19AT5

11 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

It’s comforting to see that Don’t Cry Alt has more plays than Don’t Cry Original

Well that's it. I'll sleep easy tonight I can tell you. 

11 minutes ago, ThePreacher said:

Fernando, I have an idea for you!

You probably got lots of material right now SO if you are afraid of releasing anything new without touring, release an double album!

Give us the first part ASAP and the second part when touring is possible again? =)

Good God, the double album chat returns yet again! 

11 minutes ago, hollywood_democracy said:

Interesting that Prostitute has so few listens. I would have thought it would be equal to TWAT or Madagascar... Riad, Scraped and IRS having so few listens makes sense though, as they're harder, non-radio friendly song. 

Riad and Scraped are fucking awful, that'a why! I mean they are sooooo bad they offend my ears! 

23 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Well, the album sold much less than all previous releases but it also sold in or around the mark of other legacy acts of 2008 releases.

I'm not sure that's accurate. Chinese Democracy did not perform as well as Metallica's Death Magnetic or AC/DC's Black Ice albums. Rock radio here in the UK certainly did not play all that many CD tracks for all that long comparatively to the other albums. I think most reviews in written press were generally favourably though.

20 minutes ago, ToonGuns said:

If they went to one keyboardist would you not miss the sub-bass and bongos?

I've long thought Dizzy's tambourine playing in You Could Be Mine is the highlight of any live GNR performance. 

48 minutes ago, ToonGuns said:

Both Bumble and Bucket would have worked well in a two guitar lineup. And they both have the skills to deserve it. Shame it didn't happen. 

I really didn't like GNR as a 3 guitar band. I have an even stronger disdain for the 2 keyboardists!

16 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I'm not interested in a nostalgic lineup. 

Yes, the revolving door of musicians policy yielded dividends for GNR fans!!!!!! 

6 hours ago, Mendez said:

 

If The World is an extremely well written song: great vocal melodies, and great instruments. Just doesn't sit well with the so called rock purists bc it doesnt follow conventional blues rock tropes

Perhaps people just don't like it? My Mrs finds the vocal melodies really repetitive and thinks the music is the intro to a Bond film. She's not a classic rocker either. Quite the contrary. Conversely I hated it when I first heard the leaks in 2007. But now I quite like it. Though I would acknowledge that the melodies do get a little annoying after a bit. But the guitar solo is cool and so is the instrumentation. To my ears anyway.

He's a helluva player, Ron Thal. Kinda wish Axl had stuck to a 2 guitar line up, and utilised him more. We migh have even controversially seen an album released, but alas that was not part of the big plan. Oh no no no.

15 minutes ago, rumandraisin said:

I think it's more like to be gnr are 'dropping' a new photo on Instagram. Caption will be "f'n live", photo will be a silhouette of duff looking out to the crowd from a show in 2017.

We should be grateful they treat the fans like they do. 

Man, that would be so cool!

8 hours ago, Sweersa said:

A viewer on my YouTube channel told me they heard on the radio today that Guns N' Roses is dropping a new album this month. That's all I know, and I hope it to be so.

I would love this! I waited a long time for new Tool music and Fear Innoculum generally hit the mark. Would  be delighted if GNR did the same. Just to see SOME action would be grand.

1 hour ago, MaskingApathy said:

 

That's not classic era.

Yes it is. Everybody who is a REAL fan of this band KNOWS that the 2002 VMAs rehearsal is the best performance in GNR history!!!!!!! 

2 hours ago, vloors said:

Yes look up @Dexter 

https://www.mygnrforum.com/forum/190-axl-rose-chats-amp-open-letters/

Oh man this didn't age too well! But very interesting nonetheless.

3 hours ago, rumandraisin said:

Axl going completely missing as the album came out was the final straw I think, ten years in the making and he does 2 interviews online, comes on the forum and argues with fans and that's it. 

Ya whaaaaaaaat?! Axl came on this forum?! And argued with fans!? That's amazing! For all the wrong reasons!

I watched the version of Chinese Democracy this afternoon and it sucks balls. The way Slash played the riff was very half arsed. Fortus was actually fairly faithful to the original woodly woo solo. So kudos to him. But that was not a good performance.

