GoodOlJohnnyK

It’s almost unfair to critique Nothing. It’s not a song. It’s very clearly a drum loop and very basic chord progression on a keyboard that Axl is simply improvising on to try and find a hook. You can hear him trying to work it out on the track.

I almost feel bad saying this, because people take it personally when one critiques a show that they attended in person, as if the critic is taking a precious memory away from them, or even causing a bit of buyer’s remorse. But Axl sounds dreadful. Something is seriously going wrong here, and I refuse to believe it’s just “age.” His technique is all wrong and I’m just flummoxed as to why there’s nobody helping him, or what they’re telling him if they are. It’s not that he can’t hit the high notes anymore, it’s the way he chooses to hit them. And that midrange Mickey gets worse and worse every night. It’s honestly freaking me out.

Berlin could be the city they were in when a new section was born or a song was reworked. Metallica does this once in a while with their demos. Spit Out The Bone was once “Chi” for Chicago, The Day That Never Comes was “Casper” for the city in Wyoming, etc.

Man, what in the fuck is going on with Axl's voice?

I wouldn’t read too much into that. The one thing that shocked me the most about this reunion was that it’s clearly not a bunch of guys who hate each other gritting their teeth through it just to cash the paycheck. They legitimately seem to enjoy each other’s company. Axl, for one, seems uncomfortable around cameras. He’s always smiling and joking when you see him candidly, but the minute he realizes a camera’s on him, he goes stone faced. They’ve mentioned that they’re in a band group chat where everyone shares jokes and chats. Axl’s more private, so I’d imagine any time they *do* get together, it’s probably somewhere outside of the public eye. Furthermore, Slash and Duff are *friend* friends. They hang. Their wives hang. Axl, at this point, might look at it like “work friends.” And that’s fine! I’ve got work friends. We chill at work, we’ll grab a beer here and there, and we text. But we don’t necessarily get together outside of work. And that’s okay!

Exactly. Same goes for the “[highly accomplished classically trained musician] hears [popular song or heavy metal tune] for the first time!” It’s so fans of a band can feel proud of their favorite band because some YouTuber with “credentials” validates it. And most of the time it’s bogus anyway. You can only watch the lead soprano of the Trinity College Choir lose her shit over Dave Mustaine’s astounding vocal prowess before you realize it’s all just bullshit for clicks.

I disagree with regards to Hard Skool. I heard the Village Leaks like everyone else, and I thought “wow, the chorus is pretty damn good, the verses aren’t bad either, but man this is the most soulless track I’ve ever heard.” Suddenly with Duff and Slash, it sounded like something I actually liked. It had character. However… …I totally agree. This song is a flaming pile of shit. But… …I dunno. I love Slash and I love Duff, but I don’t think there’s any saving Atlas Shrugged. The bones of the song are bad - annoyingly ‘happy’ sounding melody, like some 1997 light alternative rock. I hated Semi-Charmed Life when I heard it back then and I damn sure don’t need to hear Axl try to do his rendition of it. — Now, all that said, if releasing Atlas Shrugged is what they need to do in order to finally move on to something *new* then, by all means, film the fucking video, set a release date, push it back, accidentally release it to Limewire or some shit, then release it officially and let’s try and move forward.

I just think that when Axl talks about the “second half” or even a trilogy, he’s thinking conceptually rather than in terms of songs he has completed and ready to go. I’ve said this before, but it’s more a matter of perspective. I think Axl may be the type to hear an instrumental like Mustache and say “okay, that’s a song. That’s going on the next album, once I figure out a vocal melody, write lyrics, and lay down a vocal track.” Whereas, to me, until he at least figures out a melody and writes a lyric, it’s still just an idea. And even if he has a vocal melody *in mind* but doesn’t do anything about it, still not a completed song to me. So it’s not that I think Axl is lying, per se. I just think when he talks about the second half of Chinese Democracy, he means this pile of music (mostly instrumental, a handful with vocals) that he intends to finish someday, maybe, when he gets around to it.

The remix is an interesting vocal take, but everything else about it is pure garbage and they were wise not to move forward with the release of the remix album if this is the quality of remix they were shooting for. The album version is a little bit heavy on melodrama (it leans way into the whole Phantom of the Opera vibe) but that’s just the character of the song. The remix sounds like it should be playing in a shitty day spa in an upper middle class neighborhood that’s trying to appear upscale but is actually just cheaply decorated with masseuses that don’t show up to their appointments and the whole place closes down 3 months after it opens.

