Here it is - Chinese Democracy!

[Tony Ramone]

Seriously? No ones tried to touch this topic yet? Or is Brandon deleting any mention of it? Anyway, here's my own take on the album (copied from another site I post on)...
OK, I'll say first that I'm not the world's biggest GnR fan, but my wife has been a die-hard fanatic since she was 7 years old, so there was no way that this album wasn't going to be bought.
With that said, I've had this on repeat in my car for the last couple of days, and I've heard it through about 3.5 times now.
I definitely think that it's a grower. On the first listen there were a few songs that stood out, some that I wasn't too enthusiastic about and just one that I just plain didn't like.
After a few listens though some more tracks start to stand out a lot more.
I reckon the top three songs are Chinese Democracy (1), Street of Dreams (4) and Scraped (Cool, with possibly Street of Dreams being the best one (which is odd as I never liked the soppy songs before, I guess I'm getting old).
This (Street..) is a fucking powerhouse of a song - seriously, turn it on, turn up the volume and just let it sweep you away. When the big guitars come in, I actually get goosebumps. I reckon this'll be the next single. It shits all over November Rain in my opinion.
Admittedly there is a bit of a nu-metal sound in some (or a lot) of the songs, but then it was being written in the late 90's, so what do you expect? At least he only took the chunky guitars and breakdowns and left the shitty cookie-monster vocals out. At the same time there's a lot of 70's influence there as well. We all know Axl was always one to experiment with different genres - I'm actually surprised there isn't more of an industrial edge to it (though there are elements).
Overall I like this album, with the exception of track 5 (If The World) - it's just got way too much of a funky acid-jazz vibe to it, and the vocal performance seems kinda phoned in: not nearly as much intensity as he exudes throughout the rest of the album.
On the whole volume thing, I actually commend him on being more conservative with the mastering and not taking part in the loudness wars that are going on in modern music recording - check out Death Magnetic: all the dynamics have bee completely crushed out of it. This album needs to keep it's dynamic range - it's what makes songs like street of dreams so powerful: you get the song nice and quiet so you can build up to a massive chorus. It's used to great effect throughout the album.
Sorry if this is a bit muddled - I meant to do a proper song by song review, but didn't make enough notes, and I also figured no one would read it anyway...
Let the flaming begin

[.tom]

hahaha, thx 4 that... I'll go get it..

[screamingbloodydeath]

I agree with this review, but you forgot to mention "Better", possibly the best song of the decade!

[Razorhoof78]

It's refreshing to see people actually giving this record a shot instead of just bashing Axl, who in his mid-40's sounds phenomenal. The tunes here are IMO instant classics - I totally agree with OP about "Street", I always thought Novembr Rain was a bloated arrangement at best. My only complaint was that Brian May's contributions were removed from Catcher In The Rye. Hopefully we'll get a tour, as anyone who caught the last one will attest that this band just smokes...

[Magic Trix]

I think this albums is amazing. I think people are listening to it with a negative mindset and not even giving it a chance.

[Magic Trix]

I think this album is amazing. I think people are listening to it with a negative mindset and not even giving it a chance.

[P.P.T.]

Kind of a silly title for a Country that is Communist moving towards Fascism.

[Mr Mike]

Originally Posted by P.P.T.

Kind of a silly title for a Country that is Communist moving towards Fascism.

It's actually relevant to a movement in China to move to the left - see here. I think it's also now used as an expression but, without looking it up, I couldn't tell you what

As for the album, I remember my older brother getting Appetite when it first came out, and I was 8 years old. Became about as big a fan as could be of that era but they started to lose me as a fan by the time the Illusion albums came out. I wish Axl all the best but this new album might as well be a Britteny Spears record or something. To me it just has no attitude or aggresion going on. Seems to be a bloated and dated mish mash of ideas and the band behind him sounds like my preconceived notion of what a session musician is - extremely profficient but too technical... it's a shame.