Many music fans are trashing the new Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” after the band premiering the album in their official myspace page. A lot of people are saying the album is “shit”, “we waited for 14 years for this garbage”, etc. I don’t know if the haters listened to the same record or not, but I thought the album was extremely impressive. I think the 14 years was worth the wait, indeed. Sure, the album does not have the original lineup with Slash, Duff McKagan, etc. but who cares? I personally think the new band defines what Guns N’ Roses is supposed to be.

The songs on the new album, are incredibly tight, Axl sings with a lot of “emotion” and the songs have that intense “in your face” power. There is electronica added to the mix, which what makes the new songs sound different. Axl wanted a different style of Guns N’ Roses. The new Guns N’ Roses sound, not the old sound. It is not the 80’s anymore and the band is evolving with a new sound. Axl’s vocals still hasn’t changed a bit, he still sings like he did back in the earlier days and Axl is still bringing in slow piano ballads as he has always done in the earlier Guns N’ Roses records.

The guitar solos of Bumblefoot is sick and totally knocks me out, I never heard the guy before, and the guy is just amazing. I love the guitar solos on the disc. While I love the entire album, the songs that floored me are: “If the World”, “Catcher In the Rye”, “Madagascar”, “Better”, “Sorry” and “This I Love”.

To those negative people out there trashing the album, you can’t just give the album one quick listen. Just carefully listen to it, and you would see that Axl worked hard on these songs over the years, you would see how amazing they are. It’s a beautiful album. I loved it. Definitely one of the best albums of 2008 and I’ll definitely get my own copy of the album soon. I won’t buy it right away though, ’cause I can’t buy anymore things for myself since the Holidays is just around the corner. I just wrote this album on my Christmas wishlist as a gift from family members so hopefully I’ll get this album under the tree.

I don’t see how anybody could hate this fantastic record. Chinese Democracy definitely adds to the list of Best albums of 2008. The reason Axl took this long because he wanted to take his time with the songs to make it a real good one and I can’t blame him. He wants to make a great record and in order to make a great record with great songs, you must take your time with them.

Score for Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy” = **** (4 stars as in excellent)

Kev