pbj_jam

Chinese Democracy

If The World

Oh My God

There Was A Time

Riad and The Bedouins

Better

Perhaps

The General

Sorry

Shackler's Revenge

Atlas

SOG

Monsters

Prostitute

STP - Core

The only STP album I can stomach front to back, Weiland does a better Vedder than the lamaramadingdong poser himself, poses interesting question, who's got the bigger ego, Weiland/Vedder?

Prostitute

Better

CD

The General

Riad

James Bond Theme

OMG

I failed the assignment Boss

release the entirety of the leftovers under the condition they contain vocals or an album like so; CD,Shacklers,Better,Atlas,IfTheWorld,TWAT,Catcher,Perhaps,Riad,TheGeneral&Monsters,Sorry,SOG,Hardstool,Prostitute

closing the book with the intended followup to illusions as deus intended.

New material with Axl riffing ontop of tophats stuff, no bueno and no comprendo for mesa

Gotta eat crow on this one, naivety took over and I could see TG and Monters being this one complete epic of a song, I still like General clearly, however the released version makes it substantially harder to do so, but to remove it permanently and forget it ever existed or some stain on the entire GNR lore? Not even close. 

saying Kiss is cringe, is as cringe as saying GNR is Co0l, criiinge. Kiss dig the Melvins, so they alright in my book, also business men of a caliber Axl could only dream of ever reaching, Kiss is the boomer version of a rnr band, Gnr is zoomer rnr

and apparently highly down to earth nice guys to boot, a rarity in the industry..

The only album since that I anticipated and waited for, and it would take literal years until it clicked for me. Helped seeing them in 10'. At this point it has its place among other gnr, I prefer the album over demos, Axl's fingerprint until it was taken away. Overall really solid album, that judging by now, seems almost too plain and safe imo. However for the longest time its a great record over a period of 10years listening to nothing but CD when it came to guns music, its here to stay.

What hinders it becoming a white type album is exactly it being dated at release and dumbed down, again imo.

Closing, some of my fav cuts are on that monstrosity.

Worth the wait? CD3 let alone CD2 isn't even out yet..

If the song was released under any other name, nobody would care.

Time to pack it in or release the leftovers as an excuse to tour.

In reality continued touring is on the menu with minimal effort, until anniversary, mby the 5 piece tour and then hopefully curtain calls.

Its gnr being anti commercial, up there with their most experimental work, took a band breakup and makeup to make it happen.

8 hours ago, alfa75 said:

The CD album itself is pretty hit or miss lyric wise IMO, but actually so was Illusions (BOB, Bad Apples, Shotgun blues, GITR, etc). AFD/Lies was close to perfect but TAY is arguably a bit weaker than the rest, and OIAM gets a lot of hate, but subject matter aside, I think it's well written.  Of the new stuff, Absurd was obviously not a high point, HS was simple but effective, and the others I think have plenty of interesting lyrics, especially Monsters. TG is let down by just repeating the same things over and over even if as one part of the song, it works.  I am convinced he always always wanted to outdo his previous self, but that is a lot of pressure to put on oneself, and if your career started with AFD, good luck.  

I know you were not comparing, did not mean to imply it. Patton is great at what he does, but lyrically I prefer Axl.

I think we're very much in agreement as your'e kinda proving my point. For sure he's mostly been hit or miss, and like you say it shows post AFD, eventually ending up with CD that was, as you put it, a mixed bag. I think he ended wanting too much, pleasing his own ego and the fans, while seeing himself as some prolific and profound songwriter of his era, again AFD is the proof in the pudding. He does/did provoke a very raw and emotional picture with his lyrics, and obviously as a vocalist from a writing pov, is at the very top. He should invoke some emotion inside and he does.

Better, Prostitute, Twat, The General and Monsters look good together..

3 hours ago, alfa75 said:

Couldn't disagree more. Love the lyrics on Perhaps, TG, and Monsters. I think Mike Patton is much more into using his lyrics, which are often nonsensical as just an extra sound rather than any way of communicating anything. I'm a huge FNM fan for the record.

