Well, I don't have to tell you that Chinese Democracy finally arrived, after however many years it's taken to put this record together. So let's just dive right into the review... And considering it took so long to get the record out, this review may turn out to be a little long, but that's only because I want to express my thoughts on the songs, and the band itself, in one complete review.
First off, despite the fact that Axl is the only original member left over, I do consider this a Guns N' Roses record. Although the personnel is different, there's not anything on the record that I think is a 100% complete departure from where Guns' original lineup could have gone, had they not imploded. Besides that, the sound of the guitars, Axl's voice, the production, the mix, the song structures are all very Guns... Some of the drum tracks are definitely departures from the Adler/Sorum style of play, but still, this is much more than Axl Rose's first solo record. Despite being an unbridled egomaniac, I think even Axl realizes that it was all of Guns N' Roses, not just his singing, that captured our attention for a six year period in the late 80s/early 90s and made them the biggest band in the world, if only for a little while.
Also, and I think this is important to point out, the way that Axl handled the packaging, credits and liner notes shows that he certainly feels this was a band project, not just using hired guns (no pun intended) to create the sound he wanted. The fact that he makes the effort to identify the players on each song, who handles the guitar solos, co-writing credits, etc shows that he is not trying to treat this as a 100% self-driven project. In reality, there has been more continuity in the lineup since the other originals left than most people choose to acknowledge. Tommy Stinson is the only bass player GnR has had since Duff's departure in 1997, Richard Fortus and Paul Tobias were the two 'Izzy' figures in the band that handled rhythm guitar duties, Brian Mantia played most of the drum tracks on the record, Dizzy Reed has been with GnR since 1990, and both Buckethead and especially Robin Finck were guitarists for the band for long stretches... My point is that despite the fact that there were so many people that were at some point attached or involved with this record, including Josh Freese, current drummer Frank Ferrer, current lead guitarist Ron Thal, Zakk Wylde, Jerry Cantrell, and Dave Navarro, the core players have been fairly consistent. And their contribution to the record is certainly palpable, in terms of performance and helping drive the record forward. Look at it this way, Buckethead hasn't been in the band for almost 5 years now, but his playing is still a major part of most of the songs on Chinese Democracy. Same with Robin Finck, who has only been gone for a year or two, but was involved in the project for the better part of 10 years.
So what about the songs, you ask? Well, despite the fact that Use Your Illusion was a double album's worth of material, there is a lot more diversity to the songs on Chinese Democracy than any other record GnR ever put out. Appetite for Destruction was the explosive energy of 5 guys that literally came from the streets and took a gang mentality to their version of rock and roll. GnR Lies saw them soften a bit and explore a quieter, softer side of things, as well as offering a "live" taste of their early raw sound which got them signed to Geffen. Use Your Illusion was the culmination of years of playing the Appetite-era songs and wanting to unload all the new material that had been created during the incessant touring that occurred during the 3 years after their debut release. Chinese Democracy is similar to Illusion in that sense, as it seems to me that this is a culling of the 'top' songs from the various musical movements and lineups that have happened since the breakup. The major difference is that Illusion was presented as the best 28 songs during the post-Appetite era (30 total tracks, but Don't Cry is on there twice and My World simply doesn't exist, in my opinion). The aforementioned post-Appetite era was only about 3-4 years long. Chinese Democracy is 14 tracks long, but it took 17 years to create (based on Illusion being their last original material, released in 1991). Which leads me to my analysis of the record itself.
First off, it took SEVENTEEN years to release this album. Sorry, but I can't ignore that. If Democracy had been released in 1996 or 1997, then I'd say it was something of a masterpiece. This is because there are so many new directions on this record, as well as several 'classic GnR' songs. So if this had all been spawned in a normal or even somewhat longer recording schedule, I'd herald it as something much greater than how I feel about it now. The fact that it took 17 years and has so many different flavors to it makes it feel more like a compilation to me than anything else. Supposedly, over 50 songs were written, recorded and completed in that time and one is forced to assume that the top cuts from each session are what made the final record. And I don't get that... The Rolling Stones are an obvious rock and roll band, but they made a country record, a disco-influenced record, and other less pronounced departures from their tried and true sound. REM helped create a unique flavor of rock music in the 80s, but they too released an electronic record and other experimental albums that often were difficult to recognize as being REM at all. U2 has gone through a number of different phases in their musical growth and each album of theirs represents a slight departure from the previous work and a step forward into new territory. The Beatles had a variety of different sounds for each of their albums, after breaking free of their initial pop image and songwriting style. Pink Floyd went through a number of different phases in their discography, but always maintained that true Floyd sound. The point is that when you think of those bands, and consider their lifetime of work, the collective opinion would be that they are some of the greatest bands in music history, even if they had some temporary departures from their signature sound.
In my opinion, Guns N' Roses is (or could be) that kind of band. Time will tell if they are held in the same regard as some of the other groups I just mentioned, but what I don't get is why we're getting a 'greatest hits' collection from the last 17 years instead of several complete albums that are each more deeply representative of the different phases GnR went through since Illusion came out. Why didn't they release the full industrial-influenced and electronic-heavy record whose sessions clearly spawned songs like the title track, Shackler's Revenge, Riad N' The Bedouins, Madagascar, and Oh My God (from the End of Days soundtrack, released in 99)? Why didn't they release another album of more traditional GnR fare like I.R.S., Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye, and This I Love? And lastly, why not put out a full album of where those two different phases led to, to create what I feel are the strongest cuts on the album and the most representative of what GnR would have naturally evolved into: Better, Scraped, Prostitute, There Was A Time, and If The World. Those tracks, heavy on the guitar, but with an updated sound that includes sampling and drum loops that serve the song well, instead of distracting from it, are the real gems of Chinese Democracy... Those are the ones that I hope show us where GnR may continue to go, although let's hope it doesn't take another 17 years to get a release from Axl and Co...
This is no profound opinion, but Axl has backed himself into a corner that I don't think Chinese Democracy will get him out of. That is, it will be impossible for it to be as universally accepted as Appetite for Destruction or Use Your Illusion. He simply tried to do too much with this record and, as a collective work, it seems to buckle under the weight of expectation. I applaud Axl and his co-collaborators for releasing an extremely listenable and solid rock and roll record. At long last he has put something out and it IS of a quality that you would expect. But compared to the other original works that GnR put out in its highly charged, but short-lived lifespan, Chinese Democracy seems less of a look forward to where the band is going, and instead is more of a surface-level recap of all the mystery and intrigue that surrounded the highly publicized, over-dramatized recording of the first album from Guns N' Roses version 2.0. In that sense, it's more like reading the Cliff's Notes version of a masterpiece of literature instead of totally immersing oneself into the full work. Let's hope Mr. Rose gives himself a dose of reality after the smoke clears and realizes that having a sonically superior record is not what causes people to love or hate a body of music. The production value is not nearly as important as having a record that helps its listeners try to understand whatever headspace the artists involved are occupying at that time. In that respect, Chinese Democracy has bright moments, but I think time will show that this record does more to detract from the Guns N' Roses legend than to add to it.
What do you think???
Rock on,
Cru
