It's Five O'Clock Somewhere vs. Chinese Democracy

[Dr. Who]

As some of you guys may know, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere was written by Slash, Gilby and Matt, with help from Duff and Dizzy and the tapes were brought to Axl sometime in 1994 as the next GN'R album. Axl passed on the material, calling it "Southern Rock", and Duff backed him at the time. Slash, Gilby, Matt and Dizzy would go on and have Eric Dover sing on and add lyrics to the songs and have Mike Inez play bass. Later, Axl wanted to work on 4 of the songs but they were already done and not available anymore. IFOS as such was essentially Slash's vision of what the next GN'R record should've been in the mid '90s

Chinese Democracy, as we know, was Axl's vision of what a GN'R record should be in the late '90s/early 00s.

As such, both albums represent two competing ideas for what Guns' future should've sounded like. The question is, whose vision was better?

[Len Cnut]

Neither, they're equally shit because each one is weighted too heavily in the direction that one or the other prefers, instead of striking a perfect balance between the two, there's a place for ballads, there's a place for innovation, there's a place for bluesy, there's a place for balls to the wall rock n roll all under the umbrella of GnR.

But neither vision is in the least better than the other, they're just drab and boring because it becomes one dimensional, just like any number of one dimensional bands, the way that shit would work is for Arsehole 1 and Arsehole 2 to get in the same room and work out how Arsehole 1 can fit around Arsehole 2's thing and how Arsehole 2 can fit around Arsehole 1's thing...if you get my meaning

Whats actually quite sad is that if you listen to the two perspectives there's not actually a lot of difference in what each party expects/percieves as what GnR should be like. For all that prattling on that we hear on this forum about Chi Dem being out there and innovative it's really not, at all...it just seems like...a logical progression from The Illusions, with all the attendant musical shit therein, just updated a bit, whereas 5 O Clock Somewhere just sounds like Appetite type music without the songwriting prowess of Izzy and Axl, what Izzy offered rhthymically and Stevies swing. Which makes it all the sadder that these wankers couldn't get over themselves and get in a room and make music together, they must be SERIOUSLY fuckin' unreasonable people if they couldn't find a middle ground between their two fuckin' ways, I mean it's not exactly like Frank Zappa and Britney Spears trying to find musical common ground is it?

Edited September 29, 2015 by Len B'stard

[Dr. Who]

Neither, they're equally shit because each one is weighted too heavily in the direction that one or the other prefers, instead of striking a perfect balance between the two, there's a place for ballads, there's a place for innovation, there's a place for bluesy, there's a place for balls to the wall rock n roll all under the umbrella of GnR.

But neither vision is in the least better than the other, they're just drab and boring because it becomes one dimensional, just like any number of one dimensional bands, the way that shit would work is for Arsehole 1 and Arsehole 2 to get in the same room and work out how Arsehole 1 can fit around Arsehole 2's thing and how Arsehole 2 can fit around Arsehole 1's thing...if you get my meaning

Whats actually quite sad is that if you listen to the two perspectives there's not actually a lot of difference in what each party expects/percieves as what GnR should be like. For all that prattling on that we hear on this forum about Chi Dem being out there and innovative it's really not, at all...it just seems like...a logical progression from The Illusions, with all the attendant musical shit therein, just updated a bit, whereas 5 O Clock Somewhere just sounds like Appetite type music without the songwriting prowess of Izzy and Axl, what Izzy offered rhthymically and Stevies swing. Which makes it all the sadder that these wankers couldn't get over themselves and get in a room and make music together, they must be SERIOUSLY fuckin' unreasonable people if they couldn't find a middle ground between their two fuckin' ways, I mean it's not exactly like Frank Zappa and Britney Spears trying to find musical common ground is it?

That's the thing though. I don't think Chinese D is this complex record - it's just layers of beeps and shit acting complex - but, musically it really doesn't have anything to do with Guns N' Roses to me. I mean at least between Appetite and the UYIs, you can see the commonalities in the Stones and Aerosmith and Punk inspiration between the three records. They're different but similar approaches. Whereas with CD, even the point from which Axl is approaching the music is different. AFD - UYIs are at the end of the day retro classic rock records. They weren't really anything new or inventive, they were just continuations of the '70s Blues Rock thing revamped for the 80s/90s. But CD is this mix of industrial and nu-metal inspired tracks and Queen-esque ballads. Whereas IFOCS is just a dirty (if cheap) hard rock record. It's not that dissimilar to TSI or the heavier UYI tracks...I think there's enough of a musical divide between Slash and Axl's way of doing things (Slash - fast, dirty, rocking; Axl - layers and layers, tinkering, new genres) that it's obvious to see why they woke up.

