Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy

It would be far too easy to dismiss Chinese Democracy, the first album of new material from Guns N’ Roses in seventeen years, based solely on its laughable gestation period; or on the erratic behavior of its mastermind, Axl Rose; or even for its distance from original bandmembers Slash, Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan, all of whom have been out of the group for more than a decade. It would be too simple to mock the obvious – and doing so would be missing the point, anyway. This is a great rock n’ roll record – it’s not heavy-handed outdated metal, nor is it the intimidating “industrial rock” Nine Inch Nails clone that the media falsely described it as being many years ago, right after its production was first announced.

No, this is just a solid rock album – full of infectious anthems (Better, Shackler’s Revenge), crunchy riffs (Chinese Democracy), sexy grooves (If the World), out-of-this-world guitar playing (There Was a Time), surprisingly emotive pop (Catcher in the Rye), and wonderful balladry (This I Love). It isn’t the album Guns N’ Roses fans feared, nor is it the disaster that cynical music critics were hoping for.

Things start off with the titular track, which is very good but doesn’t have much of a chorus. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it just makes the song a bit more challenging than one might expect from a lead single. Next up is Shackler’s Revenge, a song drastically improved by its final mix. This is probably the worst song on the album, partly because of its DOA solo, but it is a definite “grower” – and has a banshee-wail disco-metal chorus that will be sure to offer aspiring DJs and Danger Mouse wannabes room for remixes and mash-ups.

The album hits a definite stride with Better, the most catchy and easily accessible song on the album, which is sure to be a radio hit thanks to its edgy and schizophrenic riff. Street of Dreams, previously titled The Blues when played live, is one of the first songs on the album to introduce Axl’s curious decision to literally use his voice as an extra instrument — moaning and “oh oh oh”‘ing along with the guitars after the choruses and during the outro. Critics who compare this piano ballad to Elton John are serving it short. There are certainly some traditional elements at work here, and it may be more “pop-friendly” than the original 2002 version (which had more electric guitars and less sap), but you can tell the years of tinkering on this song caused Axl to start exploring new ideas to hold it up with, and they work well. If those screams at the end don’t send shivers down your spine, you might be paralyzed.

If the World, first heard over the end credits of Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies by all three people who went to see the film, crosses over into Buckethead territory with what can only be described as a flamenco-industrial porn song. It’s groovy and infectious and those vocals knock it out of the ballpark. As heard on the previous track, Axl is once again using his voice as a parallel to the instruments (rather than just screeching and screaming), which may confuse those expecting his trademark growl, but it’s hard to listen to this and not have it stuck in your head right away.

There Was a Time still features one of the best guitar solos of all time (no hyperbole here – honest), thanks to both Robin Finck and Buckethead. The intro sounds way better than the demos, but still isn’t that impressive; it’s the three-and-a-half-minute mark and onwards where it really just excels on every level. Catcher in the Rye suffers from a lost Brian May guitar solo, but the additions to the outro make it an overwhelming experience; it’s like Axl Rose’s version of Phil Spector’s wall-of-sound (which may be appropriate given that the song is written about the death of John Lennon, who worked with Spector more than a handful of times), featuring Buckethead shredding over top of pianos, synths, and some really lovely vocals. I’m confused by the number of critics who have written this off as one of the lesser songs on the record, but I imagine part of the reason may be its decidedly odd tone, especially for a GN’R track. It may require a few listens.

Scraped is a nice headbanger with those newfound Axl Rose harmonic vocals over the beginning; at this point into the album I’m starting to wonder if Axl’s parallels with Brian Wilson exist beyond the obvious SMiLE comparions, because the chorus of Axl’s over the first few seconds sounds like a hard rock update of Pet Sounds. Some people will laugh at it, but it’s hard to keep laughing once the song kicks into high gear and kicks your ass. It’s a refreshingly short, tight, and direct song – this is what those heavy rockers on the Use Your Illusion albums would have sounded like if they’d dropped the overkill production values and bloated run times and just rocked out.

Riad N’ the Bedouins is another heavy song, showcasing Axl’s Robert Plant imitation. It’s clearly a Buckethead and Brain track (the Praxis influence is all over it), which is why it’s so puzzling that Axl removed Bucket’s solo and replaced it with a tacked-on and, frankly, rather underwhelming solo by Ron Thal. It comes out of nowhere and has no melody or connection to the rest of the tune. Riad remains a very good hard rock track, but that solo in the middle almost kills the flow.

