Review: ‘Chinese Democracy’ by Guns N’ Roses

In 1967, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys went into the studio to create the follow-up to Pet Sounds. He poured sand on the floor to feel the beach, lit paper to capture the smell of a bonfire and had a nervous breakdown in the middle of recording. The album wasn’t released until 2005. In 1994, Axl Rose went into the studio to create the follow-up to Use Your Illusion. He spent $14 million dollars, had his band go through several line-up changes and put cornrows in his hair. The album was released this week.

And God help me, it’s good.

There was so much going against Chinese Democracy. Besides the long development and absence of the band’s original lineup, there were a few questionable marketing decisions. Going exclusive to Best Buy might be a necessity in this economy but releasing it on a Sunday? And no midnight sale? That’s a move that looks to bury the release. Or perhaps it proves that Axl is still nuts.

But yes, it’s good. It’s better than anything produced by Velvet Revolver, Slash’s Snake Pit and Izzy Stradlin & the Juju Hounds combined. Where those bands continued the classic sound of Guns n’ Roses, Chinese Democracy pushes it to a whole new level. This is the statement Axl wanted to make. But did he want to make it now?

The title track opens the album and hits like Neo’s fist from The Matrix. It may not be as great a song but it rocks even harder than “Welcome to the Jungle.” “Shackler’s Revenge” pushes further into Nine Inch Nails country and probably didn’t seem so dated when Axl originally laid the tracks down. Other songs like “If the World” sound as if they were written after Axl listened to Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt.”

But there are hallmarks of the GNR glory days. Every time Axl sits at the piano, he gets close to playing “November Rain”. You can’t listen to “Street of Dreams” and tell me it wasn’t written for Duff and Slash to play.

Lyrically, Axl is still pissed at you. Lots of unfocused frustration and finger pointing that doesn’t speak to my post high school years. But the vocals are so thickly produced that they’re easy to ignore. Plus, Rose doesn’t call out or confuse “immigrants” with “faggots” this time around.

The band’s rotating lineup actually adds to the sound. Buckethead’s guitar acrobatics provide a counterpoint to Bumblefoot’s melodic and splashy approach, often within the same song. Of course, this takes away the complete band feel of the earlier records. It is obvious that Rose didn’t really get to know the other musicians, and neither do we. There is not one hit single on this album. Like a classic Pink Floyd release, every song is densely layered and is a part of the whole. There isn’t a single hook to carry it across airplay since so much is going on. Everything has an extended intro and piles ambiance in the background

I was hoping for an album like Metallica’s new Death Magnetic, a nostalgic return to form. Instead, I received much more. Had this album come out in 1997, alongside Radiohead’s OK Computer and U2’s Pop, it could have seriously changed the face of music. Arriving now, after the industry’s collapse, Chinese Democracy is an odd little gem. One that, like Brian Wilson’s Smile, you need to hear for yourself… over and over.

Thanks to Tim Warner for playing me the tracks a day early and for never giving up on GNR. Live like a suicide, Tim!