Monday, April 13, 2009

Top Hats & Bandanas (Guns N Roses: Chinese Democracy)


The last time a Guns N Roses album was released, China was a closed off, backward communist state reeling from the aftermath of Tianamen Square & a certain George Bush was President of the USA . . . senior, that is.


When the near-mythical Chinese Democracy was released last November, China has hosted an Olympic Games & is now one of the world's economic powerhouses. And Bush Junior was in his last days in office. Now, that's what you call taking yer own fooking sweet time.

Fer some of us older dudes & dudettes, tunes such as Welcome to the Jungle & Sweet Child O'Mine will forever be burned into counsciousness & remind us of our younger carefree days.

Me remembers first getting Appetite For Destruction back in '88 when me was doing me 'A' levels. And fook me, did it sound fooking dangerous. Despite me ears preferring thrash metal from the likes of Anthrax, Testament & Slayer, that debut GnR platter certainly prompted plenty of devil signs & air guitar posing.

Me knows the word 'classic' is a touch overused in these parts but Sweet Child is one of them. The moment ye hears Slash's sweet Gibson guitar intro, you'll be punching the air with yer fists & doing that silly Axl Rose gliding-around-moonwalk dance.

Things fizzed out fer the original band after too many drug & alcohol induced breakdowns & the last release bearing the GnR logo was the poonk covers affair The Spaghetti Incident way back in 1993. Since then, sporadic news of Chinese Democracy being released surfaced & as the years rolled by, it became a Roswell Incident all of its own.

Finally, after 15 years of blood, sweat & cocaine, Chinese Democracy is upon us. Too little too late or does it do justice to the moniker of Guns N Fooking Roses? Me humbly invites you to decide fer yerself.

To download, Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy, please click here: http://www.mediafire.com/?i41f1oyolzi .

Fer a trip down memory lane, me has posted the vid to THAT tune below. Enjoy!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Yup - well said En. Bala. Although I must admit not being too interested in hearing the new album, it is on SPIN magazine's Top 40 albums of '08:

http://www.spin.com/articles/40-best-albums-2008-0

So maybe its worth a listen. The truth is most of us otai rockers will inevitably compare it to Appetite, thus ensuring a biased/unfair comment or decision about the album.

Anyways the sight of Mr.Rose in braids and 90's gangbanger clothing is enough to make me wish he went back to being a rockstar recluse instead of pretending to be Vanilla Ice's trailer park hobo uncle/crazed meth dealer.

Speaking of drugs and the nearly deceased, here's Cannabis Corpse!

http://www.myspace.com/cannabiscorpseva

anfield devotee said...

premo: Cannabis Corpse!!! Ha ha! Must check it out!

As fer the new GnR long player, me thinks it isn't actually too bad. But canna see a reason why it took the fooker such a bloody loooong time to complete it.

As fer yer waning interest in the band, understood. That's why me has posted the link fer you to download fer FREE & you can pass judgement on Axl's opus without soending a single sen.

kamarul arifin said...

waa..sweet child..my feveret jamming song!
hehe.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

Chinese Democracy- Had a listen once and most probably my last.

btw, me not gonna do another Anba (of Load/Justice controversy) by saying Lies is better than Appetite but back then when Sweet Child was overspun in discos, that really took the rock out of that song totally. the kids would rather strum to "Used To Love Her" out loud. so personally i'd say Lies had more impact on me more than AFD did.

Tinesh said...

Axl has dreadlocks. Keep it real yo!

I heard a few songs la, dont fancy it much. I miss Slash's sweet solos :S

anfield devotee said...

Tinesh: Pls see Premo's response to Axl's dreads . . . personally, people with red hair should shave themselves bald!

kerp: One In A Million?

Jeffrey: Welcome to FFS. Jamming or mutilation? Ha ha!

Anba said...

Balaji:-
Regarding this album i only did like a once over for the whole album...so i can't really say coz need more time to really digest the songs...
a comment made by meself when i was in me brothers car listening to The first song....
anba: Is this Nickelback...
me Thambi:- nope the hew guns song..chines democracy..
Anba:- hmm...nickelback's Animlas sounds better...
heheheh

Further more.bro...me can not download using my office PC..since last week we had a new pekilling from the Gomen saying that downloads of MP's and all is a no no..
so unless im interested in getting a pay cut...

cant post much been invigilating exams bro.. try to give motre input tomoro..ciao

Achilles said...

AD: Me and wifey found this album in DVD shop couple months back and i have been giving it a good listen.

Honestly, i think sucks-lah. OK, maybe i am being very biased because i am comparing it with the magic that came out before added with the fact that i am a pretty hardcore fan so i have a certain image of what it should be ... and this clearly does not meet it.

but honestly, i think the music sounds very new age rock... like My Chemical Romance, but a tad bit heavier and few of sprinkles Axl's signature wailing thrown in for good measure. Nothing moved me, nothing captivated me.

Last but not least... i feel you cannot call it a GNR album... yeah its a rock album with Axl on vocals, but GNR has a certain quality, a certain ring, a certain adrenaline pumping effect, a certain "let's start chaos" feel.... which this one didn't have. Put it simply, if i heard it on the radio and didn't recognize Axl's voice, i would be wondering which new band this is... like what happened to Anba.... nickel back.

So all in all... i would rate it very poorly.

anfield devotee said...

Anba: Nickleback!!???!

Achilles: Oooh . . . thumbs down then. Still the question begs why the fook did he take so fooking long to finish this?