bmus1

Can anyone help me out with a listen?

55 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

I don't notice nearly as much difference on my Vinyl copy in contrast to the digital versions....After all, what was that delay about again? Just to sever "Monsters" ? 

Supposedly yes. The clipping was the other theory but clearly that's wrong now.

It's mostly because of Monsters, but I'll admit I still listen to the leak more than the official version

That being said, don't go look for something you can't hear! Lol, picking these things out always ends up being more of a curse than a blessing.

Looking at you, John Bonham's squeaky kick drum.

43 minutes ago, Flayer said:

I'm going to be doing some side by side comparison when I get home from work tonight, because if there was, it certainly wasn't as noticeable as in the "official" release. 

I think it's because the high end was so lacking on the leak, and that's where a lot of the clipping on the kick drum is. It's not a low-end thumpy clipping, it's a lot of very high-end popping on kick hits, especially in that last chorus. You can hear where they are in both versions, but they stick out way more in the released version.

7 minutes ago, Flayer said:

The leaked version that came out with Monsters did not have clipping on the drum track.

Yes it did.

18 hours ago, El Guapo said:

I wonder what Melissa, Fortus etc. really think of this release. I mean, they're all great musicians and they all look like idiots and shameless and greedy leeches because they're involved with this mess.

Girl have you heard of having a job

12 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

I would say Monsters, which we thought was The General, was a big gun and lived up to the hype.

The issue was that Monsters isn’t The General and never was. But that being said I think The General is a great song and people are being mad for no reason.

Yeah a lot of these comments are forgetting the hype was made a lot bigger because of the parts of Monsters that were attributed to The General. Monsters is definitely one of the stronger ones out of the 5, and could beat out Atlas as the next single's hypothetical A-side imo

9 minutes ago, GNRRHCP98 said:

Someone bring me up to speed, por favor… the final mix is WORSE than the leak?

Call me crazy, but I thought the leak was decent enough… 

Agreed! Call me crazy too, but the shitty mix was complimented by the overdriven, lossier quality leak lol

I've only listened on YouTube, but on there it feels thinner like Hard Skool does compared to the leaks. Sonically there's obviously no comparison that the leak is horrible quality, but given how clippy and aggressive the drums sound, it kind of works better.

If verse 1 and 2 are going to be the same thing, they at least could've peeled back some of the layers on one of them so they weren't the SAME thing twice. I'm also thinking that because I'd love to hear the verse a little less muddied up by all of those vocal parts.

Interesting Pitman is still performing on The General but was even stripped of his writing credit on Absurd on top of not getting credit for performance.

6 minutes ago, kitstuai said:

Just give it a spin at 1:00, and you'll hear two kick drums out of sync—it's clearly a mistake because the next pre-chorus has just one. The whole orchestration is like -40dB, and the choruses are basically copy-paste.. Come on, this could've been an awesome song, but after 20 years, we get a demo version. I'm happy if most fans dig it, but personally, it's a letdown.

This is exactly why I thought the vinyl was recalled, because this is everywhere on the leak too. F'n yikes.

Were there any notable jams besides the one that was the same tempo as Oklahoma's outro, and the other that was the same tempo as The General? I kinda assumed those jams were all CD songs.

I believe we should know about this time tomorrow if The General is releasing on streaming, assuming it'll be midnight in NZ.

17 minutes ago, highvoltage said:

If a lie is more entertaining than the truth, people will go with the lie

Don't get me wrong, I'm not on some anti-BBF crusade (I love the dude, his music, most of what he did in GN'R).

I'm sure he got a lot of nasty messages after the solo, and I'm sure some people wished death upon him. All I'm saying is hundreds of death threats (really, even one) is probably bullshit or some heavy exaggeration. 

I mean, if he was reading YouTube comments circa 2011-2012 about GNR, hundreds sounds low.

2 hours ago, jackparker123 said:

 imagine Axl felt mysterious and edgy going into hiding but it was self sabotage on an industrial scale and he effectively ended his career as a commercial recording artist in that moment.

Here we are today, 15 years later and still waiting for the follow up!

I know people who thought GNR broke up after Chinese Democracy came out, and the Slash/Duff reunion pulled Axl out of hiding. Obviously if you paid any attention to GNR, anyone could find out that wasn't true, but the second that album came out the world stopped caring.

I hope we get a new album, I hope the CD remakes find an eventual release to live together on, and I hope the songs grouped together doesn't sound like a random hodgepodge of material.

IMO with the right producer and mixing, all 3 of those things could happen on one record.

7 hours ago, Blackstar said:

No, that's a different track.

Wait which one is it lol

I think I've only seen it falsely titled online then.

5 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

Monsters and Leave Me Alone are the same song - Soul Monster.

Which is the 6:30ish instrumental with piano breaks, Me & My Elvis?

Chinese Democracy II. 12 songs, bring it full circle with a Slash/Duff redo of the title track. Listening to the demos sequenced, if they all had vocals, it wouldn’t be the worst album (+ assuming Seven exists because I needed a 7th song )

1. Oklahoma

2. Hard Skool

3. Absurd

4. Perhaps

5. The General

6. Monsters

7. Seven

8. Atlas Shrugged

9. Oh My God

10. Leave Me Alone

11. Quicksong

12. Chinese Democracy (w/Slash, Duff, Brain, Melissa)

I question if Atlas was even selected as a song for Slash and Duff to rework.

Where's the best place to listen?

49 minutes ago, Dean said:

We're more than 10 years since hearing Going Down for the first time. I love the version that appeared among the Village Discs, but it didn't top the experience of listening to the fleshed out version for the very first time. Axl's backing vox have always been a favourite of mine. It's the Village version that mostly gets played in this house, but I threw on the original leak earlier and it's still a great listen. Songs of such quality shouldn't be stored away for decades.

I've been listening to that one a lot too. I'd love a version with Duff singing, or with Axl recording the vocals in his baritone voice and keeping the old harmonies. Or just give it back to Tommy so he can release it, I just need a final version somewhere.

IRS would benefit from Slash and Duff's feel more than most of ChiDem imo. But it's also one of my least favorite "final" versions on the album versus the demos, so that's probably not a coincidence.