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Do you sense that the reception of Chinese Democracy has improved 3 and half years on from its release?

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in 2012

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axl666 Senior

axl666

Posted
Posted

I think it's great. I really do.

However GNR has such a negative image that most people will never give CD a chance. I'm don't think

that its reception will improve with time. I think that it will more likely be forgotten more and more as time goes on.

Axl needs to produce something new and move past CD, but that will never happen I don't think. I could see GNR producing

a single or two over the next few years, but that's about it.

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AXL_N_DIZZY Senior

AXL_N_DIZZY

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Posted (edited)

The reception has marginally improved IMHO. I would imagine that just about anyone who liked CD in 2008 continues to do so and in the meantime the album has earned some new fans through the years after folks saw the band live or got exposed to the music in some other way (e.g. saw the album pop-up on a most underrated list or through a youtube clip or something).I've seen it happen myself. That said- the reception is probably not improving at any sort of rate or scale to be REALLY discernible though.

On the whole- it's not the end of the world. To my mind CD doesn't have a TERRIBLE rep or anything. It's got more of a "dense/artistic album that received decent reviews but under-performed commercially" type rep. Kind of the mysterious "Big Foot" of the GN'R catalog as opposed to some kind of embarrassing flop or something...

At any rate- one thing I will say is that Axl/GN'R could really help their cause on a future release if: (1) they have at least one very accessible/poppy track to build the album promotion around; and (2) the whole band is still around and ready and willing to promote the shit out of it (unlike last time)....

Edited by AXL_N_DIZZY
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Kosonen DEMI-GOD

Kosonen

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Posted

the way I see it, the people I know, including me, who really loved CD in 2008 (or 1975 leaks), does not give a shit about it anymore. decent album, but it really was not that good. 2-3 ok songs, thats it. sad. The album got what it deserves.

There are 2 problems, first one is that Chinese is a very complicated album. This album needs several listenings to love it.

The other problem is that many dont like change.

The next album needs many hits, and classic riff.

CD is not complicated at all. There are much more challenging stuff on Illusions. yes, next one needs hit songs! I agree.

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wasted LEGEND

wasted

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Posted

I feel like now it's more accepted as a good record. Maybe not the record everyone wanted (AFD 2) but a good record that was the right next record for GNR to stay current (ok maybe only I think that last part).

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The_Universal_Sigh Senior

The_Universal_Sigh

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Posted (edited)

I agree with what people have said in the music industry.

The album is no more! Its about singles now. People talk about how good singles are. The general pop doesn't listen to albums anymore.

I can't even recall the last time someone told me about an amazing album!...........Song? ya people tell me to check out songs all the time. Albums not so much.....those days are over.

Chinese is actually the last full album I myself have listened to fully.

It lacks that radio appeal but I enjoy it! Every bit of it! No use worrying what others think! People slam it without even hearing it!

For the mainstream maybe it's true. Bands or "singers" release a single, sell millions of copies and everyone on my Facebook will love their song and next week it'll be someone else with the previous basically forgotten. So you have singles instead of albums, and beyond that, singles instead of artists. People just move from single to single, if Drake's last song was huge and everyone loved it, but his next one flops, you'll barely have any "hardcore" Drake fans bumping that shit, nah, it'll be Odd Future or whatever the fuck single is popular by then.

BUT (luckily there is a huge BUT) there is another side. A good side, at that. You will have true artists in it for the music who develop full albums (look in the indie realm, it's not all pretentious garbage and the focus is strictly on the full album). These artists do it for the music, and another plus is (for the fans, at least) if they release a brilliant album they won't get rich most of the time! That sounds terrible to say but take our well known GNR for example. They released a gritty raw album that was awesome, promptly got rich, and promptly lost sight of reality and the band leading to a break up within a few years. The last decade has had plenty of good records, some you general rock fans might dig:

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record - 2010 (this is really awesome and their other earlier shit even better. Don't be dissuaded by their name not emo at all)

