Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness!
It’s never too late — aw, hell yes it is.
Wow kids, the end of the world is nigh:
Best Buy and Geffen Records announced that one of the most highly anticipated albums of all time, Guns N’ Roses‘ Chinese Democracy, will be available beginning Nov. 23 at Best Buy and BestBuy.com on CD, vinyl, and digital downloads. The title track, the first single from the album, was released to radio today, October 22. Chinese Democracy is the first album of new material from one of rock’s most influential bands since the 1991 simultaneous releases of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
“The release of Chinese Democracy marks a historic moment in rock n’ roll,” said co-managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould. “We’re launching with a monumental campaign developed by Gary Arnold and the Best Buy team that matches the groundbreaking sound of the album itself. Guns N’ Roses fans have every reason to celebrate, for this is only the beginning.”
“Chinese Democracy is one of the most highly anticipated albums in music history, and Best Buy is thrilled to deliver this explosive and previously elusive release to Guns N’ Roses fans. Longtime fans will be rewarded for their patience and loyalty to this great band, while a new generation of fans will be blown away,” said Gary Arnold, Senior Entertainment Officer for Best Buy. “Axl Rose is one of the most dynamic and gifted writers and performers in modern music. Best Buy is excited to work with Axl to make the release of Chinese Democracy THE musical event of 2008!”
“Guns N’ Roses is THE premier American rock band,” commented Steve Berman, President, Sales and Marketing, Interscope Geffen A&M Records. “Partnering with Gary and everyone at Best Buy to release one of rock’s most anticipated and legendary albums is truly a moment in music history. We’re thrilled to be able to announce that Chinese Democracy is coming, it’s coming this year, and it’s coming to Best Buy.”
Produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo, the album, which will be released on Black Frog/Geffen Records, includes 14 tracks. “Shackler’s Revenge” debuted September 14 through the Rock Band 2 videogame and “If The World” can be heard in the film ‘Body Of Lies,” which premiered on October 11.
Chinese Democracy is being released in three formats: CD, Vinyl LP (with a free digital download of the tracks), and as a digital album. Pre-orders at www.BestBuy.com/chinesedemocracy begin today.
So, it’s actually happening — now you can find out if the official version of “Better” is, erm, better than what you’ve had on your iPod for the past, oh, four years or so.
No pressure, Axl. No pressure.
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Comments
How can I describe Axl’s 14-year labor of narcissism without resorting to biblical and/or Ghostbuster references? How about “fiasco?” Too trite. “Debacle?” Too depressing–brings to mind my TIAA-CREF account. “Cockup?” Yep, that’s it…
Schadenfreude, nostalgia, and school-boyish optimism drove me to search out http://web.gunsnroses.com/splash.jsp and listen to the title track of “Chinese Democracy” offered by the mercurial, corn-rowed, man-child from Indiana. My inner child was disappointed, my inner cynic less so.
Granted I listened to it through the tinny voice of my plastic Mac, but it doesn’t take a pair of Klipsch speakers to recognize aural tripe when I hear it. The production on Chinese Democracy is both grandiose and stupid. The song begins with Axl caterwauling and cackling maniacally in his inimitable molested alley cat falsetto over the sound of vague, murmuring (Chinese?) voices and traditional instruments, as if trapped in some ghastly, wind-swept echo chamber contrived by Stephen King and Fu Manchu. Next, obligatory staccato guitar notes chime in and then: Wham! The best over-processed, corporate-focus-group-approved guitar riff of 2006 hits you dead in the face. Soon Axl serves up his disturbing-yet-strangely-compelling high register-low register vocal mix in an awkward tango with more over-processed, soulless–albeit virtuosic–guitar noodlery. Later, more lightning-fast, hired gun shredding…you get the picture.
Lyrically, Axl seems to be trying to make some kind of angry political, religious, sexual statement but, happily, I can’t figure it out. He refers to masturbation, the Falun Gong, and, repeatedly, someone’s iron fist and a baby ruling the nation. $13 million+ in recording expenses and two decades must make it easy to lose one’s artistic bearings. I know, you don’t approach a GNR song expecting Dylan, but I was hoping with his leisurely recording schedule Axl could at least muster up something more lyrically satisfying than a Slipknot album. Chinese Democracy’s most repeated line is “…but all I got is precious time.” Indeed Axl.
To sum it up, it sounds like Rose is trying too hard on this song–and of course I’m stating the obvious. Chinese Democracy reveals the same shortcoming as nearly all high dollar, super-group fare: it sounds forced and disingenuous. I hope the rest of the album is an improvement on this single, but I wouldn’t give it a Chinaman’s chance. For now, I’m inspired to dust off my old copy of “Appetite for Destruction”–one of the best hard rock albums of that decade–and, as was said back then, “crank it up.”
hi do u remember me your grandoughter dad and mum are saying hi lots of love for u :*
from: your loving grandoughter nell
[...] excellent colleague George Lang passed along the big music news this afternoon: Apparently, Guns N’ Roses are finally [...]