Who needs a Chinese Democracy?

He did not stand a chance.

First an admission, when Guns N’ Roses was huge I had other interests; Cypress Hill comes to mind, a little bit of Rage against the Machine. Basically I was somewhere else. That aside, I knew what was coming whenever I heard the riff that opens “Sweet Child of Mine”, you all know the words to a song like “November Rain”. This stuff is in the DNA of our own little personal histories. This is exactly the sort of stuff that was playing in the background of our collective youth. More specifically, I remember my first day of high school, watching some cholo drive around the block repeatedly, playing “Welcome to the Jungle”. At the time, I found this act uninspired, little obvious and terribly smug. Looking back now, I think about it and smile.

History has been similarly kind to GnR, these songs have grown in popularity; I think thanks in part to a nostalgia factor. Even the Use Your Illusion period, at the time considered a bit self indulgent and very all over the place, is now affectionately referred to as ambitious and sprawling.

The last decade has been about moving on with the rest of the band finding continued success in the form of Velvet Revolver.

Not Axel Rose.

Holding firm to his vision and replacing band members left and right, he has spent the last fourteen years and reportedly tens of millions of dollars putting together another Guns N' Roses album. It's finally here. It's Chinese Democracy. It is a lot to live up to, too much.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some highlights. The first two cuts on the album are clearly the best, the title track and Sheckler’s Revenge sport a strong baseline, some interesting vocals and generally make you want to tap your feet. After that it drifts. Last year when I read “The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao” I wrote that you could feel the effort; the book was tight, the characters and their evolution real. Of course these things would be real, they evolved in the author's head for well over a decade. In this instance, something else happened. Time did Axel a disservice. The whole thing feels a little over produced, which is saying something, given the expectations associated with the hair band genre. Like many middle age rockers, his voice does not hit the notes as hard as it used to.The album drifts as it goes and at some point I lose interest entirely. Street of Dreams is predictable and a little sappy. If the World woke me up in the middle but mostly because it felt like it was from a different album. The last track, Prostitute is interesting but only vaguely.

Even the title doesn’t make sense anymore. The Chinese economy has been growing like gang busters for the last decade. The movement that spawned the album title has sputtered since Tiananmen Square. China has reaped the rewards of Market Socialism and developed a new class that is hyper nationalistic, wealthy and not terribly interested in Democracy at all.

Hmm...Ok, maybe the title does make sense.