Someone near me at a Starbucks was playing all of these "leaked" downloaded tracks today. Yeah, that's my story. Here is my take on what I heard, track by track:
New Song #1
It sounded like a Queensrÿche song. I stopped listening to Queensrÿche a long time ago. I even saw them open for someone last year at Jones Beach and I didn't listen. Not a good omen for the rest of the album.
New Song #2
The music here was straight Linkin Park. I heard strings. Okay, I swear Axl got replaced by Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate at some point during the decade long recording process. Towards the end it became an Evanescence song. Without the male vocal parts.
New Song #3
The music sounded like a slow No Doubt or Maroon 5 song. There were a couple of little Spanish guitar solos. The vocals started out sounding like Axl and then drifted back to Queensrÿche. Why?
Chinese Democracy
This song started out like a song from Operation Mindcrime -- not a very good sign. Then, unbelievably, Axl himself started singing! It rocked. This might be a top ten Guns N' Roses song. Maybe there is hope for this album. One rumor I heard is that some of these are throwaway tracks that won't appear on the real release. Hopefully they keep this one since it's the best track so far (and because the album is called Chinese Democracy).
Madagascar
Madagascar opened with some horns. It was either a military funeral or a Beatles song. The vocals were pure Axl. No one can wail like this. Then MLK started talking. Oh no. "What we've got here is...failure to communicate." Really? I didn't like when Robert Plant sampled Led Zeppelin. Sampling a sample you already previously sampled? Well, it was a nice interlude. Way more forgivable than if he looped in the opening riff from Sweet Child O' Mine. Good song.
There Was A Time
The first two minutes sound like a Bob Dylan song or Modest Mouse's Missed The Boat. The final two and a half minutes are their own animal. Sweeping arrangements, like November Rain or Layla. Another good song. Dear Axl, definitely put this one on the album. Skip those three untitled ones. Thanks.
IRS
Queensrÿche reared its ugly head on this one and then Axl and some guitars suddenly appeared in the studio and beat them into submission. Then Queensrÿche came back. Finally -- with me cheering Axl and those guitars on -- Queensrÿche was beaten into submission again. It was a great victory for rock and roll!
Better
This one would have made a great car commercial soundtrack like that Kelly Clarkson song Go until Axl started singing. Or rapping. It's hard to tell. Then the rapping ended and a Judas Priest song broke out. Another good song.
The Blues
The piano opening was pure Counting Crows from A Long December. The vocals sounded like a mashup of Silent Lucidity and Paradise City. It's not a bad song -- somewhere in the middle of the pack here.
There are some good songs in here. I'm not sure if it was worth waiting a decade for this, but I'm glad I didn't have to wait another ten years to listen to these tracks.
The bottom line? Queensrÿche fans won't be disappointed, but fans of Slash's soaring guitar solos might be. There are a couple of tracks that measure up to later Guns N' Roses albums, but nothing that would fit onto Appetite For Destruction.
The good news is that Scott Weiland left Velvet Revolver behind for a Stone Temple Pilots reunion and the rest of Axl's old band is conveniently available for a GNR reunion tour. The bad news is that I could see them reforming the original line up just to go back into the studio for a few dozen years to rework these tracks to death.
GrimJack
EZ Street
Jon Sable, Freelance
Comments (6)
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Rick Marshall 69 days ago
I really enjoyed "Better" and "Chinese Democracy" but that was about it for me. The rest felt far too mediocre for an album this long in the making. I completely agree about the "New Song" tracks, too - if anything gets tossed, here's hoping it's those tracks.
Michael Pinto 69 days ago
The problem is a historical one: Guns N' Roses hit their high point 1987, and that music was made within the context of 80s heavy metal - however as soon as Nirvana started to emerge from 1989 to 1991 you have the underground hardcore sound of the 80s (Black Flag) meets alternative (Sonic Youth/Pixies) meets Pop (the Beatles) and everything changes overnight. It's sort of like Elvis performing after the breakup of the Beatles, he's still as good as he was in the late 50s but the paradigm has changed.
It's also hard to bring a "lost album" back to life in another era — Brian Wilson did this well with Smile, but it didn't have the same feeling without the wrecking crew behind him. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what it was. Also look at those two Beatles tracks from the 90s, they were great but they weren't real Beatles tracks. For starters Jeff Lynne isn't George Martin, and McCartney/Harrison/Starr being a backup band isn't the real thing.
Brian Alvey 68 days ago
Your comment addressed the upcoming album and its struggle to be relevant better than my entire (albeit, sarcastic) blog post did.
The only thing I'd add is that it's not so much a lost album. It wasn't created a decade ago. It has been created over the course of a decade which makes its challenge even greater.
If Axl wanted it to sound like Nine Inch Nails or Incubus or even Miley Cyrus, he has had the opportunity to re-imagine it along the way. He might not have the skill to transcend his own late 80s, LA hair metal style, but he had the opportunity.
Thanks!
Keith McDuffee 67 days ago
I didn't catch these leaked tracks (yet?), but what's with the Queensryche: Mindcrime hate? One of my all-time faves. As far as anything else by them, I'm not listening (lalalala!!)
Brian Alvey 67 days ago
Is there anybody listening?
Sorry. That was a reference to a song off of their album after Mindcrime, Empire. To me it was even better.
To clarify: I don't really hate Queensrÿche. I just hate these GNR tracks where Axl sounds like he's channeling them.
But their show last year was lame. Maybe I do hate them. ;-) Maybe I'm just pissed that they only did two songs I liked and a Pink Floyd cover. Who knows.
Anonymous 53 days ago
Actually laughed out loud at your post. Good work.