I respectfully disagree with just about everything in this post. Madagascar is one of only 4 songs on CD that can stand up to their earlier work, and a lot of it is down to Axl’s delivery. It fits the song perfectly, that weary, battered voice fitting the character of the lyric - a weary, beaten down man who is defiant in the face of adversity. It sounds like a boxer in the last round who’s gotten his ass kicked but still stands and throws punches - which is just what the lyric calls for. To me, it’s possibly the most emotionally affecting performance on the album.

I fell for this same trap with Atlas - which actually has become my least favorite Guns N’ Roses song ever - and I won’t fall for it again. I’m hopeful for The General, but I’m not expecting much. It’s been around since at least 2002, right? If it was that good, wouldn’t it have been on Chinese Democracy? I suppose I like Hard Skool better than a few CD songs, and Absurd better than If The World and IRS… …but if this is a “monster” and the spiritual successor to Estranged, why wouldn’t they have put it on Chinese Democracy? Why wouldn’t the *label* have insisted? I’m just keeping that in mind as we inch closer to the release of this white whale.

Glad it’s not just my area. In the Baltimore area, it’s all late 80s-mid 90s rock. No other rock music exists. Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Paradise City, November Rain if the DJ has to take a piss, *maybe* Live And Let Die, Kickstart My Heart, One, Enter Sandman, Sad But True, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, Nothing Else Matters, Fuel, King Nothing, Give It Away, Californication, Scar Tissue, Soul to Squeeze, Under The Bridge, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium, Come As You Are, In Bloom, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Vasoline, Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy, Black, Yellow Ledbetter, Better Man, Everlong, Best Of You, All My Life, Monkey Wrench, Santeria, Basket Case, When I Come Around, Come Out and Play, and then a few random Shinedown, Linkin Park, and Godsmack songs. I’ve just programmed 98 Rock in Baltimore for tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. And every day until the end of time. A popular band will drop a new song that’s a decent hit - the Chili Peppers’ Tippa My Tongue, for instance - and it’ll get air play. But 6 months later, it’s like it never existed and we’re back to Breaking The Girl. The General might be the single greatest piece of music ever recorded…but my local radio station will give it about 10 spins before deciding that we’re in the jungle, baby, and we’re gonna die.

Funny, because Robin’s solo, to me, is the definition of “average.” My problem with Slash’s solo is that it’s not long enough - there’s no build. It seems like it’s going somewhere and then it just ends. The song’s under 4 minutes - they could have given another cycle for the solo. It’s not like anything else in the some is just so dynamically exciting or anything.

Most of those people would go “what the hell are Street of Dreams, Chinese Democracy, and This I Love?”

Slash’s TWAT solo here is excellent. Respects the “main” licks and then adds his own flavor to the rest. Meanwhile, for all those saying Slash is just coasting and doesn’t give a shit and you can’t recognize the solos…check out Axl’s performance here and get back to me. Horrific.

The General with Slash could be the 21st century’s Kashmir, and people would still find a way to criticize it. In reality, these tunes will end up like The Snyder Cut of Justice League. They’ll release The General in October, the usual suspects will scream “release the NuGuns version!” And then a few years later the NuGuns version will leak and people will go “huh…so it’s just a different version of the same mediocre movie.”

That was my next example. The solo and the ending guitar line are the most memorable parts of the song.

Meanwhile, Slash is one of the greatest guitar players of all time (in my opinion *the* greatest - I don’t think that should be a controversial opinion on a Guns N’ Roses forum), and yet we have people here complaining about a song they haven’t heard because he’s going to be on it. 2023 is the worst.

And Soul Monster, which is probably equally as hyped. Though I’m of the belief that we’ve heard the backing track for Soul Monster - Me & My Elvis on the Village Leaks. It’s only okay, but it’s on the upper end of the Village Leaks, so that’s something.

I’m very cautiously optimistic. To me, there’s been nothing on the Village Leaks that even came close to anything that could’ve been on Chinese Democracy (okay, maybe Hard Skool, but even that one would’ve been on the lower end of CD). After all - Atlas Shrugged was also a really hyped (at least to me) and when we finally heard the leak, it was a major let down (to me). Still, the cell phone recording of The General sounds at least semi-promising. I’m excited.

100% correct. People these days act as if Slash’s only contribution was noodling on the guitar. He was a songwriter as much as any of them were. Plus there were songs that Slash received no credit for that were debatable - Estranged, for one. Slash’s guitar line is the main hook of the song, yet not significant enough to garner a songwriting credit when it easily could have been.

2016 had some truly excellent Better performances. Anything after that…yikes.

This is what I meant in my critique. These lyrics are incredibly vague, and not in a good way.

In case anyone’s wondering about my mental well-being lately, it took me from Friday morning until about 4 minutes ago to realize why it’s “Side G” and “Side R” instead of A and B.

One thing I’ll never understand on these forums is the hatred for Frank Ferrer.