Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy. Worth a 14 year wait?

To those of you who say “it’s a pile of crap”, you are wrong and I won’t have it any other way. I was lucky enough to obtain a pre-release of the album and have now listened to it through 6 times. At first, I wasn’t too sure; after all I had waited 14 years. But then I thought to myself “what were you expecting” and to be honest I couldn’t really answer the question.

If Guns N’ Roses fans are honest with themselves, they were probably expecting a revolution in music – some completely new style – but that was hardly going to ever happen and if it had, would they still have liked Guns N’ Roses anyway? The man behind hits like ‘Sweet child of mine’, ‘Paradise City’ and ‘Get in the ring’ was hardly going to completely change his style, but to be honest I think Axl Rose has provided die hard fans with something fresh, interesting and at times quite clever.

The first thing that hit me was the reminder of what an amazing vocal range Rose has and the vocal overlays and harmonies on some of the tracks are extremely pleasing. Take, for instance, the introduction of “Scraped” which is followed but Axl Rose showing of his ability to sing through entire ranges. It also proves that he has felt more free to express himself in these tracks as opposed to some of the more commercial Guns N' Roses tracks of the eighties and nineties.

I know what you are going to say, "Chinese Democracy IS commercial” and yes, it is. However, is there anything really wrong with that? After all, it’s not like Guns N’ Roses have been an underground rock group. Of course this album is commercial, just as all the others have been. Lets face it, when Guns N’ Roses first hit the scene; rock music was in dire straits (no pun intended). All we really had was Jon Bon Jovi, which was bad enough. So Guns N’ Roses leapt onto the scene with their LA Rock and all was well for years, until Axl went a little bit mental; sacked the entire band and tried to have a fight with Bon Jovi. He even titled the album with the name Guns N’ Roses – surely a commercial move as it really should have been titled “Axl Rose”. He is, after all, the only remaining band member on the album (OK, with a little help from Buckethead and Paul Tobias).

There are no new styles of music in Chinese Democracy. There’s no new mix of instruments, no new guitar sounds. But there is a great mix of Rock, hip-hop, funk and even electronic. There are great vocals, masses of guitar and even orchestral hits at points. There’s at least 1 song on the album for everyone (even my misses found a track she liked) and I can say for certain that the album with stay in my CD player for a while yet.

Was it worth 14 years of waiting? Well, if I’m honest, probably not. However, I would rather wait 14 years for a new Guns N’ Roses album than never get one at all. And lets also remember that this is 1 album of a supposed trilogy so there’s more to come yet.

And was it worth $13 million USD? I guess someone had to pay to keep Axl fed and watered for the past 14 years. Braded hair doesn't come cheap you know. I just hope that in the world of piracy and downloads, that he can make the money back.

Buy Chinese Democracy here