Chinese Democracy review by wasted

[wasted]

This was written a few weeks after I got a physical copy of CD in 2008. I was kind of excited I guess, some of the numbers and stuff were probably wrong but this is what I wrote. take a look.

Chinese Democracy: An American Odyssey

by wasted

Good morning, comrades, there’s work to be done. The motherfuckin’ motherload mushroom clouds like ET sent back by Hollywood ghosts to save the world from cultural apathy and a capitalism on the brinks of the edge. Like Michelangelo before was harassed to complete The Sistine Chapel, W. Axl Rose had other more personal issues, pleasures to endure and scores to settle, not mention lawsuits, before finally putting the finishing touches to a record which was almost completed in eighteen lunar months somewhere near the star date of 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 – who knows, it might have taken between 1-4 years but was probably in the works from the early 90s? Or is it too hard to grasp that it just wasn’t done yet, with a double-album hinted at maybe this is just the first scoop of the banana split.

He could have done it, but he simply didn’t want to do it, and Chinese Democracy is conceptually about the freedom to say No; No, without guilt or sorrow; No, for no reason; No, just because… It’s about the freedom to choose to merely occupy space like the graffiti that fights for freedom on the cover of the most expensive and most anticipated record in rock history. Chinese Democracy is about freedom; in all its many forms – it’s time to stand up, put on your marching boots, and scale the mountains and walls…to freedom…at… all… costs.

Or any cost?

Ever wonder what 14 million dollars of production sounds like? Look no further, CD is here to relieve you of that particular itch. In life, you should demand the best of the imperial riches. Accept no substitute for Mr. Rose’s lavish rapier vision and ingrained superior form of perfectionism. Expect the respect that 13 million dollars affords an individual such as your self. Those finishing touches are where the money’s at, that’s where the power powder at the end of cigarette resides. It takes an unlimited period of time and unnatural levels of insight to see it, too truly taste it, but, it’s there, to be savored for those willing to traverse the terrain in armored jade heeled SUVs. The filthy rhythm hammered down by Ron Thal, the growling bass distortion and Mr. Buckethead’s solo that begs to go epic on If The World, the digital tornadoes spurting out of Riad’s raging vortex of de-hexing. Certainly Rose himself seems to be a man of taste on Better - the decadent cracking of the opening drum rolls, the thrash acoustics, the arch and tone of a rock classic, the sound pirouettes around the elliptical lyrical warnings of the perils of unrequited love, or is that a metaphor for drug use? From the homicidal avant-garde Sainte- Marie disco denial of Shackler’s Revenge to the bone marrow Ozzy-like manic honesty of Scraped, to floating on air down the Street of Dreams, through the rocked out hip-hop abbreviations of IRS and If The World, it’s the diamond encrusted gold-plated production that makes Chinese Democracy worth all the opium in China. Chase the dragon with Guns N Roses’ virtuoso pop-metal stormer Chinese Democracy to the rotten heart of American Bankruptcy.

This is, make no mistake comrade, precision guided rock at it’s most penetrating and ballistic. Thematically Catcher in the Rye sees Axl Rose riding with Lennon and Chapman, maybe exploring the desolation of Cobain’s suicide, while examining a generation’s failure to convert the opportunism of the 60s into a win – like a spoilt child with an extra large bag of sweets, the 60s became a cavity rather than a primo set of canines. The luxury of the guitars, streamline a potential ballad into a hard rocker of epic-epicness. Lush, harmonizing guitars give way to Come As You Champagne Supernova cascading rituals of strings with piano which gags to go Great Balls of Fire, before going on and on into a psychedelic mantra of kitschy 60s anime dreamscapes of childhood innocence struggling for adulthood in a world of perpetual youth and howling for empathy for a hopeless world which has lost the last icon of hope it knew not to be real. Starting out with some casual liberal baiting lyrics to match One in a Million. Should Salinger’s book be banned from schools because it possesses a demon inside too dangerous to young raging introverted minds? Catcher in the Rye then goes on to mourn the death of rock’s one and only true messiah with no such restraint. The latter forgiving the former so well. Thrills upon thrills, surprises upon expectations; a never ending master-class of escalation – that’s just how this American odyssey rolls. The song’s seemingly unlikely PC stand reflects back on Shackler’s Revenge’s claim that, “I don’t believe there’s a reason” for the shootings blamed on an early Guns song Mr. Brownstone. Generalizations are easy to make, maybe in analysis the song doesn’t call people to kill people, whereas the book in question does have some demonic grey areas, maybe not even by design. The fact that Shackler’s Revenge sounds like the perfect soundtrack for teens to go on the rampage is another twist to an endlessly glittering diamond. This record being not only about the freedom of right and wrong, yes and no, but the points in-between arguments, the grey areas that fill out the peaks and troughs. How many contradictions are there in a hall of mirrors? Only the man with the golden arm knows.

