THE GENERAL - MONSTERS - Official Discussion Thread. NO LINKS OR ASKING FOR LINKS

[bangit]

1 hour ago, JAxlMorrison said:

The more I see this “General” clip from the Hollywood Bowl, the more convinced I am that they wanna utilize some of the footage for a video for the song. Slash, who at first I thought was just rocking out, uses a whole lot of exaggerated movements in it. 

I thought that at the time. Quite possible that we see some clips in a video maybe. 

Especially as I don't think Slash was as animated in Mexico..... 

[evilfacelessturtle]

IRS would have been the best lead single; it's catchy and the closest to the old GNR style. That could ease the public into the new band, and they would be more receptive to a second single like SOD or Madagascar. But because Axl does everything ass backwards, he releases OMG as the first taste, and CD as the first actual single. Both radical departures from the old style and neither having a catchy chorus (or arguably any at all).

Edited December 5, 2023 by evilfacelessturtle

[DK6]

45 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

IRS would have been the best lead single; it's catchy and the closest to the old GNR style. That could ease the public into the new band, and they would be more receptive to a second single like SOD or Madagascar. But because Axl does everything ass backwards, he releases OMG as the first taste, and CD as the first actual single. Both radical departures from the old style and neither having a catchy chorus (or arguably any at all).

IRS sucks a bit though....

[youngunner]

Better should have been the 1st single. 

[Sweersa]

My buddy said it best, that when CD dropped as the first single, the release was doomed.

Better being the best, most catchy song on the album and radio friendly, and also my favorite. The leak got me into the band. 

[Gunner55]

16 minutes ago, youngunner said:

Better should have been the 1st single. 

Better, then SOD, then something different like TWAT. Better had a good modern GNR sound imo and is easily in my top 5 favourite songs of theirs. SOD sounds close enough to classic Guns, so mainstream I could have seen it landing well. TWAT just deserved to be released on as large a scale as possible. 

[Illusion1987]

Better is a top 10 GNR song of all time and the most radio friendly song on CD.

THAT should have been the welcome back song.

There was so much anticipation for the first single off of the album....then we go Chinese Democracy 

They blew it. 

It seems like almost all of Axl's CD era songs are just missing that little something that was common on the UYI AFD and Lies era songs.

Better was the closest to having that missing ingredient. 

 

 

[tony adler]

3 hours ago, youngunner said:

Better should have been the 1st single. 

It was played on radio when leaked , so technically it was ( sent chills down my spine when I heard it on radio ) 🤘

[Arnuld]

CD is a weird song. The intro is long and weird, the guitar riff sounds like 1994 grunge, the drum sound is lifted from smells like teen spirit (on purpose mind you) and the lyrics are weird. Now I don’t mind any of this but this song had no business being a single especially a lead single. It should have been Better which is really the only CD song with any pop appeal. Having CD as the lead single would be like having Absurd be the lead single for CD2……Oh wait that actually happened too…..

[Rovim]

I think I agree with Tom Zutaut's opinion, that he didn't think there was a single, at least when he was still working for Axl. I think it applies to the final product as well, with the tunes Axl managed to add/finish and that made it to the album.

I like all 14 tunes, but every one of them lacks a certain element that would have made it a potential hit single. It's really not that kind of album imo. 

the title track's long intro seems to turn it into like a WTTJ wannabe, there isn't really a big chorus and the guitar sounds are a departure from Slash's tone. I can understand why it didn't grab old school fans the way Slither did, for example.

Better's intro and chorus are not exactly hit single material, though I love the track and all the parts. The chorus adds much needed balls to the track. 

don't care about it being a hit anyway, I'm very happy with the final product, even if the locker leaks gives a great idea of a superior potential version of the album with more powerful drums, audible bass, more space for the music to breath, and maybe less tinkering and less layers (I'm into layers, but some of the tunes got drowned in too many little ideas stack on top of each other)

[El Guapo]

Never liked Better all that much.

I really, really don't like the emo intro and the chorus sounds like something a student band would come up with.

 

[allwaystired]

I honestly don't remember anything being a 'single' or getting any type of focus or attention as a standalone song. 

That's good in my book though- CD is an album and whenever I play it it's all the way through. It works incredibly well as an album in terms of pacing and structure and I appreciate that massively. 

[twistoflemon21]

Chinese to me was an ideal first single. Chinese Democracy was basically a myth that people didn't expect to be released or had forgotten about so how do you remind people that its real and coming out? Have your first song be the title track. 

I remember on a local rock station, two of the DJs had to each pick a song correlating with a chosen theme. The theme that day was 'botched returns'. One of them chose Chinese Democracy. Both hosts didn't necessarily run the song / album down but weren't overly positive about it. After the song ended, they had done a 180 and were both saying how great of a return song it was. 