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs - 2010

Tom Waits - Bad As Me - 2011 (youtube the title track, so fucking bad-ass!! Be sure to check out the rest though, highlights include Chicago, Raised Right Men, Hell Broke Loose, Talking At The Same Time)

MGMT – Congratulations - 2010

mastodon – crack the skye - 2009

Them Crooked Vultures - (self titled) - 2009

Eels - Hombre Lobo - 2009

Beck - Modern Guilt - 2008

These all came out after Chinese Democracy and are all albums in the fullest sense, this is all off the top of my head too I'm sure there's plenty more. The age of the album isn't over, no sir. Keep in mind none of these (save arcade fire) had any big singles whatsoever.

Sorry for this mini rant, it just sucks when people lose faith in new music because the shit on TV and radio is all Drake, Nickelback, and generic shit. That's the business side of music, then there's the driven underground music side of music.

Edited by The_Universal_Sigh
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ARX77 Full

ARX77

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Posted

I was just going through some of the old demos and stuff from the Chinese Democracy sessions on youtube, and noticed that if you read the top comments below the songs they're all very appeciative of CD and often the top comment relates to how much "of a grower of an album" CD is. Now maybe, it's just my memory playing tricks on me but I used to remember certainly back before the album had dropped that the demos whenever they would get put up on youtube were rife with negative comments and "where's slash?". Of course, they are still there to be read, but overall now the feedback definitely seems to be a whole lot more positive.

I would say yes to an extent. HoB Orlando most people knew the new songs. IMO Better by the time the song is over people are rocking out. All in all in N America and the show in Toronto majority of people didn't know Chinese songs

Not only that though, but a couple of weeks back when I looked onto the GNR facebook page (before they changed it to timeline) it would show what GNR songs my friends on my facebook had listened to last on spotify, and I noticed that there were a few Chinese Democracy songs (Better and This I Love notably) popping up as recently played. Now, these people who were listening to them weren't hardcore GNR fans, nor would I even describe them as big fans of the band. Just your type of casual listener, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had listened to the new stuff and clearly did like it.

I remember when I saw GNR in London '10, that the crowd weren't all digging the new tracks, but it was certainly an improvement over '06 gigs (but that was probably due to most not being aware of the leaks). I'm very interested to see what the reception will be like in May when they return. To any of those that have seen GNR in concert recently, did you feel the crowd on the whole were more receptive of the CD era songs than in previous years? Have you yourself found that in 3 and a half years since the release, you don't find the album is as villified so much by those outside of the 'fanbase'?

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Cosmo FRONTMAN

Cosmo

Posted
Posted

Everyone I know won't listen to it either because they hate GN'R or because there is no Slash.

Those are both good reasons to not listen to it.

The first one is. The second? That's just being ignorant.

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sweetness LEGEND

sweetness

Posted
Posted (edited)

There are 2 problems, first one is that Chinese is a very complicated album.

What exactly is so complicated about it?

some albums are hits, a great deal of them aren't. No need to make excuses for Chinese Democracy because it wasn't a hit, it's still a great record

Edited by sweetness
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Georgy Zhukov LEGEND

Georgy Zhukov

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Posted

Everyone I know won't listen to it either because they hate GN'R or because there is no Slash.

Those are both good reasons to not listen to it.

The first one is. The second? That's just being ignorant.

The guitar work on the album is better than anything Slash has done since the 90's

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chevelle OH MY GOD

chevelle

Posted
Posted

I love CD, but I've heard it too much. If it was a double album, I'm sure I would be still enjoying it, but 14 songs in almost 4 years is enough to get old.

+1

Between playing the live versions from the 2002 tour from about 2004 until CD came out in 2008, and that up to the present, I've worn these songs out pretty badly.

I've seen some comments here and there on GNR news articles that make me think the reception has gotten a bit better, though. Now that the album's been out a while it seems like the "Slash is gone" and "It took 14 years to make!" thing has worn off a bit, and more people have taken the time to listen to it and enjoy it. Not really a lot, but it seems to be softening some.

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