Sorry slows things down on the album with what Sebastian Bach described as a “grinding doom metal” riff. I think he might be deaf. Bach supposedly contributed vocals to this tune, but Axl was wise enough to turn the volume knobs way down on the Savage Animal’s mix; you can only really hear him about five minutes into the song for a few fleeting seconds. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this song is about Slash – lots of bitter barbs like this gem: “You talk too much / You say I do / Difference is nobody cares about you.” Harsh. This song took a few listens, but it’s another definite grower on the record. The only bad thing about this song is Axl’s decision to imitate Count Chocula in the beginning as he whines, “You’d like to have me jump and be good / But I don’t vant to do eet.” Probably the worst lyrics on the whole album, but luckily the rest of the song more than compensates.

I.R.S. still suffers from weak lyrics in the chorus, but the minor additions to this track – especially the escalating guitars at the end, presumably courtesy of Ron Thal – push it over the edge. This is epic hard rock, probably the defining song of this album (stylistically, at least) and kind of a sequel to You Could Be Mine. What if that spoiled sexist rock star grew up, the cocaine got to him and he became a paranoid, heartbroken mess when his girl abandoned him on his way out the front door of relevancy? I.R.S. contains the answers.

The album once again changes pace with its next song, Madagascar, a staple of live shows since 2002 which, on the final cut, boasts Axl doing his best Tom Waits impression, aided by his version of a big band – something like five guitar players, a bunch of drums, a bunch of synth effects, and “quote metal” – audio samples from Se7en, Braveheart, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Michael J. Fox – all clipped together epically across a Buckethead/Paul Tobias solo, which sounds a lot funnier than it actually is. It’s actually pretty awesome and unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

This I Love is a track that’s been around since at least 1994 but has never been heard by fans until now. First impressions: it sounds like Meatloaf. Second impressions: wow, this is pretty awesome. It took a few repeat listens to grow on me, but I’m almost positive now that I’ve fallen for it. It’s the most stripped-down song on the whole album, with Axl at a piano and a subdued but very moving Robin Finck solo in the middle of the song that just proves again that great guitar playing isn’t about speed or technical prowess, but feeling the music. This is Finck’s album highlight. Tender, revealing stuff – it’ll either make you cringe or weep. Possibly both. I love it, although I’m not sure I’d play it very loud at a red light.

Prostitute finishes off the album with some more epic dramatics — before cascading into an outro that sounds like something Moby may have come up with when he was producing the album a few years back, with its waves-against-the-shore repetition (think God Moving Over the Face of Waters). What comes prior to this simplistic outro, however, is a wildly veering mixof Estranged-style balladry and Coma-esque thundering hard rock. It goes back and forth – no song better reveals Axl’s alleged mood swings better than this track, and no song on this album better defines the epic production of its ballads, either. This has everything – orchestral samples, layers of guitars, crushing drums, and Chris Pitman’s masterful synths. It’s pretty impressive, to be honest. And the drastic shift in tone around 3:45 into the song is some of the best stuff this band’s ever done.

All in all, Chinese Democracy certainly isn’t the “best album ever” – but it’s assuredly better than many people had feared it might be. In a year of rock acts resurrecting themselves by returning to their roots (AC/DC, Metallica), Axl Rose has daringly surged forward – providing an album of music totally unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Guns N’ Roses has always had a habit of progressing their style from album to album (Appetite’s sleaze, Lies‘ acoustics, UYI‘s excesses, Spaghetti Incident‘s punk covers), and Chinese Democracy essentially takes the best from all prior albums and throws them in a blender and processes them as something altogether fresh and exciting.

This is grand, bombastic rock n’ roll, offering a wide range of influences, differing styles, and tons of fun – all packaged into one disc. When Axl Rose returned from his hibernation in 2006, he said, “I’m trying to do something different. Some people are going to say, ‘It doesn’t sound like Axl Rose, it doesn’t sound like Guns n’ Roses.’ But you’ll like at least a few songs on there.” In retrospect, nothing ever said about this album has been truer.

It is admittedly difficult to look at this album without a cynical eye, and hard not to reinterpret the name on the front cover as Axl Rose rather than Guns N’ Roses, considering he’s the last man standing from the original lineup; but if you can put this aside and listen to Chinese Democracy with an open mind, you may be surprised at what it has to offer.

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