gnrwillbeforever

Your singers voice is shit.

ditto

artful screaming... actually, i'll just call it some really bad screaming

Wow-----I could sing better than that... has axl hired a hitman yet? to take otu these guys and spare them further embarrassment? If I did that I would have destroyed the taping and become a hermit for the rest of my life rather than embarrass axl like that... wow, man

Okay I know this might not be interesting to anyone, but it is close to midnight, I am bored, and I like to write.

I don't post here very much, but I have been a GNR fan since 1988 when I first heard them and suddenly stopped listening to all my Def Leppard albums. Like everyone else I've been faithfully waiting for them to put up a follow up to the Illusions. I can still remember on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, waiting in the "Face the Music" record store, asking the clerk, "where the hell are the albums?" There were about 3 of us there asking him the same thing, and he pointed at a mail truck that had just pulled up outside and said, "They're right in there!" They brought them in and I snatched UYI I & II, took them back to my dorm, and listened straight through for several hours.

Since then, I've been waiting for their follow-up (I don't count The Spaghetti Incident as it was all covers). I can remember often, when I was in a supermarket and bored, going over to the magazine section and while I was there, checking out the latest issue of Metal Edge or Hit Parader, in hopes of finding some info. on a new GNR album. PEOPLE, THIS WAS IN 1996!!! LOL. Yes, it's been a long, hard, patient road for us true blue guns fans. When I heard Slash quit I thought that was the end. Then when I heard Axl was trying to rebuild something great, I have always been following his progress over the years, hoping he succeeds.

Anyway, that is the background on me, to show my comments come from someone with a lot of knowledge about the band, and that I'm not someone who has only heard Greatest Hits. With that in mind, here's what I think (drumroll, LOL).........

I think anyone who thinks these leaks are a disappointment, is insane. LOL, okay I know it's music so it is subjective, therefore it obviously can be a disappointment. But just from my own perspective, these songs are even greater than I had hoped for. The man has not been just sitting in his studio playing tiddly winks all these years, people. Even as rough demos, these songs have "it." As people often say, you can't describe what "it" is, you just know "it" when you hear it.

I guess if I could describe one thing similar about the 3 songs, they all have momentum. They are alive, and dammit they are going somewhere. This is some very cool creative stuff. I actually feel that about these 3 songs more than I do about either Maddy or The Blues, both of which I like very much.

As for "Axl's new sound," if you want to call it that, I think it is beautiful. I love the old songs as much as anyone, but if we had 3 versions of "It's So Easy," it would seem rather forced and false to me. Those songs were written when Axl was sleeping in doorways and collecting spare change to get biscuits and gravy at Denny's, not when he was in his 40's and living in Malibu with a large black man named Earl.

Whatever faults Axl Rose has, the man has always been uncompromisingly, unflinchingly honest. What he is feeling comes out exactly in his songs, whether it is love, hate, prejudice, rage, kindness, or sadness. That is also why I find the rumor of him "purposely leaking the tracks," to be ludicrous. Axl Rose is not the kind of person who is going to subversively leak tracks to the public, in the vain hope that he will be more popular. This guy has resisted the hunger of the public for his music for over a DECADE, just because he didn't believe in releasing anything unless it was 100% exactly what he envisioned. Do you really think he would want to leak a DEMO, the very definition of an unfinished product, to the public? Preposterous.

As to other objections: Axl's voice. I have laughed at this one for years. People saying, "His voice has gotten worse, it sounded too 'clear' during the '02 tour!" Give me a break. I always knew that was BS, a person's voice gets BETTER as they get older, not worse. Any great singer can tell you that. If a person's voice was great at 25, it will be even better and fuller at 45, that is just a fact (unless they horrifically abuse it). So it's no surprise to me his voice sounds great. I would guess his songwriting abilities have improved as well (as the tracks would bear out).

I also think it is funny when people say, "These tracks aren't as good as on Use Your Illusion." See, us old people remember when those CDs first came out, and people were slagging on the UYI tracks back then, the same way some are on these demos right now. Fast forward 15 years, and suddenly the UYI tracks are revered. Don't get me wrong I love the UYI albums, I just think it's kind of funny because I remember people complaining the same way 15 years ago. "The songs are too different, it doesn't sound like Appetite, etc., etc." Now songs like Estranged are considered sacro-sanct. But in 1991, all you heard was "I wish there were more Welcome to the Jungles on here, what is all this weird sh*t."

It's hard to describe what you feel about music, about it's quality. But you just know it when you hear it. When I listen to TWAT, yes it is very rough and needs editing, but if you can't hear the genius potential in that thing, you have the musical acumen of a spider monkey. I mean, come on. It baffles me that some people can't hear that.

Do I think these songs could have been written with Slash? Maybe if they tied him up somewhere while they worked on the songs. I mean, I love Slash, but he is perfect for Appetite-style rock, not this stuff. The man is a genius of bluesy, hard rock, but I can't see him ever signing off on this stuff unless Earl was sitting on him. If that is the case, I am glad he left. I get a lot more excited about this new stuff, then the prospect of hearing Velvet Revolver with Axl singing the lyrics.

As for IRS, that is actually the song of the 3 I am least excited about, perhaps because it is the most traditional. I think it is a very good song and would fit in great with any of the rockers on the Illusions, it's just that I am more excited about the stuff I am hearing on TWAT and Better. At first I did not think much of TWAT, but then after I listened to it a few times, I was at work, and started hearing it in my head, over and over again. I thought damn, why do I keep hearing this? The sh*t was growing on me, right away. Now I listen to it every day, and its potential just looms more and more each time I listen to it. Anyone else feel that way?

Something I don't get is the people who complain about the intro to Better. I LOVE the intro to better. I think that is one of the best parts of the song. Don't change a thing, Axl! To me, Better is the kind of song I just want to get into my convertible with, and zoom off down the street listening to it full blast, with the top down. Too bad I don't have a convertible, but if I did, dammit, I'd be listening to Better in it! And just think, we haven't even heard the whole song!

To people who say, "their isn't a single," I would say Better would make a great one, that's my opinion anyway. I think the public, non-GNR fans would really get into it. And, I believe there are at least 6 more songs we haven't heard that will be just as good or better.

These new songs just have me stoked, this is the best news out of GNR land I've had since 1994, people!!!! In a way it is funny, we had absolutely NOTHING for years after years, and now all of a sudden, boom boom boom, we have 3 leaks, announcements of tour dates, multiple Axl Rose sightings, etc. It is all a little too much to take! I feel like a diabetic in a chocolate factory.

Anyway, excuse the rambling, I just wanted to express some things I hadn't seen a lot of other people say.

Oh my gosh, you are so right man... i can't believe people aren't going to take axl for who he really is... they all want something same-old same-old, when they arent just trusting axl with it. I know he'll do a good job on it even though i have'nt even haerd anything on or about this new cd