[Artie Fufkin]

Big rumours that Nov 23rd is the release date [in the US anyway - Dr Pepper is on ice]. Also some are saying that the finished article has leaked already.

Does anyone care anymore?
What are the chances that it lives up to the hype?

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guita...evealed-177551

[redbaron]

I for one don't really care. Axl lost the plot a long long time ago, and after hearing alot of 'samples' of this album, I'm not impressed.

[Donnacha]

Have to agree - I've lost interest in this. The tour was good last year, but the old stuff is what people want. Not too impressed with what I've heard so far!

[Toasty]

Pah, this has been talked about for so long that it's old news before it's released. Not so much striking while the iron's hot, more like when it's ice cold

[mjn]

Better is a decent song, but stuff like Madagascar is 10 years old now.

[sukhy5]

Great news! Can't wait.

Thank God for the top albums that have been released (or are due to be released) this year:

AC/DC
Metallica
Slipknot.

Top bands that will save us from the usual tripe like:

Razorlight
Kazier Chiefs
Kasiban

[mjn]

Looks like that release date has been confirmed, and here is the final tracklist.

1. Chinese Democracy
2. Shackler's Revenge
3. Better
4. Street Of Dreams
5. If The World
6. There Was A Time
7. Catcher In The Rye
8. Scraped
9. Riad N' The Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute

Good to see crap like The Blues, Silkworms and Oh My God not featuring.

Title track, Chinese Democracy, can be heard here Guns N' Roses: Home: Guns N' Roses | Chinese Democracy | 11.23.2008

[coxy83]

Originally Posted by mjn

Looks like that release date has been confirmed, and here is the final tracklist.

1. Chinese Democracy
2. Shackler's Revenge
3. Better
4. Street Of Dreams
5. If The World
6. There Was A Time
7. Catcher In The Rye
8. Scraped
9. Riad N' The Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute

Good to see crap like The Blues, Silkworms and Oh My God not featuring.

Title track, Chinese Democracy, can be heard here Guns N' Roses: Home: Guns N' Roses | Chinese Democracy | 11.23.2008

Street of Dreams is 'The Blues', just been renamed

[mjn]

Originally Posted by coxy83

Street of Dreams is 'The Blues', just been renamed

Oh

[Toasty]

Originally Posted by mjn

Oh

Perfect D'oh moment if ever I saw one

Thanks for the link to the song, unfortunately, it demonstrates the same lack of creativity in the guitar work I heard on their tour last year

[mjn]

Originally Posted by Toasty

Thanks for the link to the song, unfortunately, it demonstrates the same lack of creativity in the guitar work I heard on their tour last year

Got to remember the album has had more guitar parts recorded than Britney Spears has had counselling sessions!!

Comfirmed and rumoured guitarists include Slash, Paul Tobias, Buckethead, Robin Finck, Brian May, Bumblefoot, Zakk Wylde, and Richard Fortus.

Plus, out of the 14 tracks, i think most people will have already heard at least half of them.

[timus]

Originally Posted by mjn

Got to remember the album has had more guitar parts recorded than Britney Spears has had counselling sessions!!

Comfirmed and rumoured guitarists include Slash, Paul Tobias, Buckethead, Robin Finck, Brian May, Bumblefoot, Zakk Wylde, and Richard Fortus.

Plus, out of the 14 tracks, i think most people will have already heard at least half of them.

Slash as a guest guitarist i don't think so, no chance of that surely?LOL!!!

[mjn]

Originally Posted by timus

Slash as a guest guitarist i don't think so, no chance of that surely?LOL!!!

Not guest, but Slash was still a member when CD for first being recorded.

[Azzin]

Campaign for Slash to get back with Guns n Roses | Facebook

[Matt_C]

Originally Posted by Artie Fufkin

Does anyone care anymore?

No, not really

Originally Posted by Artie Fufkin

What are the chances that it lives up to the hype?