It becomes apparent that Chinese Democracy is the best album of all time by half time oranges, when, after a procession of definitive genre defining singles, There Was A Time rolls out the imperial carpet for the self-cast hero to amble nonchalantly out front and unfurl his true colors. Triumphant longing as trophies from a brutal and successful occupation; the tapestry of regret and defiance reminds the world that this is Guns N Roses, rock immortals, international rock super-spies and crazy lovers; artful in the ways of deception. There’s always another gear, a faster sports car, another African supermodel who will inspire military dictatorships to world domination, a drug that will clear your head on the long speed boat ride along the azure coast. The choir fed on rosti and baozi chime in and legends are made of the rest. There Was A Time answers the junkie need for the immaculate high among the 17 billion of the Emperor’s coin.

Here the diamond as big as the Ritz lies, smacked out of her head right in plain view (the best place to hide?) - the gothic fuckin’ industrial sized ball-busting rocker ballad dancing naked on a table with her Gucci top off? Oh that one! Hip-hop beats, the dictatorship choir and 70s guitar hero solos that spiral on that would make Jimmy Page flush his stash in panic are sent to floor like the crystal glasses that shatter against the Van Gogh burning on the floor of a cerebral mansion in our minds. It’s a more elaborate beast than Hotel California - TWAT is the Ode to Coke constructed as a glass church of 21^st century paradoxes. The final farewell to a loss known so well, so well explored, so fundamentally exploited, something conquered and which lies forlornly on the bed with nothing left to give, of little use to anyone but as example as how to avoid a life of wasted extravagance.

As Gunners’ Battalions leave for the Imperial Palace in the mountains of Tibet where there is no charity left, no ill afforded treasure remains hidden, only blood in the eyes and medals in the back seat of the diamond studded tanks. Once upon a time in the west, one power ruled. There Was A Time.

In the aftermath of GNR mythology the channel changes with Cronenberg distress, LED flashes, midgets leer at dethroned nymphs, a voice from Poles Apart dissolutely mourns the death of trust or the hope of a way back ever. Sorry puts GNR back in the arena of rock gladiators like Zeppelin’s Kashmir, armed only with a doom metal army of guitars and a gloriously condescending chorus to get the scavengers dreaming of a future banquet on the blood of the innocent. The greatest vocalist of all time has other ideas, the enunciation of “But I don’t want to do it” will set asses on fire from here to Dubai and back in time for the Simpson’s. Axl shakes his head like Brando in On the Waterfront and in a No Quarter condescending Count Chocula warble declares the reason for the delays. Rock’s biggest casualty of war feels Sorry for us; for the fans, for the media, for the ex-member’s members that lay strewn like brides of Chucky across Route 66 having tried and failed to halt his march down the yellow brick road to glory. This is the final kiss off as Dylan goes electric.

Chinese Democracy takes down rock legends one-by-one like flies smashing on the windshield of a Ducati 808 on a Toykio dragstrip. Zeppelin’s viking war cry slides off on the first bend to Riad and the Bedouins’ witch beating, Immigrants in outer-space nasty torque infested drifting. The whole album is Use Your Illusion III played in the balls out style of AFD-era Guns with all the best parts of 90s alternative rock taken as influence. Nirvana, Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Elton John, Faith No More, The Stones, Oasis, Queen, Zeppelin, Floyd, The Who, The Beatles, Queen, Hendrix, The Verve all get put to the sword with the unleashed ambition it takes to build skyscrapers on mars. Chinese Democracy is an epic pop nu-metal - grunge – disco - industrial – garage – neo soul – brit pop – hard rock – doom metal -classic rock n roll opera for the 21^st century. A finely tuned balancing act of the glory days of destruction and the raging bombast of GNR at the height of their fame and pomp with the unparallel vision and pathological ambition of one man with a ‘me against the universe’ attitude. Not so much Welcome to the Jungle as Heroic Escape from Oppressive Regime, Chinese Democracy polarizes listeners, bringing together the largely opposed tribes of the classic rock audience and the more avant-garde nu metallers – Axl Rose is like the Nelson Mandela of Rock.