[Gimmick]

14 hours ago, ZoSoRose said:

This kind of thing is purely subjective. In 2008 I was still very much forming my final opinions on GNR. I also loved Metallica and AC/DC in high school. That fall was huge for 16-17- year- old- me. New Metallica, AC/DC, and the fabled Chinese Democracy all back- to- back was unreal at that age. Of the three, teenage- me vastly gravitated towards Chinese and GNR. I listened to the hell out of Death Magnetic, but Chinese was easily my favorite of the 3. I am not denying that Black Ice and Death Magnetic were more commercially successful, I am just saying people have preferences that go beyond their "fandom talking". I genuinely like Chinese more than those other albums. Still, Death Magnetic was a "back to their original sound" album and Black Ice had a big lead single and AC/DC had been away for a minute. Plus, those bands had more than one key member and were "accepted" lineups despite not being all- original.

As a teenager, Black Ice didn't grab me a ton. I liked it fine, and listened to the singles here and there, but CD and DM were in higher rotation, for sure. The Black Ice tour was awesome, though. 

I agree with your second paragraph, though. It is still one of my favorite rock albums ever, but CD was always destined to be what it was imo. It was never going to set the world on fire. I actually think Chinese's title track is a bitching hard rock song, and a good lead single choice. It just wasn't the original band, was still a different sound for GNR, and had a lot of baggage behind it. Too bad. Axl keeping the name probably allowed him to generate more revenue in the short- term (playing stadiums and arenas with the name), but it definitely hurt the brand and his image in the long- term. Not saying it was the wrong choice, financially. CD would have sold less as an Axl- project and he would have been playing theaters like Slash. Not that there is anything wrong with, that. Even Steven Tyler and Robert Plant tour theaters when they are solo. 

I guess Axl would always have the "Axl is a dick" label with casual fans, so might as well lean in and take and use the band name, anyways. 

it didn't leak on myspace, they willingly posted the entire album to stream on Myspace. broke all the myspace records but completely sunk the sail out of potential sales.

[colonizedmind]

16 hours ago, JAxlMorrison said:

The more I see this “General” clip from the Hollywood Bowl, the more convinced I am that they wanna utilize some of the footage for a video for the song. Slash, who at first I thought was just rocking out, uses a whole lot of exaggerated movements in it. 

Nothing is concrete in GNR world but he probably just did it as he was in to it and perhaps a hunch at the back of his mind that hey, Axl does videos now...apparently...😸

Edited December 6, 2023 by colonizedmind

[colonizedmind]

Been outr.the looo this week, please can someone up-to-date inform me of current status...I've had no emails yet of dispatch...has anyone? Are those leaks fan enhanced? Any more leaks? Was the Vinyl photos a gift Slash gave to someone? What's going on? It's definitely coming ...RIGHT?

Any update, much appreciated 

Edited December 6, 2023 by colonizedmind

[axljungle]

Chinese Democracy has a very good intro imo, love it. The rest of the song is good but not as good as the intro.

[Sweersa]

3 hours ago, Gimmick said:

it didn't leak on myspace, they willingly posted the entire album to stream on Myspace. broke all the myspace records but completely sunk the sail out of potential sales.

Chinese Democracy also dominated all other artist's albums at the time, even Kayne's on the Torrent sites. That's telling. 

[Cosmo]

I’m quite franckly impressed on how much GNR functions like an amateur high school band. They can’t release a fucking single on vinyl without pissing their entire fanbase out. I mean, really… how stupid can this management be?

[bmus1]

I believe we should know about this time tomorrow if The General is releasing on streaming, assuming it'll be midnight in NZ.

[Tyson]

I always kinda thought that since Axl effectively bailed on any promotion when the record company took the album out of this hands, that it was the record company's decision to put CD as the first single.  Could be wrong.  

[Sweersa]

These lyrics from The General are from the perspective of the vinyl test runs refusing to cooperate with the engineers:

Daddy, don't
I swear I won't
I'll be good from now on
And I'm awful sorry
Daddy don't
The hell I won't
I won't be good anymore
And you'll all be sorry

[Blackstar]

3 hours ago, colonizedmind said:

Been outr.the looo this week, please can someone up-to-date inform me of current status...I've had no emails yet of dispatch...has anyone? Are those leaks fan enhanced? Any more leaks? Was the Vinyl photos a gift Slash gave to someone? What's going on? It's definitely coming ...RIGHT?

Any update, much appreciated 

It looks like it has started shipping (from the UK, at least).

[IndiannaRose]

8 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Never liked Better all that much.

I really, really don't like the emo intro and the chorus sounds like something a student band would come up with.

 

I disagree completely. I think a Better is a significantly strong track—especially the verses.

[colonizedmind]

6 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

It looks like it has started shipping (from the UK, at least).

Shit...posting on a phone from a train quickly....and the typos are REAL! Thanks for not thinking I was just outta the "looo" rather than loop 😬