Why are "Axl" songs so overproduced and indulgent?

[tbaugerud]

Haha...I love people with <zero insight. No offence.

Axl likes Elton John for instance and his music isn't exactly kick-ass rock n roll is it?

Axl has a rare gift: he writes fantastic lyrics and makes superb melodies out of

them. no matter what chords are being played, axl can make a great melodie.

without songs like NR and Estranged I wouldn't rate GnR as highly as I do. Songs like that tells me about a genuinely talented musician. AND more importantly:

Axl needs to express himself. Restricting Axl to plain rock n roll is like taking three colors out of Michaelangelo's painting kit.

Axl is a genious, and I MEAN it.

[ChineseDemocracy2004]

"Breakdown" would be even better without the speaking at the end

No

locomotive goes on far too long

No

November Rain also goes on way too long

No

These songs would be even better if they were stripped down...

No

arguably

I mean it's cool you voice your opinion.. But I disagree.

i agree with that guy on this one,

i love the "bloated" songs

[mr.drummin]

"Breakdown" would be even better without the speaking at the end

No

locomotive goes on far too long

No

November Rain also goes on way too long

No

These songs would be even better if they were stripped down...

No

arguably

I mean it's cool you voice your opinion.. But I disagree.

Al those songs rock. What are you people talking about?

[madison]

I love Axl's melodies, he's one of the alltime greatest songwriters. However...as I grow older I can't help but notice the inherent shortcomings of his music. A lot of the songs he has exclusively done himself like "Breakdown", "Locomotive", November Rain, Estranged, and any of the new songs all sound bloated. None sound like a true kick in the face raw rock n roll song. They sound, epic, layered with tons of synth and effects, voiceovers,etc etc. Like a song given a whole new life in the studio.

Is anyone kind of tired of that? Especially the ballads like TWAT, The Blues,etc just sound like they have so many ingredients and musicians playing on them that the effect and soul of the song is lost. Almost like it loses its identity and becomes buried under the sheer amount of instruments and effects used....

I look at other artists who came up around the time of Axl like Parry Farrell, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Mike Patton,etc and have seen them grow with their fans. They mature as their fans mature, so it's a gradual process...

With Axl's newer music I feel like he hasn't really matured much as a songwriter, he still talks about the same stuff (getting his heart broken by women,etc) and his song structure is still the same verse/guitarsolo/verse,etc with the oddity like better being different...

I've said this before many times but I wish Axl would just make his music more raw. More complicated stuff does not always mean better. Remember Kurt Cobain's acoustic set on MTV? How he wrote beatiful and tragic songs about his life and played them with his bassist and drummer, just 3 people and it came off as poignant and REAL.

Look at the stage, there are lik 7 or 8 musicians basically overwhelming the audience with pyrotechnics and effects. But that's all fluff guys. At some point, behind all the razzle-dazzle, you wish Axl would just strip his music down to it's essence. To me had he done CD like that, it would be huge at the grammys. Axl would have reinvented himself.

But now, we are getting what we already expect, an overproduced effects heavy album like the illusions. Only this album is updated for this era. That's not really a reinvention, but more like a way of following trends and staying relevant.

Your thoughts?

I think you've hit a new low SS.

If you've suddenly come to the realization that you don't like the band's music (if you ever did), then please find another forum. We don't allow cupcakes here.

I've said this before many times ..

Yes you have.

Everybody - please don't feed the cupcakes.

*locked*