4 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Well, as I say, it depends on your definition of 'success'. 

Some equate success as more than simply a commercial thing. 

Some see it from a capitalist view. Others from a more artistic point of view.

If you're going for the 'success=amount of money made' angle though there's a hell of a lot of truly influential albums and art of all genres that would be regarded as 'unsuccessful'. 

I'd always take the view that if art is genuinely loved by people, no matter the size of the audience, it is a 'success'. 

True. There are albums that haven't been big sellers that have been deemed influential and classics. And there have been albums that have sold mega and are utter stinkers! Chinese Democracy is neither! It's not a stinker album, for sure. At the very least, even if one happens to not like the tunes all that much, the vocals are superb (in my opinion). Appetite For Destruction is a classic and many, many people will have picked up the guitar upon hearing it. Chinese Democracy doesn't have that same appeal... guitar wise anyway, I don't think. Though I'm sure somebody out there has been inspired to play around with sub-bass after hearing Chris Pitman's contributions to CD!  

As an aside, I have no issue with folk loving albums with odd lineups by big bands. I'm a huge Purple fan and I adore Come Taste The Band with Tommy Bolin on the guitar. I'm a greatest hits Motley fan but think the 1994 album with John Corabi is one of their best! I think the Chili's One Hot Minute album with Dave Navarro on guitar is banging. And... ya get ma point!

45 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

According to UMG, CD sold 2.6 million units worldwide by Feb 2009. It underperformed expectations, but that doesn't mean it's a failure. RIAA certified it platinum, too which doesn't necessary alone mean it was a success, but it helps. Also, the millions spent on the album wasn't all spent on that one album. They have another one too, unreleased. The mythical "CD2"

It's a Guns N' Roses album. The same way the Disney Star Wars trilogy are Star Wars movies, regardless of the feelings of butthurt fans.

Even if you disagree, the next Guns N' Roses will be the seventh studio album by the band.

The next album will probably mostly be CD2 with Slash and Duff on some/most of it. Does that make it a partial GN'R record then?

It sold 2.6 million copies, cost $13 million (and even if you split that over 2 albums, it is still a bloody ridiculous amount to spend for the return), took 15 years to produce, and had a cast larger than The Sound of Music... by any definition that isn't success! I would love to see the investment to return ratio!  However, all that said, I think where Axl can claim validation at least, though possibly not success, is that most of the tracks off the album have been played on the reunion tour. That says something, I think.

I'm not a ChiDem hater, but conversely I refuse to subscribe to this narrative that it was something more than it is. It was a running joke in the press, the band looked like a pantomime act (during the BH years), and Axl bizarrely had cornrows throughout! None of this is cool! Hahaha! 

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

Like it or not, CD (2008) was a commercial success, which is impressive seeing how it wasn't promoted for a while after the release. It also generally had positive reviews. 

Eh, by what metric are you determining it was a success?! It is still the most expensive album ever made! It sold 1m copies in the US I think. 

I think overall the reviews were not too bad, you're correct. From memory, I think the general view (which is 100% accurate in my opinion) was... this isn't a GNR album. But as an Axl solo album, yeah okay, this kinda works.

56 minutes ago, jamillos said:

Let’s not forget that:
- The record was totally different from anything from before. 40-year olds were expecting Jungle and got If the World and Shackler instead. The record is incohesive as a whole. 
- There was no simple rock n’ roll song like Perfect Crime or Dead Horse, kicking ass from the beginning. There are intros and layers and all this shit; no too memorable guitar solos either. Again, compared with Slash, this couldn’t have won. And comparisons were strong with this one. 
- There was zero promotion prior to the release and zero promotion afterwards. No official videos, no Youtube, interviews, nothing – and this shit plays a huge role these days, especially for the younger ones. Even the tour took a whole year to start after the release. Who does this? 
- I suppose many casuals still didn’t properly know the new musicians, and the only person who could have given some meaningful interview was Axl… and that didn’t happen, if you don’t include that weird self-interviews made with Del or the forum chats – which is not exactly comparable with lengthy interviews in Rolling Stone, online magazines etc. Also, there still may have been people butthurt from the 2002 tour fiasco, completely given up on, or even hating, the band. 
- But I don’t think it lacked quality – it’s just not what the “what’s SCOM” fans would have expected. There are no straightforward rn’r tracks, just embellished, complicated songs. Now mix all these aspects together, and the result is clear. Although I wouldn’t use the term “fail”, as that implies some pass/fail situation, which doesn’t really apply here, does it. I don’t care about specific numbers and tables, but let’s say there was some success. Comparing it with Appetite or whatever with Slash obviously wouldn’t be exactly appropriate, though. 

