Alright. Blogging again. For how long? Who the fuck knows? Anywho, begun listening intently to Guns and Roses new album, Chinese Democracy. Well to cut to the quick, not impressed. I've listened to about half the songs (the ones on Myspace) and I have to say, nothing strikes me. Guns and Roses, pre-Buckethead, circa mid eighties to early nineties, was about two things: fury and depth. That is essentially what makes up great rock and roll bands. Somewhere between the departure of everyone but Axl and the release of this album, Guns and Roses has replaced fury with industrial and depth with hack. It just really seems to me that this album lacks every single thing that their earlier albums contained. There are no great rising moments like in Civil War. There are no furious songs like You Could Be Mine. There is nothing epic like November Rain. So what happened? Well, honestly, I believe that Axl isolated himself so much from the outside world, that he honestly did not realize what was actually going on in music and why he began writing, composing and singing. When he emerged, determined to force the world to pay attention to him again, he supplemented his past inspirations with money, unlimited studio time and a rolodex to rival the president of any major label. All those things combine for is a hack record that will be hailed for a few minutes and then lambasted for an age. One last thing, dear reader, be prepared to hear everyone of these songs on every commercial, television show, movie and creative internet viral videos. The powers that be have been fronting a shit-ton of money to Axl for a long time to get this damn thing out there, and trust me, they won't recoup a dime without some serious whoring of this album.
