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- First reviewNovember 25, 2008
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![Chinese Democracy [CD] [PA]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/9111/9111016_sa.jpg)
Posted by: MSanty
from Springfield, MA
As a sometimes (abet less successful) songwriter and musician, and over the last few years reviewer of several hundred albums – I am left this evening somehow awestruck by what I feel is a timepiece of sorts.
Like most avid rock junkies, I have been eagerly anticipating Guns & Roses Chinese Democracy to hit the shelves so we may proclaim it either an Opus of failure or statement of independence. I have also been watching over the years as release dates came and passed without fruition, and listened closely to demos that made half truths of concepts not quite understood by the masses.
I am shocked.
This is not the G&R of “Appetite” fame, nor the chaotic “Illusion” act that appeared in and out of the melodic clouds with a double album that ended the era of excess the 80’s was musically. In fact it could be successfully argued that this is not Guns & Roses at all – but instead the Collective consciousness of the last forty years of what we call “heavy” music packaged with a tidy bow and presented with the impact of a neutron bomb in Joe Perry’s attic. In my humble opinion, William “Axl” Rose has created with his score of unsuspecting characters not only the perfect reflection of true Rock and Roll as an art form, but what should be the ending of an era. And what an end it is.
We have watched the evolution of pop turning to jazz and R&B influences over the last ten years and not without its merits, and apparently Rose has somehow understood this way ahead of the learning curve.
Chinese Democracy is as Rose has been quoted for over a decade “…just a record.” - And that is in its self a statement that needed to be made. For after all is said and done - and all the hype, hoopla and A&R exec’s go to bed for the night, all that is left for the next generation is music preserved on media.
Proving himself and his cast of players the ultimate chameleons by snaking every important influence post Beatles/Stones nostalgia right up to our current non –melodic “modern rock” era, Rose has blended them into a time capsule that will remain the footprint of the music that defined what will eventually determined to be rock’s Jurassic period. I know that you may question the authority that my statement has implied – but I dare an educated listener to say less upon true active listening.
It’s all there – and totally unabashed in its glory and overly precise layering and focus. The simplicity of McCartney’s pianos to the brazen bravado of Iggy Pop, the trippy bombast of Stabbing Westward to the straight to the heart lyrical content of Eric Clapton - even the pioneering of REM & U2’s edgy delays and the iconoclastic cries of Tool’s desperation are documented in one piece of material. In short, C.D. is simply a marvel to behold.
Sure the package is not “perfect”. The sound is at times so intense that it takes several listens to actually take it all into perspective - and this is not the simplistic rock of G&R’s earlier efforts. In fact I would dare say that this is a record that is best off without Slash and the “Beast of Burden” Stones-on-Steroids Gunner’s of nearly two decades ago. Such a statement could only be made with taking every influence into perspective, and not just punching to the gut.
Perhaps the most important mark of this record is not made solely by the composer, but by the multiple guitarists layered to create the wall of sound once created by Boston and in a lesser sense, trans-genre studio pioneers Steely Dan. Robin Frip and Bucket-Head’s musical genius leave no stone unturned here, and have literally created what will be looked at for decades as how guitar players have truly shaped the art form into what is now.
For once – I am unable to rate a single track on its own merits or deficits – and each track has both. Chinese Democracy has done exactly what Rose has underhandedly intended on – defining it’s self as the definitive statement of its era. Rose has smartly reached far beyond the view of the Sunset Strip Scene (Appetite for Destruction) and the lack-luster (perhaps embryonic?) Use Your Illusion this time. And that is the beauty of this album.
If Rock has truly died – this is its obituary. And wasn’t life grand.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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