I'd agree with most of your overview here. There were waaaaaaaaay too many ambient intros on the record. It was just over the top in that regard. I'd also throw in that whilst some of the lyrics were actually pretty cool (e.g. Better, TWAT) there was a lot of utter BS on there too (e.g. Scraped, Rhiad). He didn't help himself. It felt like a therapy record at times! Perhaps it was. 

If only the orbital paths of Jupiter and Saturn had been aligned, it was not raining in Mawsynram, it was midday in Toronto, my window was open, and not a single individual had been shot in the US that day, I truly believe in my heart of hearts that Chinese Democracy would've been hailed as the greatest album of all time! 

Obviously I am taking the piss, but it does feel a bit like that at times here!

13 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

Bullshit

People either didn't care for GNR anymore at that time and thought they have split up or they had so much knowledge as Rock music fans and knew Slash isn't part of that circus.

Remember Slash and Duff were relatively successful with VR and Slash released his first solo record in 2010 and played almost every big festival in Europe that summer in front of hundreds of thousand people.

Some people argue CD (as it is) would have been more successful with Slash on it and people didn't give it a change not for the music, but for the lack of Slash.

Now you argue knowbody knew Slash wasn't part of it.

CD simply failed because it lacked quality. It didn't hit any zeitgeist or had this big great tracks on it. Most of those who were waiting years for CD got dissapointed at the end. 

Eventually CD was a big let down.

Everybody who loves this record can be happy, it's personal taste, but you are a minority. Don't search for excuses why it didn't reach the success it should have in your opinion. It would have been a success if it was that good.

Holy fuck, on point sir! Agree fully with all what you said. I wanted it to succeed but alas I was disappointed in the end. A few good tracks on it, but overall it's a bit of a stinker really. 

18 minutes ago, vloors said:

Not at all. 

Agreed. In fact I can just imagine a 17 year old me, seeing a band on TV with a ginger singer with cornrows wearing a pork pie hat, looking like a gangster, backed with one guitarist wearing a yellow rain coat with an upside down KFC bucket on his head whilst wearing a Michael Myers mask, another guitarist with half his head shaved with a pale white make up, dressed in leather, and another... ah fuck it, you get the gist! The mere fact the band had 3 guitarists would've likely put me on, let alone two keyboard players! The AFD and UYI-eras were generally pretty cool, but the nu-Guns-era was anything but. As good a player as Buckethead is, it's not the right fit for GNR. 

4 minutes ago, betterman said:

Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme was interviewed the other day. By the way, their last album was out 2008 (the same as Chinese Democracy)

He said that the album was finished and ready to be released march 2020, but was stopped by the pandemic. He said they are a touring band and wants to tour and promote the album on the road. Ha said further that when to world re-opens - lets celebrate it with this new music and that we all can gather on a concert again. 
It might be that GNR thinks in a similar vein, I believe the album is done!

I would love it if you were correct, sir!  

If Chinese Democracy was the first album by GNR, do you think they would be selling out stadiums now? Just purely based on the song quality alone. 

2 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

That's the beauty of it. If they released CD2 as it was in 2010 or whatever, most casual fans would think Slash is on it. Much like many thought he was on 2008 CD. If they hear Axl, they are happy. They won't care if it's Paul Tobias, Robin Finck, Slash, Buckethead, etc. would they even be able to tell the difference? Buckethead would stand out the most. Most fans do not have as keen of ears as we do for the various players.

I'm not convinced by that. However, when folk showed up at the gig, and saw a dude with a fucking upside KFC bucket on his head, I'm sure people would twig that "hey, did Slash always have the chicken hat on his head or this a new thing?!"