'Chinese Democracy' just an Axl Rose solo album
Mark Trammell, Features Editor
Published On: 12/ 1/2008
It’s been a weird year, what with the economy bottoming out, the seemingly endless election finally coming to a close, and the music charts rocking like it’s 1988 instead of 2008, what with the return of Metallica and AC/DC, both of whom had their highest charting successes in years.
Why am I not surprised, given these circumstances, that Guns N’ Roses’ long-awaited, nearly 15 years in the making, “Chinese Democracy” should finally see the light of day this year, of all years? Folks, you can now officially stop making “Chinese Democracy” jokes, because Axl Rose finally got around to releasing the thing, for better or worse.
No doubt about it, this album is over-produced within an inch of its life. The list of credits is endless and the number of musicians who worked on “Democracy” is exhaustive.
Indeed, one track features no less than six guitarists! None of which, I might add, are named Slash. Indeed, Slash, Duff, Steven, and Izzy (aka 4/5s of the original GNR lineup) are nowhere to be found, leading one to wonder why Axl Rose didn’t just release this thing as a solo album and be done with it. To be sure, it’s the Axl Rose show from start to finish, and it’s more self-obsessed than any given episode of the Tyra Banks Show. To wit, the word that recurs the most is “I,” which is featured in every single song. It’s a constant stream of endless finger-pointing and defensive reasoning for everything Axl has ever done over the years, including the amount of time spent recording this monster.
It would be interesting to see what actual fans of ’80s metal make of this CD, which couldn’t be further removed from what most people think of when they think of that scene. If you want something that harkens back to primo GNR, pick up the first Velvet Revolver CD. How ironic that a group made up of cast-offs from metal groups, including GNR, no less, would nail it on the first try, while Axl spent over a decade refining what amounts to “Use Your Illusion Part Three.”
Don’t get me wrong. Axl has a real gift for, as he terms them, “melodies.” But is wading through the layers of production to get to the songs something old school GNR fans will have the patience for? True, Axl has grown a little.
This time out, on the closer, “Prostitute,” he’s actually talking about — you guessed it — himself, instead of ranting about the latest woman who’s done him wrong. “If my intentions are misunderstood/Please be kind, I’ve done/All I should,” Rose sings.
When he isn’t ranting and raving about something or the other, he just sounds exhausted. And after working on the same album for nearly 15 years, who can blame him? The problem is the record is so densely packed, it’s often just as exhausting for the listener.
For instance, did “There was a Time” really need that choir intro and outro? Does the title track really need double-tracked Axls and five guitarists? Probably not, but you can’t fault a guy for trying to get the music he hears in his head as close to perfection as he can possibly achieve. Oh wait, yes, you can.
In fact, with all the paranoia and recurring gun imagery, Axl sounds like one of those Waco types, armed to the teeth in an underground bunker, just waiting for some terrorist to invade his turf. What makes him fascinating is you get the feeling he’d welcome it!
Now and then there’s a glimpse of something real. Take, for example, the near Billy Joel-esque piano-bar torch song, “This I Love,” in which Axl pours his heart out to a girl he loves. But even then, he can’t resist comparing her to himself: “Her heart’s just like mine.”
When the most revealing track is called “Madagascar,” and reads like the gospel of Axl, you know you’re in egotistical waters like no other. “Forgive them that tear down my soul/And bless them that they might grow old.”
As if this wasn’t mind-blowing enough, the song features an extended vocal-snippet-montage made up of sound-bites of movies like “Braveheart,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Seven,” and “Cool Hand Luke” (also sampled in the GNR classic “Civil War”), not to mention a prominent sampling of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech! Modesty, thy name is surely not Axl Rose.
The album does have its moments. Check out the hook-laden “Shackler’s Revenge,” which sounds like an alliance between the Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, and Nine Inch Nails, with Axl on lead vocals.
“If the World” has lovely Spanish guitar interludes, crunchy guitars elsewhere, and even some trip-hop and funk influences around the edges.
“There was a Time,” which could serve as a requiem for the old line-up of GNR, and the perplexingly titled “Riad N’ the Bedouins” (a search reveals that it’s a reference to Arabic nomads and Moroccan gardens) both have killer choruses.
Many songs are piled high with memorable riffage, and hooks for days. The musicianship is superlative across the board.
Yet, the effect is almost too overwhelming. To his credit, Axl has certainly kept up with the times. “Better” could be an emo/screamo power ballad, and “Street of Dreams” could be “November Rain” updated for the new millennium.
Nor are his past influences unaccounted for. “Catcher in the Rye” sounds like a lost ’70s arena-rock stomper and “Sorry” features a sweet bluesy solo from Buckethead. Much of the CD, however, comes off like an ongoing battle between honoring Axl’s musical heroes, especially Elton John, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Nazareth, and trying to keep up with the times and sounds of today’s artists.
The real problem is that the sounds that made people fall for GNR in the first place — that classic GNR bluesy barroom stomp — are nowhere to be found. Axl is not GNR, any more than Roger Waters is Pink Floyd or Jim Morrison is The Doors. Anyone who thinks so is clearly not paying attention.
Why not call a spade a spade? This is really a solo album posing as a band many hold near and dear. GNR’s appeal was that they came off as hard-scrabble L.A. kids who wanted to rock themselves into the limelight. They were hungry and it showed.
With Axl having rested on his laurels for over a decade, will anyone even care about this CD anymore? And if they do, will they be disappointed to find it’s more like an attempt to stay current than the good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll they hoped for? Only time — and record sales — will tell.
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