Do you still listen to Hard Skool and Absurd?

[Powderfinger]

I only listen to the live versions, they’re marginally better than the studio releases. Looking back at shows I definitely skip absurd more than Hard School. 
 

(I refuse to use the K) 

[The Matinator]

I still listen to both pretty frequently. Probably not as much as I do with other new songs from my favorite artists but to be fair I’ve been listening to Absurd Since I was 15 years old & HS for 2 years + now. 

[Flayer]

I listen to the leaked versions more often than the officials

[MaskingApathy]

On 12/29/2021 at 3:16 PM, Towelie said:

It took me a while to wrap my head around the changes Slash made to Hard Skool, but now I've known it for a while, I much prefer it.

Absurd pisses all over Silkworms.

Slash really took both these songs to another level if you ask me. They were good songs to begin with, but Slash made them sound like GNR songs.

This 100%

I listen to both pretty much daily.

[Drsmom]

Hard Skool  is a great song to run to.  I usually like to listen to it around mile six. I do expect more and from GNR…I hope they can stretch themselves creatively more the Absurd and Hard Skool. They are fucking millionaires because of us after all. 

[Bitchisback]

I still play hard skool a lot.

 

Absurd was my #1 most played song of 2021 lol 

[rocknroll41]

I’ve been starting to listen to them both a lot again. The final versions of both songs really grew on me, actually.

[DownUnderScott]

I don't ever go out of my way to listen to them, since the day or two after they were officially released. I'm just not that interested or motivated to listen to these old songs. 

I did hear Hardskool again on the radio while driving a few days ago, its probably the 3rd or 4th time I have heard it on the radio while driving, and again it was a nice suprise to just spontaneously hear it. 

If Axl actually released a new album of new songs I would be obsessed with playing it all the time, and loving every minute of digesting more of his art, but hearing old songs is stale as fuck.

[scottish nutter]

I dont like either although I prefer the leaked version of hs, the new guitar parts annoy me lol

I really dont know how they can play a song as bad as aturd with a straight face?

Edited January 1, 2022 by scottish nutter

[19AT5]

Listened to both tracks over new year with friends for the first time in ages. Everybody was in agreement that Absurd is utter fucking dogshit of the highest calibre. Appreciate some folks might like it, but to these ears... There is literally hee haw good or enjoyable aboot it. Hard Skool I'm more favourable towards, but a lot of the boys think it is GNR by numbers. The middle section is still a bit weird and doesn't really fit. Though I do think the chorus in HS is killer though, but that alone isn't enough really. I've just accepted that following a band like this is just not really worth it as there is very little return. These releases wouldn't make me jump up and want to listen to or buy a new GNR album.

[Legendador]

Absurd > Silkworms

Hardschool > Hard Skool

[Zeppelin]

No. Haven't listened to them since they came out. Both are painfully mediocre as "finished" songs, and the leaks sound vastly superior. It's baffling.

[Hollywood Gunner]

hard skool yes. absurd is trash... i listen to it about as much as i listen to my world

[Seb91]

Listen to them now and again. I enjoy them both but they're not top tier songs in my view. Think the released Absurd sounds much better than the leaks and Slash's riffs and solos mean the song has some redeeming features. I've never really understood the love for Silkworms/Absurd or really what Axl's seen in it over the years. It's always been a weird industrial curio to me. I think with a rewritten vocal melody and reworked lyrics it could have been decent. 

On the flipside, I think the 2001 version of Hard Skool sounds so much better. Find the bell to be cheesy as hell (same goes for the artwork and spelling of school in the title). Having said that, it works as a comeback song as it's very classic GN'R (indeed, it wouldn't have sounded out of place on VR's Contraband). Personally, I think marketing wise Hard Skool would have made much more sense as a first single with Absurd as a b-side as, if I'd never heard the leaks, I could have believed Hard Skool was the result of  a recent jam session between the three of them.  

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by BassistSeb

[Sweersa]

On 12/29/2021 at 8:19 PM, Dean said:

The biggest thing for me is the production. For someone that slaved over an album for so long seeking perfection, there is a massive gulf in difference between say something from Chinese and either of the two singles in terms of listening experience. Being at the forefront with going against the Loudness War with Chinese, these two singles do hit me with the assumption that it’s loudness for loudness sake. That said, I think Hard Skool is a great song so the flaws I think it has aren’t really important in the grand scheme of things.

I feel your pain there. Sometimes it seems more noticeable than others. I hope to God they are mixed and mastered properly if they make an eventual album. It would be dreadful if the entire album sounds like those two tracks. Hopefully they were just rushed as singles, and will be polished on an album. Or maybe they will not be included at all, or maybe alt versions will be on CD2. It would be cool if they use the Village versions on the next album, with some refinement.