To a guy like Slash, who goes in, writes a record, records his parts and that's it, Axl's approach - writing, pondering over, recording, re-recording, layering in 10 guitar tracks, chopping up bits and pieces of guitar parts to make a solo - would probably drive him back to drinking just to cope. And I doubt he'd be down for making his guitar sound crunchy like a Korn record.

[Towelie]

Ridiculous comparison. One is a throwaway, run-of-the-mill, generic turd of an album and one is a pretty damn great piece of work. And you know which ones which.

[Nosaj Thing]

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere is a good album. It has some generic songs but there are others that shine. Chinese Democracy is a forgettable, unlistenable utter shit. Probably the worst album of the 00s. Just garbage.

[-W.A.R-]

hmmm i'll have to go with Chinese as im not a big fan of Eric Dover which causes Five O'Clock to wear on me quickly (like 2-3 songs in quick) if it had a different vocalist then i'd probably go with Five as prefer the more harder rocking sound

Edited September 29, 2015 by -HollywoodRose-

[DieselDaisy]

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere is certainly a much better album than Chinese Democracy. It has some colossal riffs such as "Beggars & Hangers-On". Neither however are good enough to be a 'Guns N' Roses' album. They both lack Izzy's songwriting.

[Dr. Who]

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere is certainly a much better album than Chinese Democracy. It has some colossal riffs such as "Beggars & Hangers-On". Neither however are good enough to be a 'Guns N' Roses' album. They both lack Izzy's songwriting.

Izzy's songwriting is so American, though.

[DieselDaisy]

They are an American sounding group.

[Apollo]

As some of you guys may know, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere was written by Slash, Gilby and Matt, with help from Duff and Dizzy and the tapes were brought to Axl sometime in 1994 as the next GN'R album. Axl passed on the material, calling it "Southern Rock", and Duff backed him at the time. Slash, Gilby, Matt and Dizzy would go on and have Eric Dover sing on and add lyrics to the songs and have Mike Inez play bass. Later, Axl wanted to work on 4 of the songs but they were already done and not available anymore. IFOS as such was essentially Slash's vision of what the next GN'R record should've been in the mid '90s

Chinese Democracy, as we know, was Axl's vision of what a GN'R record should be in the late '90s/early 00s.

As such, both albums represent two competing ideas for what Guns' future should've sounded like. The question is, whose vision was better?

It's just rock n roll music dude. Just chill.

Like what you like.

[maynard]

Ridiculous comparison. One is a throwaway, run-of-the-mill, generic turd of an album and one is a pretty damn great piece of work. And you know which ones which.

I wouldn't call Its 5 O'Clock a great piece of work but your description of CD is spot on. Maybe CD2 will be called Generic Turd 2.

[Strange Broue]

Lenny was spot on, Towelie was hilarious, maynard takes the bait

I would vote neither

rest my case

[Nosaj Thing]

Beggars & Hangers-On > All CD songs.

[bacardimayne]

CD. 5OCS is the most average thing I've ever heard. Nothing stands out, it's a bunch of boring UYI outtakes completely lacking what made the UYIs good.

[EvH]

CD. 5OCS is the most average thing I've ever heard. Nothing stands out, it's a bunch of boring UYI outtakes completely lacking what made the UYIs good.

Agreed.

[RichardNixon]

I like both but prefer Chinese Democracy. Slash's 2010 album is by far his best post-GNR solo work. The bonus disc alone from the special edition blows his other albums out of the water.

Edited October 11, 2015 by RichardNixon

[NicoRourke]

Some people here are really funny ?

Keeping on saying the same shit over and over again, while denying being cupcakes.

CD over Five o'Clock for me, by a long shot.

[Nosaj Thing]

Maybe CD2 will be called Generic Turd 2.

But that album will never exist -- thankfully. One 99-cent, piece of shit is enough in a lifetime.

[maynard]

Keeping on saying the same shit over and over again

It's a GNR forum, we ran out of original ideas by 2009.

[SoulMonster]

Chinese Democracy by far. That Slash record is rather boring and generic. CD's got some amazing songs and is interesting through and through. Too bad it also has some really bad songs. But all in all it is a far better record than anything Slash has released.

[Free Bird]

I5OCSW

Chinese simply lacks the blues