Nothing from rocks illustrious past comes close to Chinese Democracy. You can hold up The Beatle’s White Album and it seems like an anything goes of classic and unfinished tracks, The Stone’s Exile is far too slackly excessive without enough real songwriting bite, Sticky Fingers to easily pigeon holed as Pop Country, Floyd’s albums are depressing in there monotony - lacking the scope of personality to truly challenge the champ. If anything it’s the greatest hits collections of rock monsters like Zeppelin or The Stones which CD should be matched up against. Oddly it’s GNR’s own Greatest Hits cd that CD looks set to superceed as the GNR record to buy. Chinese Democracy is the end of records and the beginning of music.

This album will be held up to the ever burning Appetite For Destruction and it’s proposed ‘all out’ mythology but CD is a record of the same ilk, more similar than unlike, it’s going all the way up on full throttle but in a myriad of spectrum ways – the devil is in the detail, the all out assault on the whole universe of rock, every influence, everything from Hendrix to Kraftwerk has been scolded into the grooves of this cybertronic orgasm wondershag, sounding like Steve Vai, Mike Patton and Megan Fox playing Rock Band 3 naked with their own personal iPod selections rammed through an Elton John west coast surf ballad. The sound of the future right now, Chinese Democracy out flanks good ol’ Appetite in some ways but holds true to the spirit of the original banshee ideology, even down to the Cuba Gooding Jr.-like thank yous on the liner notes and the lyrics on the rap sheet that have a grammar to rival the “Hear Use Creams” of yesterdays. If only “Pussy full of maggots” had made it to line-up next to the Ay-os, N’s, and “My’d own denial”s. Where once there was street talk there is now a self -referencing GNR jargon.

After riding the crazy manic Hendrix train of Dream Theatre-esque metal media scrapings, Rose swaggeringly claiming his life to be a “fuckin’ catastrophe” on Scraped to the delight of everyone but himself, and exorcising some industry witches on Riad and the Bedouins, Madagascar bugles ring out and the masses look to their leader for a direction home. Axl Rose steps once a gain into the breach to scrape you off the floor and push you ever onwards towards the beckoning freedom on the horizon with a whisky vocal to rival Morrison at his most hammered. After the canons of quotes from across the widescreen generations, a moral victory is finally secured, the flag of GNR firmly planted in the rock on top of Mount Impossible. The often overlooked inherent Romanticism of Rose’s output has been largely overlooked by critics and fans alike, so natural is his tendency. On Chinese Democracy he all but calls the songs Atlas Shrugged – maybe he’s just waiting for the movie starring Jolie and Pitt! Each song is almost a guide to Ayn Rand’s Objectivism – and none more so than on Madagascar where this pirate anthem to self-righteousness crams all the swashbuckling rationality, moral ambition, pursuit of perfection, hard work and maddening self belief into one epic of defiance and cocky forgiveness. Epic awesomeness / Awesome epicness.

From the summit the view is never quite as presidential as one might have hoped. This I Love revels in the pomposity of Mercury while throwing the touchdown pass to Lennon’s Cold Turkey. Open heartache in a primal scream of gut gnawing confessional legit Romanticism is as far as This I Love will go before the enthusiastic solo breaks down the door to snatch the razor blade at the last second, to make it, out of breath, to the most final of all piano shivers. There is no doubt that there is only really one Sweet Child for Axl Rose. At this point I came a bit in my pants.

