UK Journalist/Author Joel McIver Comments On GUNS N' ROSES - "Chinese Democracy Is An Embarrassment"
November 27, 2008, 15 years ago
Journalist Joel McIver, author of forthcoming book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists and many others, has written a guest feature regarding GUNS N' ROSES' new album Chinese Democracy for Lucem Fero. The following is an excerpt:
"The problem here is that Axl has had too long to fool around in the studio, with no guiding hand to push him in the right direction. With a Rick Rubin or a Jim Steinman at the controls, Waxl might have found a coherent theme and a consistent sound across the songs: as it is, the album is unfocused and doesn't really know where it's going or what to do when it gets there. Axl has come up with some decent-ish songs ('Better' and the title track are the obvious examples) but there are too many tunes that try and fail to sound like Appetite For Destruction-era ( here ) Guns for us to take them seriously. The power ballads that make up about a third of the album want so badly to be 'November Rain' that it hurts -- and the sub-industrial guitar tone of many other tracks sounds a decade old. Finally, the arrogance of including a snatch of Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech as an audio sample is breathtaking, and not in a good way. Time to reform the Appetite line-up, tour the world and retire, Axl. Chinese Democracy is an embarrassment."Read the entire feature at this location.
