Do you think Chinese Democracy's distinct lack of great rock songs is what sunk it in the US?

[Bono]

I don't think there is anything on that album that would've been accepted by the mainstream really regardless of how it was promoted. There are some cool songs on that album but I'm not a an of most of them. I honestly don't think the album stood a chance based on the overall quality or lack there of. So yeah a lack of great rock songs hurt it cause it is severely lacking great(rock) songs.

[Facekicker]

You would have to have been living under a rock to not know that Chinese Democracy was out. I bet even the prisoners in Guantanamo heard it, it was probably used to torture them.

[Flayer]

CD is the St-Anger of gnr. Hope they learned and they make their Death Magnetic for the next album.

And you thought CD had mixing issues?

And to everyone saying how Chinese Democracy was the most anticipated album of all time and the whole planet knew when it came out, I'll tell you that 99% of high school teenagers didn't know about it and didn't care that it was finally coming out.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Flayer

[SMG]

Yep, not even the guitars sounded like real guitars.

[Crash Diet]

I think if it had more rockers it would have been widely accepted

this

[Vincent Vega]

Yep, not even the guitars sounded like real guitars.

What do you mean?

[Kapitch_77]

CD is the St-Anger of gnr. Hope they learned and they make their Death Magnetic for the next album.

And you thought CD had mixing issues?

What I meant was that St-Anger was different than what Mettalica used to be. Lars decided to modified his drums sound, no solo, the songs weren't even that good. Some people liked St-Anger but Metallica couldn't continue that path, and they didn't: they returned to their roots. That was the best thing they could do. Some people like CD but it's not the path they should take, they should go back to their roots: hard rock. I say "they" but I should say "Axl"...

[gunsfanoldie]

But what people wanted was a retro 90s GNR album. AFD meets UYI produced by Mike Clink.

I agree with pretty much all of what you said, except for this. People in America would have been open to different things. It didn't have to have that "classic" GNR feel to the record, it just had to be some sort of rock record. If he had put out an album that was a modern rock record, which unfortunately isn't filled with guitar solos and hard rockers, it probably would have done well. You have some casual rock songs, which CD sort of has, along with some ballads, which CD sort of has. You could name a bunch of people nowadays, Stone Sour, Shinedown, Halestorm. Thats kind of what modern rock is and there is an audience for that. CD does NOT fit in with that.

And obviously, I hate to bring it back to previous Gunners, but Slash sort of knows how to do it. You may think the album is crap, but he did at least alittle promotion for it (probably because he wants to and doesn't have to) and his latest garnered some singles that were played frequently. You're A Lie and Anastasia got pretty decent airplay in my area, along with Standing In The Sun which got a lot too. He seems to have enough material in the arsenal to at least get a few things on radio but not catering the album to the mainstream. Thats just how the albums turn out. Compare that with Chinese Democracy, which I probably haven't heard on the radio since the album came out. It got a push from being the first GNR single in decades, but after that quickly passed so did any interest.

[Vincent Vega]

CD is the St-Anger of gnr. Hope they learned and they make their Death Magnetic for the next album.

And you thought CD had mixing issues?

What I meant was that St-Anger was different than what Mettalica used to be. Lars decided to modified his drums sound, no solo, the songs weren't even that good. Some people liked St-Anger but Metallica couldn't continue that path, and they didn't: they returned to their roots. That was the best thing they could do. Some people like CD but it's not the path they should take, they should go back to their roots: hard rock. I say "they" but I should say "Axl"...

I think some middle ground can be found though.

I mean, is it really that inventive or interesting to do the same type of record over and over again?

I'm one of the few people who LOVES Load...While its imperfect, at it's best, it shows the band had a real talent beyond just thrash metal. That they could do different things and not just recycle riffs and the same shit over and over.

I mean look at how different the UYI records are in many ways from AFD...And how different Lies is from AFD...Such change keeps things fresh and interesting.

The problem isn't Axl experimenting or changing the sound. The problem is CD isnt a real record. It was cobbled together from bits and pieces, cut and pasted from a thousand different sessions ten years apart and numerous takes. Entire solos were "constructed" by taking different tiny pieces from different takes. There's nothing real there. Nothing organic, just a cut and pasted protooled mutilation of what had the potential to be great

There's also no hooks, no riffs, nothing that grabs you. No catchy songs. Nothing badass either--No "Perfect Crime" or "YCBM" to be found here. Add into this bad Axl vocals on many tracks.

Take a band like Yes. They were an amazing progressive rock band...Then they came out with Owner of a Lonely Heart, totally divorced from their main sound, but it was a hit because it was catchy, it had a hook, good lyrics, etc.

Or take The Rolling Stones...Best known as a rip roaring hard rock band....Yet their biggest selling album ever and one of the best received of all their albums was an album full of Disco, Punk, Country and R&B songs.....

Edited August 15, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[Kapitch_77]

It's not an obligation to evolve after each album. That's what some people think here it seems. Look at the Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street... 4 albums in a row that sound pretty much the same. The thing is the songs were good and it's considered their best material. GNR, the first 4 albums were good and they could've record an album (or 2, or 3) that sounded exactly like UYI, or even go "backward" and more raw, it doesn't matter when the songs are good. Axl had in mind that they had to evolve which is just bullshit.

[Chris 55]

Do you think Chinese Democracy's distinct lack of great rock songs is what sunk it in the US? Going from Welcome to The Jungle and You Could Be Mine to Chinese Democracy is a pretty noticeable drop in quality. Even the much derided Anything Goes is still a 100 times the song that Chinese Democracy is. If the rest of the rockers Axl has are on the same level as Chinese Democracy, Scrapped and Riad, he would be best not to release them.

Any album, anywhere, wouldn't be a success if it had a "lack of great songs"

[WhazUp]

Too much overlayering and overproduction throughout the albun, too little radio ready hits, and too much anticipation being built around it all. And the little promotion they did around the release of it (no TV appearances for example) didn't help