Using ten-minute epics "Estranged" and "November Rain" as his foundation,
Axl Rose strips away all remnants of the old snake-dancing
GNR on the long-awaited
Chinese Democracy, shedding the black humor and blues. Despite a few production flourishes, this is an album unconcerned with the future of rock & roll.
Axl spent the decade-plus recording
Chinese Democracy not reinventing but refining, crafting a handful of tracks, chasing the sound in his head.
Axl sees
GNR not as gutter-rock but art-rock, piling on synthesizers, vocals, strings, and complicated guitar parts. The production is so dense it takes some time to warm to, but it fits the music -- these aren't songs that grab and hold, they're songs that unfold. Give it time and the album reveals some terrific music: the slinky, spiteful "Better," slowly building into its fury; the quite gorgeous "Street of Dreams," and coiled drama of "There Was a Time"; "Catcher in the Rye," the lightest, brightest moment here; the slow, grinding "I.R.S."; and "Madagascar," a rueful rumination that finds space for quotations from
Martin Luther King amidst its trip-hop pulse. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine