The "New Album" Thread. Thanks to the long ass thread, I’m going home!

[TheDemocracyRose]

Next album: My lower voice and screams.

[gavgnr]

As we’ve seen on more than once occasion, GnR only act when their hand is forced. Someone somewhere needs to leak the fuck out of whatever they have. 

[metalavenger99]

Let’s not forget something

Until we get Perhaps, there is no one assuring us that the 1-2 singles plan between world tours is (STILL) even on the table.

Unless anyone here interprets “any day now” or “maybe even this week” as a 3 week + window… (5+ if you are waiting for an NA release)

Yeah no, i’m in the camp that it’s been cancelled, however we’ll see when they get to America. But again, we can keep waiting all we want and keep saying “Just wait till the X leg of the tour”… if we don’t get Perhaps this year, exactly on what are we gonna base our speculations from now on? On a quote from Duff years ago saying “maybe this week” at the end of a ghost article?

[Dean]

1 hour ago, Towelie said:

Always loved Slash's solo on D.S. 

Great song for what it is too.

[Grayfox]

4 minutes ago, gavgnr said:

As we’ve seen on more than once occasion, GnR only act when their hand is forced. Someone somewhere needs to leak the fuck out of whatever they have. 

I’d leak Perhaps but someone already have. So someone give me The General and we can get a new album rolling again 

[bmus1]

No way CDI was "the best of the best" with songs like Scraped on the record and songs like Hard Skool and Soul Monster on the backburner.

[gavgnr]

4 minutes ago, bmus1 said:

No way CDI was "the best of the best" with songs like Scraped on the record and songs like Hard Skool and Soul Monster on the backburner.

No, it was the ‘leak’ album with a couple extras thrown in.

[smokingarthur]

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

It has nothing to do with "making the cut" with the songs that were not on the 2008 record. They planned on putting out more than one record worth of material, so the "big guns" were spread across multiple, 2-3 records. Several band interviews have backed this up.

This is simply incorrect. Most of the song titles were grafted from interviews and were just working titles for ideas in various stages of development, the song “list” from an alternate CD was not real. Aside from this, it was full of song titles that were never developed. Most likely Axl never finished writing lyrics nor recorded any vocals for a vast majority of the working song titles from the CD era.
 

During the hunt for unreleased tracks, what became apparent was the lack of completed material which seemed to be in contrast to what some of the earlier rumors suggested. Those who actually worked on the album painted a picture of lack of continuity and direction. With the band leader seldom showing his face or presenting completed ideas.  
 

Based on Axl’s own disclosure, there would have been 26 tracks in semi-completed form prior to the release of CD. We can assume this includes the tracks on the album, the leaked tracks as well as OMG, Going Down and The General. We will learn in the not-so-distant future that we’ve already heard some of the tracks that were hidden under different titles previously and/or deconstructed and used in those other tracks. 

Edited July 24, 2023 by smokingarthur

[UYI4]

On 7/23/2023 at 1:44 AM, rumandraisin said:

Was this not the story of Slash taking his guitar to Axls or something like that, I thought that was far more recent like 2019? Unless this is a separate story I haven't heard. 

It was.  It was right after the locker stuff.

 So that’s why I think that’s why they’ve only released the finished locker songs that leaked.  It’s also what makes me question how much was actually done. 

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

I don't think there needs to be. It certainly wasn't because of a lack of quality material. A "CD2" song list leaked and the list itself was dated months prior to the 2008 album release that has a list of songs, of the songs listed, only one of them was on the 2008 album. (Catcher) and it has been said a few songs bounced between the first two records because of how they fit in the others. 

1 hour ago, hollywood_democracy said:

No explanation is needed. Everyone knows Axl is too insecure and/or indecisive to put new music out. The middling and underwhelming reception of Chinese Democracy probably didn't help the matter either, unfortunately.

And this doesn't come from a hater. I wish we had more music—I'm a fan of Chinese Democracy and the leaked demos. But here we are...

I don't see how 'no explanation is needed.' If the band has vaults of music ready to go, why not release them? Absurd got a mostly terrible reception (though I quite like it) but that didn't stop Axl from putting out Hard Skool and playing them both live every night. All these plans - multiple albums! - and they're suddenly just gone?

I just think there's not much left. I really think the process of having Chinese Democracy wrested from him and released to a very tepid reaction killed any excitement Axl had for creating anything new. His attitude is probably "why bother? Let's just release the shit we have left to drum up some ticket sales while we still can."

18 minutes ago, bmus1 said:

No way CDI was "the best of the best" with songs like Scraped on the record and songs like Hard Skool and Soul Monster on the backburner.

Wait, "songs like Soul Monster"? How do we know Soul Monster is good? Has *anyone* heard it? How is it already better than Scraped?

[metalavenger99]

I consider Zodiac, Soul Monster and Seven to be the 3 big guns enough for a CDII release back in the day. (You can swap Zodiac for The General of course)  

I wouldn’t mind if the rest were fillers.  
Silkworms is a filler.

it’s ok if some consider Perhaps/Atlas/HS as fillers (or think they are shit) cause even then what an amazing fucking album would be at least to most of us. I don’t know about casuals.

[jacdaniel]

Slash said back in 96 that Guns had 80 songs... Probably the majority of it was shelved. Maybe some of it found its way onto CD or other projects at some point. 

The point is, it's easy to say you have lots of material. But until it's actually played / released, then it's just ideas. 

[Rovim]

13 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

Slash said back in 96 that Guns had 80 songs... Probably the majority of it was shelved. Maybe some of it found its way onto CD or other projects at some point. 

The point is, it's easy to say you have lots of material. But until it's actually played / released, then it's just ideas. 

why does material has to be played and/or released to become more than just ideas? sure, Axl can always tinker with it some more, but there comes a point, like the Locker leaks have demonstrated, that a song is considered finished by most people.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Rovim

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

19 minutes ago, smokingarthur said:

This is simply incorrect. Most of the song titles were grafted from interviews and were just working titles for ideas in various stages of development, the song “list” from an alternate CD was not real. Aside from this, it was full of song titles that were never developed. Most likely Axl never finished writing lyrics nor recorded any vocals for a vast majority of the working song titles from the CD era.
 

During the hunt for unreleased tracks, what became apparent was the lack of completed material which seemed to be in contrast to what some of the earlier rumors suggested. Those who actually worked on the album painted a picture of lack of continuity and direction. With the band leader seldom showing his face or presenting completed ideas.  
 

Based on Axl’s own disclosure, there would have been 26 tracks in semi-completed form prior to the release of CD. We can assume this includes the tracks on the album, the leaked tracks as well as OMG, Going Down and The General. We will learn in the not-so-distant future that we’ve already heard some of the tracks that were hidden under different titles previously and/or deconstructed and used in those other tracks. 

I think you're on the money.

Again, language can be tricky - especially with this band (no trickery my ass!). 

Slash calls some new songs 'epic' and people assume he means it's a Coma/TWAT-esque song, when in reality he could just be using 'epic' as a synonym for 'cool,' as people often do.

A crew member says a new song is dropping any day now and people assume that means within the week, when in reality it could be weeks and weeks. It's like when someone says something is coming "soon." There's no definition on the timeline.

Similarly - when Axl/others involved say they have vaults worth of songs they've worked on, I believe them! I just think their definition of 'song' is different than mine. Brain, Buckethead, Robin Finck, Stinson, Dizzy, Fortus, Tobias, Bumblefoot, DJ Ashba, Frank, Pitman, Shaquille O'Neal, James Earl Jones, Fuckface Johnson, and whoever else has been in the band over the last 27 years have probably worked up dozens if not hundreds of pieces of music - complete with multiple sections. And I'm sure the band counts those as songs. But until Axl touches them or lays something down on them, they're not completed songs to me. They're ideas.

My personal favorite of the Village Leaks is an idea called Tonto. Seems ready to go to me. It's energetic, aggressive, and perfect for the band. But, as far as I can tell, Axl hasn't given it a thought because there's no evidence to suggest he has. 

Perhaps, State of Grace, and Atlas Shrugged are songs we know they have in the tank. I've heard rumors of The General, but I've been sent a clip of it and it doesn't sound clear enough to hear anything outside of a basic tempo and vibe. 

It just seems to me that Axl put in some work in the mid 2000s and finished the best of what he had - and we got Chinese Democracy. I'm just having a hard time believing there's much more.

6 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

it's easy to say you have lots of material. But until it's actually played / released, then it's just ideas. 

I commend your brevity. While I was typing my long-winded response, you summed up everything I was trying to say in just a sentence.

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

4 minutes ago, Rovim said:

why does material have to be played and/or released to become more than just ideas? sure, Axl can always tinker with it some more, but there comes a point, like the Locker leaks has demonstrated, that a song is considered finished by most people.

I don't know if the metric is that they have to be played and/or released, but I'm not counting anything as more than an idea unless I hear Axl on it. Especially after the numerous reports that for so long it was just the band going into the studio and jamming on ideas without any input from Axl. 