Not a chance.....

I love Guns N Roses. Them and Metallica are my two favourite bands of all time, but after 10years of waiting, and with so much s*** going on in between, I'm now bored of the whole saga, and just want it released purely so I don't have to hear about it all the time!

I've heard two tracks from it - as in the ACTUAL tracks from the record as opposed to the countless demo's that have been out for years - and I'm not massively impressed. Slash's songwriting skills and very distinctive playing is obviously missing from it, and whilst the guitarists and other musicians on the record are all very good, top notch players, they just don't have the collective "gel" the original band line up had.

It just doesn't work for me.... Which is such a shame as like I said, I WORSHIP GnR!!!!

[Toasty]

Completely agree with Matt. It shouldn't be under estimated how big a player Slash was to their original sound and this shows with the multiple guitarists contributing to make up the short fall in the new record.

A tenuous comparison, of the same era Extreme put out a new CD this year with Nuno back in the fold. It's actually a decent album capturing new, old and different for something worth listening to. If they'd done it without Nuno (their superb guitarist) I'm sure it would have been pants!

BTW I'm not trying to do a comparison here, I liked both bands back in the day for completely different reasons.

[mjn]

review from the BBC

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Review: Chinese Democracy

[deadtotheworld]

These days reviews are useless especially when its by geeks that try to be so cool such as people that work for BBC and the likes, when these days if it doesnt sound like Radiohead wanking on to a microphone or a watered down lazy version of The Strokes or maybe a Cringeworthy singer singing 70s style songs with 60's style hair-do's, then you aint got a chance. Its cool these days to slag off bands like Guns N Roses and Metallica - so I dont plan on reading any great reviews any time soon. If the album sounds as killer or better than the demos/leaks, then it will be a superb album and we can finally hear the final mix and the songs in the correct order. Call it refreshing or nostalgia - I cant wait for the album and Im sure it will bring a smile to the faces of the people who have an open enough mind to just listen to the songs, and will get played many a time over and over like my 'old' GnR albums.

[woody23]

very positive review from the rolling stone:

Chinese Democracy : Guns N' Roses : Review : Rolling Stone

[overkill]

Originally Posted by deadtotheworld

These days reviews are useless especially when its by geeks that try to be so cool such as people that work for BBC and the likes, when these days if it doesnt sound like Radiohead wanking on to a microphone or a watered down lazy version of The Strokes or maybe a Cringeworthy singer singing 70s style songs with 60's style hair-do's, then you aint got a chance. Its cool these days to slag off bands like Guns N Roses and Metallica - so I dont plan on reading any great reviews any time soon. If the album sounds as killer or better than the demos/leaks, then it will be a superb album and we can finally hear the final mix and the songs in the correct order. Call it refreshing or nostalgia - I cant wait for the album and Im sure it will bring a smile to the faces of the people who have an open enough mind to just listen to the songs, and will get played many a time over and over like my 'old' GnR albums.

Well put! But tbh it's always been that way.

The music biz is like the high street press, ultra Conservative, and not keen on anything too challenging. Hence the various tactics over the years to sidetrack anything that was 'controversial', including either straight slaggings, praising certain types of music (ie RAP) to make it mainstream and thus kill the message, as wealthy rappers don't want to rock the boat any more than bloated rock and pops stars. Metal/rock is the top target for their ire as occasionally they have something worth saying or do their best to be 'different'.

Indie by contrast they love. A load of dreary, jangling guitar bands whining about how their love life is just soooo messed up, is not going to ruffle the feather of Mr and Mrs Middle England.

I gave up reviews when I worked in hifi as the shops I worked for all l took either NME or Q and the reviewers were so predictable (and cowardly) I gave up bothering with them.

Better to see what people think on forums like this, or better still listen without prejudice yourself.........

