Question To Those Who Dislikes/Hates Chinese Democracy(Album)

[Bruno P.]

No choruses? It it a fkn pop album? Come on.

[vaida]

We the fans expected a lot. On that level the album was always going to fail. What was worse, the album failed to match past efforts. On top of all that, it seemed difficult to listen to the album without taking on board all the aggro gone into making it. The over production appears to have erased any sense of spark, thus adding to the depressing nature of the whole thing.

[Mfegz]

No choruses? It it a fkn pop album? Come on.

yeah choruses like

"take me down to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty"

or

"you could be mine, with your bitch slap rappin and your cocaine tongue you get nothing done"

or

"ohhh oh oh sweet child o mine"

or

"don't you cry tonight theres a heaven above you baby"

these are all catchy choruses that people can easily listen to and sing along too !!

[shotgunblues1978]

Honestly I think the biggest issue it faced was the length of time between when recording started and when the album was actually released, combined with the fact that about 75% of the album had already leaked a year or more prior to its release. Fatigue had set in, even within the fanbase.

If they could've released the album between 2000-2003 maybe things would've turned out differently. The music industry was still thriving at that point and it would've certainly sold a lot more copies, would've gotten more label support with a big music video or two, etc. The only real difference between the 2002 songs and the 2008 version were some changes in the arrangements and Ron's additions (which, to his credit, did add some needed warmth and texture that was lacking on some of the leaks IMO). Maybe there would be 2 or 3 albums in the past decade instead of just one.

Anyway by the time it came out, it was so long in the making that it faced an almost impossible task; there was no way it could live up to expectations.

The other issue was the different musical direction. While in many ways it seems a natural extension of UYI, it was different in that it was for more driven by melodies and arrangements than it was by riffs and hooks (though guitar solos remained a huge component of all songs). It also is not easy to get into; Stephen Thomas Erlewine had a great line his review where he said "Axl forces the listener to meet him on his own terms." There are not any songs that grab you in the first 10 seconds like Jungle, SCOM, YCBM, etc.

I also don't think it tries too hard to be epic. If anything, it doesn't really try that hard. I mean, think about it. The only song that truly tries to be "epic" is TWAT. I also don't agree that it is a half-baked attempt at a concerpt album that he couldn't pull off; clearly, he wasn't trying to make his version of Tommy or The Wall. Rather, it's more of a loose concept album about breaking free from oppression: real, imagined, imposed by others, self-imposed, etc. It's consistent through the album and honestly I think it is the most positive and uplifting album that Axl has done; AFD and UYI are both far more nihilistic and pessimistic in terms of lyrical content.

I'm a huge fan of CD, I think it's a great album, but it's not hard to see why it didn't connect with a larger audience beyond the core GNR fanbase, and why it was polarizing within the fanbase.

[trqster]

CD has some cool songs (Better, TWAT, Catcher, TIL) and some really shitty ones (Scapped, Rhiad...), that makes it an oberall disappointing album from Axl, especially the absence of a hit single (imo TIL was the only song with that potential).

What worries me the most is that CD 2 will probably be even worse in every way.

[wasted]

CD seems like the best of UYI with modern day production.

[cbgnr]

CD seems like the best of UYI with modern day production.

• I agree.ON a sidenote, just came from walmart and I saw and album from GNR called Appetite for Destruction for 5.99,so I bought it.Listening to it right now.Good stuff.

Edited April 20, 2013 by cbgnr

[EccoTides]

CD has some really cool songs, and a few duds. The main issue I have with the album is simply the overload of instrumentation that simply sounds too busy, regardless of the mix. Tommy himself nailed it when he said that the final product had the songs bogged down into a "mishmash".

I can absolutely hear it in Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye, Chinese Democracy in particular.

Also - what's up with the utterly pointless intros in CD, Rhiad and TWAT? Those songs were so much better when they just cut to the chase.

[wasted]

The instrumentation is nothing out of the ordinarily, bands like UNKLE, Faith No More have done stuff like that. In some cases theyve gone for wall of sound. Ive kistened to it so much it sounds pretty simple. But I remember Angel Dust thinking what is this but its pretty simple. Strings n bleeps seems so late 90s.

Theres a definite lack of a metal sound that mike clink did. Its sounds like Zepp or Queen mixed by Andy Wallace.

[eggers]

The rockers are pretty bad on CD. That's was/is the most disappointing thing to me.

[wasted]

Theres no ACDC type rocker. No YCBM. Thats got to comedown to whos in the band.

[ChristmasFnatic]

The rockers are pretty bad on CD. That's was/is the most disappointing thing to me.

Well, Scraped is an awesome rocker regardless!

[Bruno P.]

Theres no ACDC type rocker. No YCBM. Thats got to comedown to whos in the band.

Thank God there's no AC/DC rocker. It's so fkn old and has been done to death now. I'm glad we got Shackler's instead.

[ashbalove]

you can say scraped is like a acdc type rocker on chinese democracy

[Locomotive98]

You really can't.

you can say scraped is like a acdc type rocker on chinese democracy

[ashbalove]

You really can't.

you can say scraped is like a acdc type rocker on chinese democracy

you say it can't. i say it can. that's what is great about opinions. there's many.

[wasted]

Theres no ACDC type rocker. No YCBM. Thats got to comedown to whos in the band.

Thank God there's no AC/DC rocker. It's so fkn old and has been done to death now. I'm glad we got Shackler's instead.

I think thats what people want, more of the same. Whereas I enjoy something different. Can it be classic rock and nu metal? For some it cant its just Axl doing industrial shit. Something Slash wouldnt do. Although VR is pretty modern rock.

you can say scraped is like a acdc type rocker on chinese democracy

It does have an AFD feel to it in away but the production is very compressed. And is it guitar or bass riff. Id say Shacklers has the most GNR structure or dynamic. It has the parts of a classic GNR song. Chi Dem has a Back in Black vibe.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I agree with the others when I say it is lacking a classic gnr rocker like ycbm. If riad or scraped were replaced with a ycbm part 2 I would of liked the album better, even though I love it how it is. Shacklers revenge is the hardest most rocking song on the album, I actually feel it is one of the strongest tracks on the album, but saying that ycbm pisses all over shacklers. But to be fair ycbm ranks right up there with jungle and rocket queen for the title of gnrs hardest rocking songs period.

Whoever said scraped is like an acdc rocker needs their head checked. I can't think of a single acdc song that I would compare to scraped. Although riad is a poor take on zeppelins immigrant song and if the world is a poor d'yer mak'er. And those are the three worst songs on the album imo.