ABSUЯD Single released at midnight

[Pele]

1 minute ago, Gunner55 said:

 

I'd be curious to hear general public perception of Hardschool. Once Axl gets to the chorus I really hope that old fans will go, "Yes. THAT'S Axl. He's back."

Yes they will, because it has vocals recorded 22 years ago,

[Nick85]

Just now, Pele said:

Yes they will, because it has vocals recorded 22 years ago,

I know a lot of people are going to chuck this at the band, but personally, I'd rather have lyrics that an emotionally shattered & angry Axl wrote when he was 38 than whatever he might come up with now...at 59.  If fact, we should be thanking our lucky stars that enough of that stuff exists to make an album. 

[Pele]

1 minute ago, sofine11 said:

I know a lot of people are going to chuck this at the band, but personally, I'd rather have lyrics that an emotionally shattered & angry Axl wrote when he was 38 than whatever he might come up with now...at 59.  If fact, we should be thanking our lucky stars that enough of that stuff exists to make an album. 

True - Hardskool 99 is gonna sound better than HardSkool 21 isn't it!

It's just a shame it won't really be 'new' to us.

[Martin Riggs]

7 minutes ago, Towelie said:

Have you considered this is the only song Axl feels confident enough to sing live?

That’s possible, but then again he personally is making the decison to keep Better in the set list each night…could something like HardSkool sound worse? 

[Nick85]

Just now, Pele said:

True - Hardskool 99 is gonna sound better than HardSkool 21 isn't it!

It's just a shame it won't really be 'new' to us.

I agree, and really that's on the band (Axl) as much as it is on us for downloading those leaks.  I'm just enough of a music/GNR nerd to be in awe that a release with Axl & Slash has, against all odds, actually materialized.  That is, if this is where all this is going.  

[guitarpatch]

7 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

The label stopped funding the CD project in early 2004. So it's possible that it doesn't own the masters of what was created after that and until the release of CD. However, the vast majority of the songs, including Silkworms, were created before that. Unless the various versions and re-recordings, full or partial (e.g. same vocals/different instruments) of the same songs count, which I don't know. If the re-recordings count, it means that this new, partly re-recorded version, is not owned by the label.

There's the possibility that Axl/GnR has bought the master recordings of the CD leftovers.

The final master is whatever recordings, mixing, mastering that appears on the finished released product. 
 

Yeah, we don’t know the deal. We do know that at some point UMG stopped funding them and it was on them to continue in which they did. That in itself opens up a few questions.

Typically in the music business, whoever paid for it, owns it. If UMG didn’t pay them an advance or paid for whatever was done as it went, then they most likely don’t own masters outright. They do however probably still have the exclusive right to commercially release anything the band has if they are still under the deal. 

[Martin Riggs]

18 minutes ago, sofine11 said: DeGeneration-X said it best on another forum, better this than dropping something like "(Still) Out To Get Me" to appease mouth breathers with the attention span of fleas.

Mouth breathers with the attention span of fleas because they like Out Ta Get Me? Do you think a song like Absurd is somehow sophisticated progress or something in the evolution of Guns N Roses as artists? I don’t quite get the thought process here. Even compared to Out Ta Get Me, this song and its lyrical narrative is arguably GNR devolving to sophomoric chanting. 

[Blackstar]

7 minutes ago, guitarpatch said:

The final master is whatever recordings, mixing, mastering that appears on the finished released product. 
 

Yeah, we don’t know the deal. We do know that at some point UMG stopped funding them and it was on them to continue in which they did. That in itself opens up a few questions.

Typically in the music business, whoever paid for it, owns it. If UMG didn’t pay them an advance or paid for whatever was done as it went, then they most likely don’t own masters outright. They do however probably still have the exclusive right to commercially release anything the band has if they are still under the deal. 

If that's the case, it would raise questions even about the CD album itself, since the final masters are from after 2004 (when UMG stopped funding the recording). But, most likely, the label funded the final mixing and mastering of CD.

