Released November 23, 2008, Geffen Records
17 years is, especially in the music business, a tremendous amount of time. Tastes can change, genres can rise up from obscurity to become part of the mainstream. If it was some unknown, semi-skilled band that had been out of the loop for 17 years, no-one would really bat an eyelid. But this is Guns N’ Roses! Their story is like a soap opera, only with better music and slightly less deaths. We know it’s been 17 years since their last album because we remember it so well. Well, it was The Spaghetti Incident? But what people most remember after 17 years are the songs. November Rain made me want to start smoking, just so I could always have a lighter to hold up in case it came on. Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Paradise City, and the criminally underrated Civil War are some of THE great rock songs. They were a huge band, with an army of loyal fans, and it turns out that they still are. No one likes to be kept waiting. but Chinese Democracy is worth waiting for. It is not though, the tour de force that everyone else is making it out to be.
Slash may be gone, but the air guitarists out there have nothing to worry about. If the opening riff to the first track Chinese Democracy doesn’t drag you back kicking and screaming to the late 80s and make you want to grow your hair, then nothing will. Naturally it will be the most analysed track, but our friend Axl surely knows this, as not only is it the lead track, the track that the album is named after, but it’s bloody good. I’m not sure how much alteration has been done to Axl’s voice in the studio, but it seems to be in fine form here. The song is classic G n’R. Shackler’s Revenge is more of the same, guitars that crunch like a fine biscuit.
The faster, more uptempo songs have never been a problem for Axl, it was more of the overblown attempts at rock balladry, as anything other than November Rain just falters in comparison. Street Of Dreams is a decent effort, and Catcher N’ The Rye is worthy, however I don’t think Axl will ever reach such lofty heights again. He is best at songs like Better, There Was A Time and the pretty damn good Riad N’ The Bedouins. But Axl is not afraid of changing things up slightly with the likes of If The World, a slow burning, different sounding track that never quite explodes the way you want to at its peak. It might not work for everyone, but at least it’s an attempt at something different. It’s a track that you could imagine him singing in his later years, Johnny Cash – Hurt style. But for this album it doesn’t seem suitable.
Some more bad news. Sorry is a decent sounding song, but the lyrics are contrite, and push it over the edge. Madagascar, while not a song about animated animals, doesn’t really do Axl’s voice any favours, and the sound bytes towards the end of the track don’t need to be there at all. This I Love is like a stereotype, more Swiss Cheese than Swiss Tony.
So the good outweighs the bad by some distance. What this album proves is that music needs someone as talented as Axl Rose, and while Chinese Democracy isn’t a classic G n’R album, it serves as a damn fine reminder as to why they were so important in the first place.
Posted In Album Reviews, Nov 27 2008.
Words - Paul