[Toasty]

Chinese Democracy full album up on G'n'R myspace page now if you want to decide for yourself

[unique]

i can't say i'm impressed myself. it's not awful, but it's not great either

[Toasty]

Originally Posted by unique

i can't say i'm impressed myself. it's not awful, but it's not great either

Pretty much sums up my feeling, although a couple of songs in and there was a glimmer of hope for greatness. However, I must say, near the end it was all sounding a bit like a new Queensryche album. Bit of an obscure reference I know, but Queensryche were a superb rock outfit and Chinese Democracy is sounding like a poor imitation on a number of songs.

[gingerninja72]

Oh dear. if this was a solo album by Axl Rose, then fair enough. But a GnR album? Don't make me laugh.

I lasted 6 tracks before switching off. Absolute crap. The first track is OK I guess, but the rest?

It's actually a lot worse than I was expecting

[deadtotheworld]

Have you guys heard it on a decent hifi yet? listening to it on the computer and on my iPod didnt do much for me, but on a hifi - it all just comes to life. I think its a great accomplishment as not many bands (if any) have got the balls to release anything as varied and as bold as this.
I get the feeling that alot of people hated this before they even heard it - and didnt want to like it.
My 2 favourite bands ever release albums this year GnR and Metallica. I finally started getting in to Death Magnetic but Chinese Democracy makes Metallica sound very boring and one-dimensional. If Chinese Democracy was a Muse album, people would say it was the best album of the decade!

[Toasty]

Originally Posted by deadtotheworld

Have you guys heard it on a decent hifi yet? listening to it on the computer and on my iPod didnt do much for me, but on a hifi - it all just comes to life. I think its a great accomplishment as not many bands (if any) have got the balls to release anything as varied and as bold as this.
I get the feeling that alot of people hated this before they even heard it - and didnt want to like it.
My 2 favourite bands ever release albums this year GnR and Metallica. I finally started getting in to Death Magnetic but Chinese Democracy makes Metallica sound very boring and one-dimensional. If Chinese Democracy was a Muse album, people would say it was the best album of the decade!

I hear what you're saying, it did cost a reported £10million after all. But if it doesn't translate to the mp3 generation, you've missed a trick. If I did buy it on CD, it would hit mp3 format before you could blink and would rarely get played any other way. I suspect I'm not the only one.

[deadtotheworld]

People saying that its Axl and not GnR - that is the oldest most pedictable and boring thing anybody can say about CD. What difference would it make if it just said Axl Rose on the cover? People have known for atleast 10 years that Slash n Co would not be on the album. lol.

[deadtotheworld]

Toasty I get what you mean about the mp3 - but surely if you had the cd you would make high quality mp3's? Not just stick with the lower quality available on torrents? My mp3s are low quality but they still sounded decent on my sound system... I cant wait to get the cd to hear maximum quality sound, then make high quality mp3s myself.

[Toasty]

Indeed, however, I don't think I'm in the hate it camp at the moment. First listen hasn't grabbed me, but I won't dismiss it based on one listen. I still stand by the lack of Slashes involvement being a negative though.

[deadtotheworld]

Id obviously love the UYI lineup to tour, after seeing Slash live with Snakepit and VR and listening to almost everything Slash has played on since Guns, there is not all that much magic there. Im still a huge fan of Slash and earlier this year I bought the Slash Sig Les Paul - but everyone has got to admit that the new GnR album with the old members would have been an even bigger dissapointment as everybody wants Appetite for Destruction 2. If any of you were around when UYI was released, people were saying that that didnt sound like GnR. The changing from UYI to CD is less of a shock than the change from Appetite to UYI.
Maybe if Slash finds the perfect singer for VR, they could satisfy the GNR fans stuck in the past???
Maybe the difference in opinion about the band members could be that alot of people, me included, are fans of most of the musicians before they got involved in Chinese Democracy... as they were obviously hand picked - its wasnt by chance that CD sounds the way it does. I still hear people saying that they have never heard of anyone in the band except Axl!!!