Guns N Roses – Chinese Democracy
Geffen
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When legendary hard rockers Guns N Roses last released an album of all-original material; the U.S. was still pulling troops out of Kuwait in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, Magic Johnson’s announcement that he had the HIV virus and would retire from pro basketball was still a month away, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was king of the box office, and both “The Cosby Show” and “Cheers” were still on the air. Seventeen years in the making, the almost-legendary Chinese Democracy almost has to be a letdown to fans just because of its epic and convoluted history.
A lot has changed since 1991, most notably the band itself. Gone are mainstays Slash and Duff McKagen and drummer Matt Sorum; replaced with Robin Fincke, Tommy Stinson and a revolving door of others. Frontman Axl Rose’s decade-and-a-half of tickering has yielded an album that stands as a testament to one man’s narcissism—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This ain’t your father’s—er, older brother’s GNR. The album is as grand as 1991s Use Your Illusion; but the songs don’t hold together very well. It sounds like an album pieced together from different eras; the mid-90s nu-metal of KoRn, the bombast of late 70s Queen—all filtered through millennium ProTools loops.
Fans of Appetite for Destruction swagger and seediness should look elsewhere; but there are some commanding performances by Rose and his capable band. However, too often, the best songs are the ones that A) have been leaked online for years (“Splinter”, “I.R.S.” and “Madagascar”), or the ones that shamelessly ape earlier GNR incarnations (“Catcher In the Rye.”) For all of the guitar virtuosos Axl has assembled on this record, their technical proficiency is a poor replacement for Slash’s legendary melodic grit.
Chinese Democracy isn’t the classic its ridiculous history demands that it be; but it is a staggering realization of one man’s creative vision. – dusty culpepper