18 minutes ago, Gunner55 said:

This is exactly what I feel. The lyrics are...well they're lyrics. But there's no trace of that classic Axl casual fans know and love. Rock The Rock showed me that he can still get a good enough grasp of it to show publicly if he wants to. 

Musically I love it. It's become more guitar driven. It's got, what is immediately clear as day, Slash on it. 

I'd be curious to hear general public perception of Hardschool. Once Axl gets to the chorus I really hope that old fans will go, "Yes. THAT'S Axl. He's back."

I personally like Axl's vocals on this (and generally his low voice) - the lyrics are what they are. But yeah, I get that most people, especially casual fans, don't like it because they don't recognize it.

[Nick85]

18 minutes ago, Martin Riggs said:

Mouth breathers with the attention span of fleas because they like Out Ta Get Me? Do you think a song like Absurd is somehow sophisticated progress or something in the evolution of Guns N Roses as artists? I don’t quite get the thought process here. Even compared to Out Ta Get Me, this song and its lyrical narrative is arguably GNR devolving to sophomoric chanting. 

Wut

[jekylhyde]

1 hour ago, MYWIFEMYLIFE said:

yes, and 50 vinyl sales makes more money for artists than a billion streams  

I hate this streaming era. 

[jekylhyde]

50 minutes ago, GNRfanMILO said:

Same people that have been filling stadiums in 2016/2017 to hear Sweet Child O’ Mine and November Rain. I couldn’t give less of a shit about their opinions on Absurd.

I hope they continue releasing “weird shit” if that keeps pulling casuals away. They have stolen OUR band for enough time 

Fucking casuals, man... 

 

But yeah, bring on the weird shit! That's rock'n'roll! 

[ZoSoRose]

57 minutes ago, sofine11 said:

Don't bet on hearing any of this stuff on the radio, no matter how great it ends up being.  Some nostalgia based classic rock stations may give it some love just for the novelty of playing a "new" GNR track, but I don't see it being a cultural phenomenon, certainly not the way many of us were hoping for Chinese Democracy in the early 00s. 

My advice to everyone is just enjoy the miracle of new GNR recordings with Slash, Duff & Axl as fans. 

That’s what I mean lol, 6 months of play on the rock stations

[James Bond]

2 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I don't follow anything to do with GN'R on social media, so I went to have a look just now. 

A ton of people are trashing it for sure. A few people saying they liked it but what's funny to me is all the people responding when someone says they like it. 

Not sure why people have to reply in hopes of convincing someone to not like it. 

100%.

Not to mention the general consensus is hardly reason to insist that someone not like it. I couldn't give two shits about what people on Facebook think. As if that is some sort of "proof" of anything. It has zero influence on whether or not I like something. I'm hardly going to insist that people should like/dislike something just because someone on Facebook says so.

[Nick85]

3 minutes ago, ZoSoRose said:

That’s what I mean lol, 6 months of play on the rock stations

I just can't see Hard Skool coming on after Imagine Dragons on mainstream rock stations. In fact, I feel like we're at a point (however unfortunate) where it's best to keep this in it's own niche, whatever that means in 2021.

[Jw224]

2 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I don't follow anything to do with GN'R on social media, so I went to have a look just now. 

A ton of people are trashing it for sure. A few people saying they liked it but what's funny to me is all the people responding when someone says they like it. 

Not sure why people have to reply in hopes of convincing someone to not like it. 

There's comments merely saying that they don't like it, then there's a lot of "This personally offends me and is not what I've been waiting for, how dare you!" type stuff. Can guarantee a lot of people on Facebook are like that lol. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Jw224

[jimisbatman]

17 minutes ago, jekylhyde said:

Fucking casuals, man... 

 

But yeah, bring on the weird shit! That's rock'n'roll! 

So your asking for a double A side release of PRL/eye on you 😂 

[jekylhyde]

3 minutes ago, jimisbatman said:

So your asking for a double A side release of PRL/eye on you 😂 

Anything to piss of The Facebook Crowd. 

