I had wanted to talk about this album for a long time, but I decided that it would be in my best interest to let the album sit for a while; let people get all the unconstructive criticism off their chests and give them a little time to listen to the album in a different light. A light, that doesn’t hover over the fact that the album took 14 years to finish, or that Axl Rose couldn’t keep a proper band line-up throughout the creation of the album. Chinese Democracy (and I know I just may be attacked for saying this) is a virtually flawless musical composition, critiqued for all the wrong reasons.
Rather than review this one in my traditional conversational or song-by-song recap, I’m going to simply give the reasons why I believe Chinese Democracy deserves a great amount of respect and then elaborate on my points.
Time and Effort:
First of all, I need to give it up for Axl Rose, sticking with this project over all these years. The guy is probably one of the most inspiring artists I’ve ever seen. I mean, there were times that even some of his biggest fans were kicking dirt in his eyes, but he kept going. He kept going back and changing things; adding members he felt fit the parts and pushing off release dates until the album was indeed exactly what he wanted. At times he really had to be a dick about some things, but he just wanted to see his vision become a reality. He didn’t care what other people thought and when the album finally was released, I think it was a real slap in the face for all the people who doubted him.
Creativity and Ingenuity:
Chinese Democracy leans on the long side with a finished length of a little over 70 minutes. The first time I listened through the album it didn’t feel like any time had passed at all. My mind was sucked into the album, the way its sound travelled from track to track. It keeps the same feeling underneath it all, but drastically changes the moods and styles with every song. This album is the perfect way to introduce someone to the many sounds of rock. There are so many sub-genres of rock music; it’s almost inconceivable that one album could present them all. However, Chinese Democracy does just that. “It’s a very complex record; I’m trying to do something different.” Well Axl, you can rest well knowing that you have achieved that goal with a vengeance.
Axl Rose:
Axl Rose has always been known for his long ranged, scratchy vocals, but the true reason why my ears perk up every time I hear Rose’s voice is because of the immense amount of passion behind it. The only other American vocalist that I can think of that is even comparable to the intensity of Rose is probably Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. The best track on the album that proves the power of Rose’s voice is the beautiful piano ballad “This I Love.” Even when it comes to more intense avant-garde/fusion tracks, the way he molds his voice around the instrumentals is frickin’ awesome. Check out “There Was A Time” and you’ll see exactly what I mean; breathtaking.
Instrumentals:
Obviously after having almost 30 members contributing parts to this album over the 14 years of construction, Rose had a hell of a lot to work with and incorporate. The finished product after all the cutting and pasting of the thousands of recorded parts for each song leaves me with nothing to say but...holy shit. There is so much going on in every track it’s almost hard to keep track of it all. I could see where this could come off as being a bad thing, but trust me, it’s not. It keeps you listening and delving deeper into each track. I’ve listened to the album a lot since it came out and I’m still finding new things. It just keeps me coming back to find more and I love it.
Really there is only one thing that I could complain about on this album and that is the name of the band that released it. It just simply isn’t Guns N’ Roses. Is this a bad thing? Well, no. It’s just so far from the line-up, style and musicality of the original band that the group deserves a different title. The only remaining member of the original band is Axl and either way I don’t think that the name Guns N’ Roses deserves to tie into the release of the album. The group is simply a new legacy in music history.
Well, there you have it, my take on the infamous Chinese Democracy. If you’ve listened to the album I’m really intrigued to hear what you have to say about it, so please, head over to the forum and tell me what you think! The link to the forum is in the side bar, just register yourself and reply to the Chinese Democracy topic.
Here's the link to the album on Napster:
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