So Chinese Democracy is finally coming out and it's arriving before the advent of Chinese democracy (which most never said it would!), 17 years since the last G'n'R originals album, 15 years after a contractual fillers album of cover versions and there's nobody left from the original line up in the band, save Axl Rose. It's obviously been a labour of love/ego *delete where appropriate. Various tracks that were alledgedly recorded for the album have been leaked over the last few years, in fact when the recording for this started, there wasn't really an "online" and the only way to get hold of unreleased songs from a band was tape trading! Back in the day, this band could do no wrong at all, they were hailed as the embodyment of "Rock and Roll", but in these more "enlightened" times, does this still hold true? Is there still a place for a band that trashes dressing rooms if the Evian isn't chilled to 1.5 degrees and a brown M&M sneaks its way in to the backstage bowl? I think there is... In this age of reality show created celebrity, it's refreshing that someone like Axl comes back to haunt the kingmakers of the music industry by reminding them of the way things used to be when bands were signed on the quality of their songs and musicianship (as well as some marketability admittedly). Kind of Marleys Ghost for the remaining shreds of the record industry.
Question is though musically, is it a valid product for the 21st century? It's not a question of whether this album is any good, it's more of a case of is it worth the wait, has Axl and his crack team of studio musicians and occasional live band hired hands been able to make something that is listenable? The issue of whether it's a progression from the Use Your Illusion albums is plainly moot, too much water has passed under the bridge since then for one, but the main reason is that it's a completely different band since those albums were recorded.
Back in the days of Appitite' I used to be a big fan, but does the older me still connect with what the 18 year old me enjoyed? Sadly on hearing this, the answer is a resounding meh! It's not that it's a bad album, it's just not a memorable one. There's nothing that I've heard that really make me sit up and take notice. It's not even a case of saying "17 years and this is all they did?" it's more a question of what was he doing for 16 years and 9 months and then chucked this out since this summer?
I'm not going to go into the merits of individual songs here as there's a variety of disparate styles (while still being in the same genre) and some of these might sit easier with some than others, but objectivity ends up being chucked out of the window when you're dealing with something like this. I really wanted to like it, I wanted this album to be the masterpiece that itwas threatened to be and thats where the problem lies. It's been too long in the making and too hyped to be just another album and sadly that's all it is
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