[gnfnrs1972]

I was watching some of the videos of absurd on YouTube,  has anybody else noticed that Axl is starting to look like Donald Trump with the hair and orange glow on his face?

 

[Blackstar]

16 minutes ago, Jw224 said:

There's comments merely saying that they don't like it, then there's a lot of "This personally offends me and is not what I've been waiting for, how dare you!" type stuff. Can guarantee a lot of people on Facebook are like that lol. 

Yes, and this type of comments are not only from the casual SCOM/NR crowd. There have been many comments like that on Beta's instagram (including the one in Portuguese to which she responded that Absurd is part of the album) and I assume the people who know who Beta is are more than casuals.

There are also those who reply to the casuals telling them that the reason they shouldn't like the song is that it's not new.

I really can't wrap my head around why someone would feel personally offended or disrespected because a band released a song they don't like.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Blackstar

[Free Bird]

2 hours ago, allwaystired said:

I imagine (and apologies for this in advance) that a lot of GNR fans are rather, how shall we put it, 'stuck in their ways' now. Anything less than a COMPLETE rehash of the past (i.e. SCOM part 2 or something) would be greeted badly. 

Also, there's the fact that GNR have made themselves FIRMLY about nostalgia for a long time now, which always attracts dullards. There's no wonder when they've set the stall out like that for so long that if they do something that isn't identical to the sound they made in the 80s/90s people will dislike it. 

Not saying that's the reason EVERYONE dislikes it of course, just suggesting that these two factors will be coming into play pretty heavily. 

Maybe if they had chosen a proper song to release as their first new song in 30 years, the reaction of people on Facebook and Youtube would have been more positive...

[PrimalScream]

Really like how they're doubling down on the marketing of Absurd

https://twitter.com/gunsnroses/status/1428067510759350274

 

[Jw224]

5 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Yes, and this type of comments are not only from the casual SCOM/NR crowd. There have been many comments like that on Beta's instagram (including the one in Portuguese to which she responded that Absurd is part of the album) and I assume the people who know who Beta is are more than casuals.

There are also those who reply to the casuals telling them that the reason they shouldn't like the song is that it's not new.

I really can't wrap my head around why someone would feel personally offended or disrespected because a band released a song they don't like.

Yeah, hardcore fans are definitely acting this way as well. It can be seen even here. I will also never understand going onto someone's personal insta and saying stuff like that, especially when beta already knows the song is old and likely had nothing to do with the decision to release it. Just makes you look unhinged and childlike lol. 

[MaskingApathy]

2 hours ago, sofine11 said:

You know what would be hilarious and woefully not outside the realm of possibilities? If tomorrow they drop "Spiders" a re-worked OMG with Slash and Duff. You think people are upset right now? 

Yes bring it on 

1 hour ago, GNRfanMILO said:

Same people that have been filling stadiums in 2016/2017 to hear Sweet Child O’ Mine and November Rain. I couldn’t give less of a shit about their opinions on Absurd.

I hope they continue releasing “weird shit” if that keeps pulling casuals away. They have stolen OUR band for enough time 

100%, they just want the hits. They probably wouldn't be happy with anything new.

[DTJ80]

1 hour ago, sofine11 said:

I know a lot of people are going to chuck this at the band, but personally, I'd rather have lyrics that an emotionally shattered & angry Axl wrote when he was 38 than whatever he might come up with now...at 59.  If fact, we should be thanking our lucky stars that enough of that stuff exists to make an album. 

Well said. Although, id still be keen to hear where he is at now too. But yeah, I’ll take whatever as beggars can’t be choosers. 🤣

[North Korean Democracy]

I think the only explanation for releasing this as their first single when a far superior and conventional song (Hardskool) is right there is that Axl can perform this live without any problems, but I think a lot of people would rather hear a good song being poorly performed by Axl than viceversa.