AFD - TSI albums. The only song of those albums that had CD potential was My World, and that says enough.

You can't seriously compare any CD track with Breakdown, Locomotive, YCBM, Jungle, Patience, Dead Horse, Back off, Perfect crime, Estranged, Don't cry, PC...Not in this lifetime (unless you are Jarmo(ron) ).

CD and Zwan are pretty much the worst 2 albums last 30 years by any band.

I can compare those songs because I like them equally. And I agree, the quality does sum it up seeing as I love most of the songs on CD. 

[themadcaplaughs]

21 hours ago, PirateRadio said:

I reserved my copy at Best Buy. I walked into the store on release day and felt DISAPPOINTMENT cuz there were 500 cds on the prop stand. Nobody was even looking at them.

I remember feeling a bit of that as well. Honest to God, the critical/commercial reaction to Chinese Democracy was of no importance to me. We had the album, and that was all that mattered. As a matter of fact, I remember being pleasantly surprised that, despite the running joke it had become, the album scored some really good reviews and debuted at #3. On the trip to Best Buy (only two miles from where I lived at the time), I told myself there probably wouldn't be a lot of people there; it was 11:00 on a Sunday morning, but it did definitely sting when I was literally the ONLY person in the store (I had to wait at the register for two or three minutes because none of the employees had gotten to their stations yet). Immediately thereafter, I went to my car and, like the true GN'R nerd I am, read the liner notes before listening to the CD just to see what musicians actually ended up on the album (although Axl had said, multiple times, that Buckethead's parts would make the album, I was still surprised at just how much the album art featured him; would have been like having Izzy be the focal point of the art for Use Your Illusions and the fact that the infamous Paul Tobias actually ended up on more of the album than Richard Fortus). 

I know the memory for a lot of people was that promotion for the album was non-existent, but people need to remember we were talking about a rock album released in 2008, a particularly paltry time for big rock albums, and the height of people illegally downloading music. Given the circumstances, it actually got some pretty good advertisement spots (football and SNL), the MySpace stream got some attention, and the Tabernacle in Atlanta (a small club GN'R played in 2012) hosted a listening party (I couldn't make it because of work). 

 

/Rant/reminiscing 

[MYWIFEMYLIFE]

It is one of the best albums ever, and I'm in love with everything about it, especially the wait. And you know what? I waited for Lies, which was ok, but it never felt like a real album, and waited for UYIs, and the wait for UYIs felt a lot longer than the wait for Chin Dem. But when the wait was over for Chin Dem, it was something a lot more special to me, cant describe it properly, but I was never that much happy about an album that much before. 

Long live Chin Dem.

[Jordan Rose]

My favourite album of all time. Although, not so much the album versions of the songs as there are superior versions of the majority live, at least vocally.

On another note, if there was another band/artist I loved who had only released one record in the last thirty years and I hated that album, i'm 100% sure I wouldn't login every day to a message board of that band and make a point of reading every thread pertaining to that album I hate and reminding everyone for the umpteen thousandth post over the last 18 years just how much I hate that album and the whole period surrounding it. Because if I did that i'd be a pretty pathetic, sorry-ass shit-for-brains jabroni. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Jordan Rose

[Tom-Ass]

3 hours ago, themadcaplaughs said:

I know the memory for a lot of people was that promotion for the album was non-existent, but people need to remember we were talking about a rock album released in 2008, a particularly paltry time for big rock albums, and the height of people illegally downloading music. Given the circumstances, it actually got some pretty good advertisement spots (football and SNL), the MySpace stream got some attention, and the Tabernacle in Atlanta (a small club GN'R played in 2012) hosted a listening party (I couldn't make it because of work). 

People used the non promotion angle as an excuse as to why it didn't blow up.  The also played the whole album front to back  here on WAAF which was one of the bigger rock station in the country and it just didn't get a good reception.  People were calling destroying it on air the following morning. Most rock fans knew it was coming it was just that not enough cared as some would have hoped.  It was a pretty big deal.  It charted pretty high due to the anticipation the Gn'R name. They also miscalculated the demand and shipped way too many copies which bloated the initial sales. It just wasn't solid enough to have any legs and fizzled out immediately. I know some people love it but it just didn't appeal to the majority of fans that made the band one of the biggest bands of all time.