Chinese Dictatorship (Chinese Democracy Album Review)

 

This is easily the most overhyped record of the year, if not this century. Musically it is not something I would typically review here. So why give it more press? Because in all the hype and all the reviews I have not seen my viewpoint represented. The best review I have read is by the great Chuck Klosterman. He liked the record more than I did, but it is by far the best written and he makes some great points. I am loathe to even link to it because it just illustrates how bad my writing is…but here goes: http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/chuck_klosterman_reviews

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From this point forward, this album will be the very definition of the term “over-produced.” It is as if Axl was trying to keep the production on pace with the hype over the last 15 years. Rumor has it that the album cost $13 million to make. At least it sounds like it. There are actually a few places on the record where you can hear 4 separate and unique lead guitar parts all playing at once over the top of each other. It really is an amazing listen on headphones though, with layers and layers of vocals, guitars and wide assortment of sounds and rhythms.

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The album opens with a bang as the title track slams you with a bombastic array of rock guitar that sounds great turned up loud. Lyrically it is a miss with some bad relationship analogy, no political insight here. The irony is that there is probably more democracy in present day China than there ever was or will be in the band Guns N’ Roses. It is Axl’s own larger than life vision and ego that gets in the way, but that is only if you try to approach Chinese Democracy as a Guns N’ Roses record, because it is not. This is not the same band that made the rock classic Appetite for Destruction. This is an Axl Rose solo album with a bevy, a veritable plethora if you will, of guest musicians and studio players. The credits in the 24 page booklet provide an entertaining read, with multiple guitar players on each track.

Axl’s vocals are hit and miss, with each track sounding completely different. We get the melodic and layered 70’s rock vocals (“If The World”), and we unfortunately get the over the top scratchy Ethel Merman on acid vocal sound (“Street of Dreams”). The real story here is the variety, the production and the guitars. Oh the guitars…it is a rock guitar lovers paradise that will have fans of players like Vai, Buckethead, Satriani and May drooling. I haven’t heard guitar solos this good on an album in years…and years and years. When you get to track 10, the moody but moving “Sorry,” you may think the album is winding down. Then “Madagascar” comes in at track 12 and it is a perfect album closer with Axl showing his most moving vocal performance of the album over a bed of strings and weeping solos. Unfortunately Axl didn’t see it that way and two more tracks of strings and musical closure follow, extending the drama, and by the time you get to the overly mellow-dramatic album closer “Prostitute” you will be beyond ready for the album to end. Axl apparently doesn’t know the meaning of “less is more.”

As an Axl Rose solo album I would give it an B+ and as the overhyped long awaited Guns N’ Roses album I would have to give it a D. That is quite a range, but there is also a very big difference in reviewing it for what it is versus what it is supposed to be. No matter what I think, kids of all ages will still have fun rocking out to this album.

Comments

[The Sexy Armpit]

Ethel Mermen! lol...good one. I think you're being too generous! A straight B is good enough. I think Axl's cameos on Sebastian Bach's record last year were more "GNR-ish" than this new one. Actually, people shouldn't be too surprised because the tunes on this record sound like the song sound similar to the industrial tinged "Oh My God" from the End of Days soundtrack back in '99. I truly think people would've rather have heard a little bit of a rock sound rather than all the synthetic stuff. Honestly, it's good, but not THAT good. He should've totally changed the name to just "AXL" or something. It's soooo not GNR. Nice review, and site!