After last night's post, I came in to work thinking about Chinese Democracy, whose release is just about imminent.
I am not a Guns N' Roses fan; I like Appetite for Destruction well enough, and about six songs (maybe) between the Use Your Illusion albums, but over all, they always seemed overrated to me. Appetite's solos always seemed to lose a little bit because of Axl's wailing over them, and a number of the songs seemed to drag with endless codas with more noodling and yelping. Don't get me wrong: it's a damned good album; just not my cup of tea. I also certainly respect Axl Rose's talent, but I have to recognize that he can reach too far sometimes.
So I approach Chinese Democracy as less a GnR fanatic and more as a pop culture connoiseur. I've made more than my share of jokes at Axl Rose's expense, doubting every release date until the finished thing was available for listening. Because of that, it certainly is a must-listen, and on my first listen, all I heard was the bloated instrumentation, the overcooked production and the strange defensiveness with which Rose sings much of the time. Perhaps, too, there are too many songs (or just the album is too long) - lots of them feature long introductions that don't do much for the song. A shorter, leaner album might have been more ground-breaking or impressive.
But you don't spend nearly 15 years making an album and come out with 40 minutes of "Welcome to the Jungle," either.
Every song on Chinese Democracy is immense, and the album must be respected for Rose's willingness to stick to his guns. Rock history is plagued with albums whose ambition was too much to handle (Townshend's Lifehouse, Brian Wilsons's Smile) or cases where an artist lost interest (Weezer's Songs from the Black Hole). Rose deserves a large amount of respect for sticking to these songs for all these years. You can hear, in every arrangement, how these songs sound pieced together from multiple sessions, multiple players, multiple arrangements and takes and attempts. I am reminded of the scene in Walk Hard during Dewey Cox's LSD/Brian Wilson phase: endless takes with an army of musicians. "I'm seeing... more didjeridoos... an army of didjeridoos... 500,000 didjeridoos!"
Yet at the same time, it probably required an army of musicians to get this right according to Rose's vision. So much of Chinese Democracy is large-scale, requiring so many players with different skills on different instruments. This ambition also clouds some of the intent, as some of the album strikes a "what was he trying to do here?" kind of chord. The collage of speech samples in "Madagascar" exemplifies this (why is Axl quoting "I Have a Dream?" I really honestly don't get it).
On my my second listen, the hooks and appeared more clearly, and the ambition dulled down a little to see the album more clearly. Will it make my top 10 list for the year? Regrettably, no. The songs still sound a teensy bit like a mess, albeit a deeply sculpted, molded mess that took about 14 years to complete. The Pro Tools age has let obsessive-compulsive artists like Rose play with their songs until everything is perfect, which can unfortunately hinder any sense of spontaniety.
The joys in this album are not in catharsis, or necessarily relating to the songs (though I bet it's certainly possible). The joys in this album are found in its sheer craftsmanship. It is damned impressive in that sense: what other band (man) can pull off music of this size and scope? Certainly not, say, Weezer. Or The Killers. Or Fall Out Boy. All the reviews that say that Axl Rose is the last of his kind are absolutely right, for better or worse. Honestly... I think it's for worse, but one can always hope that he inspires some other megalomaniac with deep ambitions and a far reach (Hey, has anybody been keeping tabs on Incubus?).
Chinese Democracy preview (via Myspace)
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