Well both statements can be true, apples and oranges at the end of the day, I could open a new can of worms and list another side project of his, yes I called fnm his side project. For the record I wasn't making a comparison between the two. 

The comment originally stems from Axl's subpar work from the CD era when compared to Illusions imo.

12 minutes ago, bumbleslash69 said:

I think CD as a whole sort of reinforces that Axl isn’t much for a “songwriter” in the traditional sense (Dylan, Waits, etc.) There are a lot of songs with repeating verses, inaudible lyrics, and that more or less just sound cool and don’t go anywhere. He can write the hell out of a song though in terms of melodies and vocal notes. He’s a rock singer above all else. I almost feel his intentions are to use his vocals like an instrument vs creating lyrical masterpieces. 
 

that being said, Monsters certainly does deliver on all fronts. It’s some of his best work in terms of writing and vocal performance. It’s pretty impressive a guy can go from writing a song like Shotgun Blues to Monsters within 10-15 years. 

I agree big on the lyrical side, if only he did too and focused on making the best with what he has, know your place and reign it in. Instead he tries awfully hard to be profound but ends up worse instead. I still think he could write good/enjoyable lyric, instead it was a struggle and only pain, hence we get overload of seymour drivel.

Think I wrote earlier back he only writes from experience, would indicate he stopped late naughts there were no more sad thoughts and experiences, not a slight on his person btw, but he's been done musically a long time.

A thought experiment I did during fading in n out of the general fever dreams, was to wipe the slate clean MIB style, dump every gnr song in a Bucket, then pick up the one song which epitomized and embodied the gnr character and personalities behind it. The results were shocking, spoiler alert, The General and Monsters was what I picked.

You have the main characters doing the brunt majority work so, it boils down to.

Axl and his megalomania over the top theatrical perfomances and split personalities with outbursts of mania, racing thoughts of victimhood.

Slash and his unwavering build and grind, that completely harmonize with split personalities. Slashs personal signature being all over the journey and not pure noodlefest, reigned in until conductor lets the beast loose. 

Culminating with Monsters dirty sleaze and singalong sensibility, with the meanest bridge, thx Baz and the pure gnr soul leaving our bodies for the anthemic outro. Digest as needed..

On the lack of creative song structure and overly repetetive nature, the flipside to that is an actual chorus on Monsters for once, though it is simple and might lack melody, but it works, it goes anthemic.

Something that was widely critisized with CD and deservedly so.

The General went from, this is fake two times, to lets try headphones, to theres a song now, to this outro has to be a joke, to crickets, to cool distortion, to all the pieces fit, to he gets a pass on the lyrics, to outro harmonizing with Slash.

All the way to now, that if they take monsters out from the bSide I don't even care TG is just as good.

It's overproduced in the ear of a gnr fan solely by looking at what came before, but heck even Illusions were overproduced some claimed, you were warned.

Ears and eyes mixed up, you get it

Speaking of Fnm vibe, it's clear Axl was inspired by Patton since he heard TRT, and ever more so in the CD era with the layering heavy distorted voice(s), like almost full on impression.

If we believe the songs are together as one, they have to create some transition, right? Otherwise interesting artistic choice to put it mildly.

And to that point I need an album that has Anything Goes on to properly rank them

The orchestral part is dearly missed behind the wall of sound or has been chopped outright, makes the pace and dynamics jumpy that could've been a slow grind build up much better. Specifically the what I like to describe as fingers running down your spine part in the orchestral, those short single note thingys, anyway its or they are a banger..

Most of the "wtf moments" on CD if not all, were clearly intentional, even with the story of label prying the album out of his hands, this is no different

Lyrics are a letdown, heavy subject matter and all, it basically reads like CD stuff, maybe he will get a pass here with what seems like lack of introspection. Was just hoping for a tiny nugget in a sea of cheese mostly with CD, my own fault I know, still stuck at Illusions..

Meh, not a fan, classic B material. That should stay off the trilogy, theres enough so fine already.