Friday, January 9, 2009

This Is Not a Democracy

It's actually a republic. Of course, I'm not really talking about our country - I'm talking about the new Guns n' Roses album: Chinese Democracy.

In 1986, I was 12 years old and a friend gave me a tape of Appetite for Destruction by Guns n' Roses. It was the greatest thing I had ever heard and, 23 years later, I would still say that it is one of my favorite albums. Gn'R was an iconic band in the late 80's and even though they took six years to release their next full length studio album (actually two at the same time), they were still pretty much on top of the world when Use Your Illusion I and II were released. Those albums weren't anywhere near as good as Appetite for Destruction, but they were still decent.

Then, lead singer Axl Rose started working on the next album, which he named Chinese Democracy (note that I am leaving out the cover album abomination they released in the early 90's). It became quite clear that Gn'R was not a democracy - Axl was the dictator of the band and it didn't take long for him to be the only original member left in the "band".

After years of rumors and leaks and re-recording, Chinese Democracy was finally released towards the end of 2008. I had to get myself a copy, for nostalgia if nothing else. I had very low expectations for the album - after all this time and the absence of Slash, Duff and the others, I figured the album would be Axl's narcissistic ode to himself. I finally got around to listening to the album a few days ago and... it sucks. It is worse than I expected and not even worth the time it would take me to break it down track by track. So much for nostalgia (and democracy).

Thursday, January 8, 2009