Chinese Democracy

Is there a better way to kick off a music blog than by reviewing the most anticipated album of the late 20th/early 21st century, Guns n' Roses "Chinese Democracy"? I don't think so. In fact, this album and the story behind it seems tailor-made for someone with a blog, strong opinions and too much time on their hands. 

From the outset I should say that Chinese Democracy has for the longest time been treated as the punchline to a joke about the state of Axl Rose's career (or mental health.) I once half-jokingly opined to my co-bloggers that the process of making Chinese Democracy, and not the final product itself, had become Axl Rose's raison d'etre. But it's here and all kidding aside, I have to say that it's not that bad. But more on that in a minute.

It's entirely impossible to write about the music on Chinese Democracy without addressing the considerably backstory to the album. The last GnR album, a series of covers titled The Spaghetti Incident, was released in 1993. The last true predecessors to Chinese Democracy, Use Your Illusion I and II, were released in 1991. For anyone that's an incredible period of time between releases, but for me that was fully half my life ago. While Guns n' Roses was tearing up MTV, I was wading through my sophomore year of high school. For me there's a weird sort of instant nostalgia that comes attached to Chinese Democracy, as a whiff of anything Guns n' Roses takes me way back to that hugely formative period of my life. But I've also lived a considerable amount of life during the time Axl Rose has spent putting Chinese Democracy together; I can't quite remember when I first heard mention of the new project by name, but it had to have been sometime mid-way through my college career, a period that seems like ages ago. And thanks to periodic announcements by Rose that the new album was imminent, the discussion of a new GnR album would pop up among my friends regularly now and again. So in a very odd way, this new album seems both very new and very old at the same time. 

At the same time, I haven't exactly remained a stalwart GnR fan. There was certainly a time when I would have listed GnR as one of my favorite bands (if not the favorite) but my musical tastes have changed considerably since 1991, and I don't listen to many bands these days who would probably count GnR as one of their inspirations. And though as good as classic GnR is in the form of Appetite for Destruction and the Use Your Illusion albums, I've listened to all three literally hundreds of time since I first bought the albums and it's been somewhere in the area of five or more years since I've listened to even one of the Illusion tracks. To be frank, I simply lost patience waiting for a new album. The kind of music I liked was changing and the relevance of Illusion I and II faded. But for those periodic rumors (and jokes) about Chinese Democracy from time to time, I had moved on. 

And it seemed that for the most part, GnR had moved on as well. Essentially the band distintigrated, as Axl Rose drove off one after another of the original members until the only remaining band members from the Illusion days were himself and Dizzy Reed, the keyboardist who is not an original member but signed on in 1990, close enough to the origin of the band that we might as well consider him an original. Axl's eccentricities have been well-documented, and apparently he drove out his bandmates in an effort to monopolize the music the band was producing. Unfortunately this successful effort to completely take over the band and reduce GnR to the Axl Rose solo project left him with all the responsibility for its output, and paradoxically it may have been this total control that left him psychologically  unable to actually finish a record until he was essentially forced to by the studios. 

But it's finally here and while I would not say that Chinese Democracy is going to have me attending a GnR concert in a vintage Appetite for Destruction concert t-shirt anytime soon, some of that old enthusiasm for the band has returned thanks to the new album.

First, the criticisms. Yes, the album is over-produced. The bloated and over-the-top style of rock that is epitomized in Illusion I and II is present in Democracy as well, and if you didn't like it in 1991 you're not going to like it now. Axl Rose has certainly never subscribed to the musical philosophy that less is more, as some of the songs on Democracy are simply drowning in sound. Even relatively straight-forward rock songs like Shackler's Revenge have more going on in the song than is really necessary, and elements like the french horns in the background of Madagascar are completely uncessary; they add nothing to the song, and detract from the melody. Also, some of the tracks do seem like they were written close in time to the Illusion period, as there's nothing new or distinguishing about them (There Was A Time comes to mind.) 

That being said, anyone who thinks Democracy is merely Use Your Illusion III is mistaken. There is some genuinely interesting music on this album. Shackler's Revenge has a sort of nu-metal vibe, Better is a great modern rock song, and I'm honestly not sure what to make of If The World beyond the fact that it's a great song and not at all something I would imagine GnR could put together. Some of the guitar solos are blistering as good rock guitar solos should be, and Axl Rose's voice is in fine form even though he's a little older and a little slower. And nothing can change the fact that Axl can still write a great hook for a song; many songs are filled with passages that you find humming to yourself afterwards even if you can't quite remember the lyrics or the rest of the song. 

So overall, I'm not really disappointed. No album could possibly live up to over a decade of artifically induced hype, and it almost certainly would have been better for Rose's image had he simply disappeared from the public eye for a decade before magically popping up out of the blue to present Chinese Democracy. The new album will hardly make GnR (or Axl Rose, since he is essentially the band) a household name again; even were it a work of complete musical genius no music could overcome the baggage or drama that has accompanied this album through its composition (no album that can fairly be equated with a mythological creature can possibly be considered on its musical merits alone.) Still, if Axl Rose is preparing himself for a sturdy climb back to relevance and popularity, Democracy isn't a bad way to start. The album is probably good enough to bring some old fans like myself back around and recruit some new ones to boot. But Rose should avoid squandering the good will of those either waited patiently or have come back around. New albums, already rumored to be in the offing, need to come out soon if Axl Rose is to avoid being consigned to the dustbin of music history.