 

14 minutes ago, metalavenger99 said:

I consider Zodiac, Soul Monster and Seven to be the 3 big guns enough for a CDII release back in the day. (You can swap Zodiac for The General of course)  

Zodiac we know from the Village Leaks, but have you heard it with vocals? Have you heard any piece of Soul Monster or Seven? I'm just curious why you consider them the Big Guns. Is it just based off their titles/descriptions in previous interviews? I'm not being snarky - I'm legitimately asking to make sure I haven't missed any leaks (I've only heard what people are calling The General about a week or two ago).

[Rovim]

1 minute ago, GoodOlJohnnyK said:

I don't know if the metric is that they have to be played and/or released, but I'm not counting anything as more than an idea unless I hear Axl on it. Especially after the numerous reports that for so long it was just the band going into the studio and jamming on ideas without any input from Axl.

technically, the metric is when the artist/musician considers it complete. I did mean material with all the lyrics and vocals. I believe what Axl said about having completed the second half of Chinese including all vocals and lyrics, at least a version of it that most of us if not all of us would consider complete, so I don't think that lack of material or quality material is the reason for why Axl almost never releases his music.

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

3 minutes ago, Rovim said:

technically, the metric is when the artist/musician considers it complete. I did mean material with all the lyrics and vocals. I believe what Axl said about having completed the second half of Chinese including all vocals and lyrics, at least a version of it that most of us if not all of us would consider complete, so I don't think that lack of material or quality material is the reason for why Axl almost never releases his music.

Sure, I suppose - though I guess we're speaking in personal metrics. If Axl's telling me Tonto is complete, he just has to put a melody, lyrics, and vocals to it, then he might consider it complete, but I sure don't.

Sometimes this is true even within a band. Adam Clayton says in U2's biography 'U2 By U2' that often Bono will present him with a very rough melody over some chords and think he's playing Adam a new single - because he can hear how it's going to go in head head, whereas Adam Clayton simply hears some chords and a melody that need a lot of work before they can be considered a song, let alone the band's next single. 

Out of curiosity though - if it's not lack of material, or quality material, what do you think the reason is that Axl is so guarded of his music?

[metalavenger99]

1 minute ago, GoodOlJohnnyK said:

Zodiac we know from the Village Leaks, but have you heard it with vocals? Have you heard any piece of Soul Monster or Seven? I'm just curious why you consider them the Big Guns. Is it just based off their titles/descriptions in previous interviews? I'm not being snarky - I'm legitimately asking to make sure I haven't missed any leaks (I've only heard what people are calling The General about a week or two ago).

Haha nah, if any of those leaked by now i’d be at peace with myself, and would immediately stop following this shitshow.

1- Zodiac was just my opinion, I said it because i like it a lot, but then knowing we haven’t heard it, i said that maybe everyone would just leave that spot for The General 

2- And the others, i think the consensus comes based on how them were described when Beltrami was working on those exact 3 songs

3- And … i consider a lot of the Village leaks just to be instrumental ideas too, but the fact that Axl confirmed that a bunch of those titles were real (and even remembered them) in ‘08 makes me wanna believe that at least Zodiac, Oklahoma, and a couple more, aside from the hopefully “big guns” have vocals. Sure the rest are just ideas.

 

lol no way you haven’t heard about The General, if you really mean that, yes you missed it man, a cellphone recording of it leaked and they officially played the intro at some shows in 2010 i believe

[chester]

The only songs we know for sure are complete are Atlas, Perhaps, State of Grace, and The General. We know because we have heard them.

Everything else is complete speculation. 
 

Other songs have been mentioned and it possible some of them are finished and it’s possible we’ve heard the instrumental demos under different titles on the village discs, but again that’s just speculation. 
 

Axl did indicate he recorded vocals for ‘Soul Monster’…. Which some have speculated is on the village demos as ‘Me and my Elvis’ but it’s not clear to me what evidence they are using for they claim… Other than the Elvis connection.
 

I’m willing to take Axl’s word on that… or it could be like ‘Nothing’ or ‘Eye on You’ and all he recorded was a chorus or verse idea. 
 

we don’t know until the band releases 

more or more is leaked.

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

1 minute ago, metalavenger99 said:

lol no way you haven’t heard about The General, if you really mean that, yes you missed it man, a cellphone recording of it leaked and they officially played the intro at some shows in 2010 i believe

I'd certainly heard *about* it - I just never heard the cell phone recording until a few weeks ago. A poster here was kind enough to forward it to me (thanks again!). 

