Chinese Democracy

Guns N’Roses releases its sixth album after 17 years of expectation

The world rock scene legend Guns N’Roses headed by the self-perpetuating leader Axl Rose has not been releasing a new material since 1991 when its fourth and fifth albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were released simultaneously. After that two compilations The Spaghetti Incident? and Greatest Hits saw the light of the day but everyone was anticipating the sixth studio work whose title, Chinese Democracy, Axl revealed to the audience back in 1999. Finally after several promises and delays, millions of dollars spent for the recording process and 17 years the album is ready. Certainly Rose’s goal he has been pursuing all this time is quite obvious, i.e. to make the record perfect, with no drawbacks at all. As a result a great number of different musicians, producers and arrangers have taken part in the recording and mixing of Chinese Democracy improving every track until Axl was happy with the final variant. In fact the new album is faultless but this is still a Guns N’Roses album offering the same old songs of loneliness, broken heart all filled with Axl Rose’s eternal paranoia.

An example of classic rock Chinese Democracy

First of all Chinese Democracy is an example of classic rock and although it contains some grains of other styles like blues, trip-hop or industrial rock all of its 14 tracks claim their right to become classic rock songs. Each composition with no exception is a monumental creation built on a very dense production, a vastest variety of instruments and still impressive Rose’s vocals varying from growling to the famous falsetto. The first single Chinese Democracy and powerful compositions Shackler's Revenge and Better conquer from the very first sounds with splendid guitar hooks and wonderfully beautiful mid-tempo songs Street Of Dreams and There Was A Time will leave nobody indifferent due to a solemn instrumental background. One of the best numbers is Catcher In The Rye, a multilevel piece complicated both in the respect of tune and lyrics whereas a classic Axl’s song Sorry is remarkable for one of the catchiest choruses on the record. Another unusual track is Madagascar refined with the samples of Martin Luther King’s famous speech and ballad This I Love pretends to make you forget of the hit Don’t Cry easily being a new soundtrack for your melancholia. The album closes with Prostitute, the longest composition here on which the main character suffers of the impossibility of the real love for its object is a woman that cannot belong to him only.

A powerful, impressive and grandiose album

The fact is that we have waited for so long for Guns N’Roses’ new album and the expectation has been worth it. The fans waited for the band’s news every year, hungrily reading Axl’s messages on the collective’s official site and watched the line-up changes. By the way speaking of the latter there have happened exactly so many as to make only one Guns N’Roses founding member left which is naturally Rose himself and all the rest of the members left the band. On Axl’s initiative the musicians from the collective’s he really admires have become the new members. For instance, guitarist Slash was replaced by Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails and the new bassist is the former member of The Replacements Tommy Stinson. Besides such celebrities as Brian May and Dave Navarro have contributed to working on Chinese Democracy and they are only a part of the whole constellation of musicians. On the whole the album is exactly like it should be after such a serious work: powerful, impressive and grandiose. Taking into account that Chinese Democracy is the most expensive creation in the entire music history one can imagine how precious the purchase of it actually is. Yet its true value is that it is the record of one of the best rock bands which will surely please us with more than one album of the kind.