At this late hour, nouveau Guns have done all they should, all that’s left to do is rock hard on the bitterest symphony of corruption – the pain of offering a way out to the finest from the oldest game in the world, lost in world of shadowplay and mirrors among the Hollywood hills and private jets of the super riche. The guilty in music industry and fashion industries look for their lizard skin coats and an exit sign as the metaphors of prostitution in fame get thrown down the stairs as the final extra lean striped raw rocker ballad struts down Main Street high on indignation and Grey Goose fumes. The final finale and kiss off to the prostitute that is fame and the music industry as the most corrupt of all madams. Or just a heartbroken serenade, that could only be known after seeing one you love become a victim of an enemy you know only so well. A love you must leave behind. Is this the end of Guns N Roses or have they only just begun.

“Crossed the line and lost again” – where do we go now?

Back to where it all began, looking at the chronology of the writing of Chinese Democracy, a definite progression takes place. For fans following this album from late last century, it has been a long and arduous journey.

"This I Love" - (1994-2007)

"Catcher in the Rye" - (1998-1999)

"Chinese Democracy" - (1998-2000)

"Street of Dreams" - (1998-2000)

"There Was a Time" - (1998-2000)

"Riad N' The Bedouins" - (1998-2000)

"I.R.S." - (1998-2000)

"Madagascar" - (1998-2000)

"Prostitute" - (1998-2000)

"Shackler's Revenge" - (2000-2004)

"Better" - (2000-2004)

"If the World" - (2000-2004)

"Scraped" - (2000-2004)

"Sorry" - (2000-2004)

This chronology really shows how the material shadows the band’s demise and rise again, moving from Use Your Illusion type ballads and more grunge industrial rockers through to more nu-metal rockers and more advanced ballads like If The World and Sorry. This I Love appears to have been the catalyst for the break up of the band which leads to anger and frustration of Chinese Democracy, Riad and the Bedouins and IRS and the sense of loss and confusion on Catcher in the Rye, There Was a Time, Street of Dreams. Madagascar is like the hard fought victory and Prostitute the final farewell to the old band. In the end, Shackler's Revenge sees Axl Rose back on top and feeling Better, celebrating the end of the world on If The World. Then getting meditative on Scraped about his situation and finally dissing all the haters on Sorry, he was right all along. The album almost sounds like Rose convincing his self that he’s doing the right thing sometimes, and his faux-arrogance has everyone in a tizzy.

Chinese Democracy widens the scope of GNR from just poverty stricken crack rockers or rags-to-riches LA princes to encompassing being both the past and future of rock n roll. The promises that this record is part of a succession of albums which will present themselves in the near future confirms that once you open that door and glimpse the possibilities within that the sky is limitless.

Maybe the greatest achievement was to be frugal when the bank account was hemorrhaging interest that needed to be spent. In the projected financial hardship ahead will Chinese Democracy’s “big things come in small packages” style be exactly what the bank manager ordered or is there more of the undeniably grand genius for us to starve ourselves to afford? In the aftermath of this almost mythical album Rose refused to do promotion. A statement of his artistic integrity, terror of failure or how the record was received or just that in this day and age that promo makes no difference to record sales, which matter less than money gained from touring? Dr. Pepper were scolded for assuming to promote the GNR album without permission and were roundly chastised by GNR lawyers mere days after the online soda promotion failed to cope with numbers visiting the site. More free publicity or legitimate lawsuit?

Chinese Democracy is an American Odyssey. Chinese Democracy is about undertaking an epic journey. Slavery then the escape and journey across the seas to a new territory, CD is the story of the pilgrims coming to America.

Odyssey

1 : a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune

2 : an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest

Chinese Democracy is a story of people traveling to another continent to escape slavery only to end up enslaving themselves again?

“The message is that no matter where you go, you still take yourself and your problems with you. That's why Axl stayed in his mansion all those years instead of fleeing the location of his problems. He realized that one’s self is the only location that matters. Everywhere else is just a line on a piece of paper.” – Randy Lahey, 2008

But still the journey was made. Chinese Democracy is an ironic freedom.

American Odyssey Coming Soon!