I didn't hear a whole lot there. There were moments where I was like 'wait - is that an Axl vocal or just some ambient background noise?' I was a bit disappointed, because the way people talk about it like it's a sure thing, I figured there'd be more to hear.

[Rovim]

Just now, GoodOlJohnnyK said:

Sure, I suppose - though I guess we're speaking in personal metrics. If Axl's telling me Tonto is complete, he just has to put a melody, lyrics, and vocals to it, then he might consider it complete, but I sure don't.

Sometimes this is true even within a band. Adam Clayton says in U2's biography 'U2 By U2' that often Bono will present him with a very rough melody over some chords and think he's playing Adam a new single - because he can hear how it's going to go in head head, whereas Adam Clayton simply hears some chords and a melody that need a lot of work before they can be considered a song, let alone the band's next single. 

Out of curiosity though - if it's not lack of material, or quality material, what do you think the reason is that Axl is so guarded of his music?

we don't have to look far to find a good example imo: we have an almost complete version of an earlier version of the album that got officially released. So shit like Catcher, TWAT, title track, Riad, etc with full lyrics and vocals. That was ready 8 plus years before the offical release in 2008.

Axl said in 2014 that he always considered Chinese a double, and that the second unreleased half of Chinese was completed. I'm not talking about instrumentals with no vocals or lyrics.

[metalavenger99]

4 minutes ago, GoodOlJohnnyK said:

I'd certainly heard *about* it - I just never heard the cell phone recording until a few weeks ago. A poster here was kind enough to forward it to me (thanks again!). 

I didn't hear a whole lot there. There were moments where I was like 'wait - is that an Axl vocal or just some ambient background noise?' I was a bit disappointed, because the way people talk about it like it's a sure thing, I figured there'd be more to hear.

Yeah i agree, i don’t care that much about The General too

Maybe you should listen to the intro, it’s up on Youtube

[GoodOlJohnnyK]

4 minutes ago, Rovim said:

we don't have to look far to find a good example imo: we have an almost complete version of an earlier version of the album that got officially released. So shit like Catcher, TWAT, title track, Riad, etc with full lyrics and vocals. That was ready 8 plus years before the offical release in 2008.

Axl said in 2014 that he always considered Chinese a double, and that the second unreleased half of Chinese was completed. I'm not talking about instrumentals with no vocals or lyrics.

Yeah I hear you - I guess where we differ is that I believe that all of the songs that were complete have been released or are going to be. Catcher, TWAT, Chinese, Riad, Better, etc. all have demos that leaked - and they were all included on Chinese.

Of the other demos, it just sounds like Hard Skool, Absurd, Perhaps, State of Grace, and Atlas Shrugged are the only completed ones with vocals. *Possibly* The General as well - some state they can hear vocals in the cellphone clip but I certainly can't. Also I'm leaving open the possibility that Zodiac has vocals, simply because it's listed on CD#2 as "(no vox)" which implies that a version with vocals exists (though it's also possible that it's like Quicksong - which has a scratch melody but no lyrics).

I just don't buy that there's another album in the can.

[Nick85]

I really hope they pull a switcharoo and release The General at the top of the next tour. I’ve never been blown away by Perhaps, and like Atlas, feel like it’s very much a filler track. 

[Dani_1455]

I throw my theory here:

Tour manager talked about 29 songs finished, maybe he confused AFD era with CD era ,14 songs were submitted on the first album and Hardskool and Absurd on 2021, that leaves 13 songs finished at this point if we take his words.

The songs that appear on Spotify around October of last year were (if I remember correctly):

State of Grace, Atlas Shrugged, The General, Perhaps, Soul Monster, Se7en, Zodiac, Oklahoma, Thyme and Cuban Skies.

Could It be that there are really 13 songs finished but the only ones that have been uploaded are being considered to be released, some of them soon and the other ones not, and of this 10 songs only some of them have been re-recorded with Slash & Duff?

About of this 10, we know that The General and Perhaps are for sure re-recorded with them and that's my opinion but the found of Se7en spelled like this makes me believe It has also been re-recorded.

Which also fits with the description of Slash of sounding epic the songs.

Maybe some more songs had been re-recorded but I think that these 3 are a pretty safe bet just because what I've said before.

Another thing to consider is the words from Frank saying that they were prepared to play at Frankfurt, only a week later of the famous photo of Slash & Axl at studio where they were listening to new mixes.

If someone is listening to mixes is probably because of they are not sure about if the song is ready to be released and It seem that Perhaps was prepared since Tel Aviv for sure, what do I want to say is that maybe in the mixes that Slash & Axl were listening, Perhaps was not included, and maybe there were other songs.