[JAxlMorrison]

Pretty often, sometimes daily. 

[19AT5]

25 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I feel your pain there. Sometimes it seems more noticeable than others. I hope to God they are mixed and mastered properly if they make an eventual album. It would be dreadful if the entire album sounds like those two tracks. Hopefully they were just rushed as singles, and will be polished on an album. Or maybe they will not be included at all, or maybe alt versions will be on CD2. It would be cool if they use the Village versions on the next album, with some refinement.

Still hoping for a bit of Buckethead I take it?! The Village sessions are demos mate. You've got them, enjoy it! Besides, the new version of Hard Skool smokes the old Village Session version. Okay, granted, the mix and production is piss poor. 

[Dean]

19 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I feel your pain there. Sometimes it seems more noticeable than others. I hope to God they are mixed and mastered properly if they make an eventual album. It would be dreadful if the entire album sounds like those two tracks. Hopefully they were just rushed as singles, and will be polished on an album. Or maybe they will not be included at all, or maybe alt versions will be on CD2. It would be cool if they use the Village versions on the next album, with some refinement.

I honestly can't see the singles differing to what may be on a potential album, but we'll need to wait and see I suppose. The notion that Guns N' Roses would rush out a release is funny to me considering the amount of time they have had over the years to perfect whatever is at their disposal, but we're all human and mistakes are most certainly possible, but it's funny to me nonetheless, and obviously I hope you're right, but I guess at this stage, I'll take whatever is on offer. I just hope whatever work Beltrami and Buckmaster did is prominent on the album. 

[Sweersa]

31 minutes ago, Dean said:

I honestly can't see the singles differing to what may be on a potential album, but we'll need to wait and see I suppose. The notion that Guns N' Roses would rush out a release is funny to me considering the amount of time they have had over the years to perfect whatever is at their disposal, but we're all human and mistakes are most certainly possible, but it's funny to me nonetheless, and obviously I hope you're right, but I guess at this stage, I'll take whatever is on offer. I just hope whatever work Beltrami and Buckmaster did is prominent on the album. 

I know it seems silly given the time it took to make, but the 2008 album was rushed near release, at least in some aspects. (Draft artwork being released) Though from a mixing and mastering perspective, CD is done very well, though I'd prefer Tommy's bass mixed higher. 

[Dean]

18 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I know it seems silly given the time it took to make, but the 2008 album was rushed near release, at least in some aspects. (Draft artwork being released) Though from a mixing and mastering perspective, CD is done very well, though I'd prefer Tommy's bass mixed higher. 

I can only assume that the fuck up with releasing the album from the labels part played a bigger role than members leaving did in Axl not releasing music for so long. He mentioned 2008 being the worst year of his life - that material deserved so much better, both from a label point of view and from Axl himself too. A lot more should have been done, but hopefully they right that wrong with whatever comes next, but going by Slash’s recent interview, it looks like it’ll be singles until the amount equates to an album - I may just be too greedy for that though 🤣

[Spoon87]

Absurd not at all, Hard Skool from time to time, mainly to feel a throwback to the time around the 43 seconds Checkmate leak after that Trunk Radio Interview, I think it was. Still a cool song tho.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Spoon87

[19AT5]

1 minute ago, Spoon87 said:

Absurd not at all, Hard Skool from time to time, mainly to feel a throwback to the time around the Checkmate leak after that Trunk Radio Interview, I think it was. Still a cool song tho.

I think the chorus in Hard Skool is friggin' tremendous. And I like the guitar work too. Delighted that God awful cheesy intro is gone from the leaked version. I actually can't listen to it though I will say Axl sounds better on the leak. Don't get everybody's beef with the drums being replaced. It was hardly like the original leak version had John Bonham pounding on the skins!

[darkside259]

hardkool help me go trough a fight with my best friend, great song, i really apreciate the lyrics 

 

[gt72]

On 12/31/2021 at 10:49 PM, Drsmom said:

Hard Skool  is a great song to run to.  I usually like to listen to it around mile six. I do expect more and from GNR…I hope they can stretch themselves creatively more the Absurd and Hard Skool. They are fucking millionaires because of us after all. 

Can’t go as far as you anymore 5 mile max guy as I approach 50 but definitely in my run playlist 

[Draguns]

I just listened to both today. Hard Skool was the #1 song that I played on Spotify in 2021. I think Hard Skool is better. As I said before, it has that classic GNR sound. It seems like it has a little bit of Think About You with the official release of the song.