That's a wrap on best album of all time - nothing short of epic awesomeness. Nothing even comes close to the focus and the audacity, the sheer scope leaves other leather donning warriors clutching at their prehistoric vinyl collections, mumbling about grooves and stuttering about improvisation and that elusive feel, they grasp for sweet escape from what has been graciously rolled up into this eastern promise for the enjoyment of the whole stratosphere of humanity. Eventually, this album will come to represent, to future rock disciples, the realigning of the stars to the curves of the rock ballad, the ballad not as a commercial side-trimming on some polished up punk chords or hip-hop bass beats, but the ballad as the bare-chested emotional necessity, the bacon and eggs that is washed down with a glass of iced chardonnay and a fist full of pills on a Monday morning; The welcome emotional equivalent of a morning boner. It's the finale in the sunset of the reflection in a narcissist's mirrored eyes that leaves you cold as ice but thirsty for more. More democracy, for more coin, and for more freedom, goddamn it.

Chinese Democracy: Live long and prosper.

wasted

Edited December 3, 2012 by wasted

[wfse]

tl;dr

[wasted]

tl;dr

I knew it!

[Roush]

Fantastic read as always, wasted.

TWAT is the Ode to Coke constructed as a glass church of 21^st century paradoxes

[Randy Lahey]

Your review makes me want to go out and buy a few more copies of CD.

[wasted]

It would be great if in the end there was only one copy of CD available in the Temple of Itunes and Indiana Jones would have to enter the matrix to get to it and he'd be like this belongs on an iPod, not in a museum.

[Randy Lahey]

I'd like to think that Best Buy buried the remaining copies of CD somewhere out in the desert.

[wasted]

In a secret CIA bunker where they have the Zapruder film and footage of Walt Disney and Adolf Hitler french kissing.

CD will probably be a reference in a documentary about the decline and fall of the record industry. As babylon burned W. Axl Rose chronicle the fall from the confines of his private jet he could see David Geffen's mansion burning.

[Nosaj Thing]

tl;dr

[*GNR*]

Amazing read! I related on so many levels especially with appreciating the intricate elements of each song that only the switched onlistener can pick out...well that's my 2 cents

[phaeryen]

*sound of the spine of man cracking under a wall of brilliant text!*

[Gunzen]

it looked good, but without zombies or superheroes, I cannot read that much.

[Birk]

Reviews of a 4yr old album, you know we are desperate

[DizzyReedsexmachine]

great review

Chinese democracy suck

[Silent Jay]

It's brilliant Wasted.

[DieselDaisy]

Good review.

[GivenToFly]

I take my hat off to you Wasted.

I am also sad because so much more could have come out of this journey.

[Flayer]

Your writing is so colorful it shits neon.

[wasted]

it looked good, but without zombies or superheroes, I cannot read that much.

I mentioned zombies at some point. I've got World War Z on my kindle right now.

I take my hat off to you Wasted.

I am also sad because so much more could have come out of this journey.

We've crossed the border and now we just need to build a fort.

[batman007]

Love the review! Do you still listen to CD everyday? I still do!

[Georgy Zhukov]

This is the longest post I've ever seen Wasted posted.

Great review btw.

[Gunzen]

it looked good, but without zombies or superheroes, I cannot read that much.

I mentioned zombies at some point. I've got World War Z on my kindle right now.

I take my hat off to you Wasted.

I am also sad because so much more could have come out of this journey.

We've crossed the border and now we just need to build a fort.

I mentioned zombies at some point. I've got World War Z on my kindle right now.

I am jealous you get to read that for the first time. I wish I could do that again. On the same motif, I just read Day by Day Armageddon by JL Bourne. Fantastic.

[EccoTides]

Great review, Wasted. Well written and vivid to the last detail.

[wasted]

Love the review! Do you still listen to CD everyday? I still do!

Yes, I do I listen the same way I did to AFD and UYI. if i want to listen to some music I go to Guns. I do like other stuff but it's about what I like with Stones and Zepp. CD is undeniably awesome.

[wasted]

it looked good, but without zombies or superheroes, I cannot read that much.

I mentioned zombies at some point. I've got World War Z on my kindle right now.

I take my hat off to you Wasted.

I am also sad because so much more could have come out of this journey.

We've crossed the border and now we just need to build a fort.

I mentioned zombies at some point. I've got World War Z on my kindle right now.

I am jealous you get to read that for the first time. I wish I could do that again. On the same motif, I just read Day by Day Armageddon by JL Bourne. Fantastic.

I've just got to finsih NYPD Red first, then WWZ. It seems like a cult classic that would be worth reading.