OK, it's over now.
Hmm...my objective review.
Good Stuff: Some alright guitar work, occassional weird bits of sound add depth, interesting array of styles
Bad Shit: Some very poorly excuted ideas, some absolutely horrible vocals/lyrics, plus the ending of the last song sounds too much like Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" to me
OK, I can't hold back anymore............................
I'm sorry to the myriads of G'n'R fans out there (especially the douche on their MySpace whom actually went as far as to call it "The Dark Side of the Moon for our generation"), but this was
NOT worth waiting 15 years for in the slightest. Maybe if it had been released around the time the power (
) the band once had (i.e. Appetite for Destruction) was still fresh, it might work more, but as it stands today...dear Lord. This record could very well make Axl Rose a complete laughingstock (even more than he is already) in the music world. I'll go so far to admit that some of the tracks had interesting bits, especially in the intros-but once the songs got started, they quickly went downhill (I actually liked "Madagascar" until all the dumbass samples kicked in).
Chinese Democracy is a great example of the phrase "TOO MUCH". As I said earlier, it sounds like Axl rose is trying to consolidate all music, ever. There is literally EVERYTHING musical on this record-dirty riffs, studio trickery, choirs, orchestras, guitar soloing of both the "speed" and "feel" variety, discordance, ambient soundscapes, sequencers, drum machines, multilayered vocals from Axl and what sounded like other people...hell, one track even starts out like trance, and there's some pseudo-rapping to boot. That may sound good in theory, but the end result sounds like he cut 'n' pasted a bunch of other bands' music (the intro to the one song sounds to me like the intro to Ministry's "The Dick Song", while "Madagascar" could be the worst song the Cure never wrote) overtop of what might've been OK Guns 'n' Roses songs. It is the sound of Axl Rose screaming at his detracters (sp?) in the music world, "Fuck you! I can do exactly what you're doing too, and better!", and falling flat on his face in the attempt.
I posted that I would give the album a chance, meaning that I would listen to a few tracks with an open mind, and if I didn't like what I'd heard, I'd just close the window and get on with my life. But in the end, I ended listening to the whole thing, because:
1. It's the musical equivalent of a car crash-you cannot look away, no matter how much you may want to
2. It's unintentionally hilarious and if nothing else, interesting to see how many styles/sounds Axl could've pulled out of his ass
3. I don't like giving up on things that I know will end, no matter how painful they might be
Sigh...oh, man.
I'll conclude by saying that I never had any problems with Axl Rose's voice before, but I do now...I don't know if it 100% because of this album or just the fact that I never considered myself enough of a G 'n' R fan to warrant getting any of their albums. So maybe his voice didn't bother me because I never had to listen to it for more than one song at a time?