A track-by-track preview of the album.

On November 24th, Axl Rose’s Guns N’ Roses will finally release Chinese Democracy. After almost a decade and half of waiting, two aborted pre-release promotional tours and more speculation than one would think is possible, the album is finally here. Before even listening to the album, one must assume that it won’t be able to live up to the hype or the wait. I’m also not expecting it to be a real G’N'F’N'R record. I’m also expecting it to be overproduced. I’m mainly hoping to be really surprised.

So after years of waiting, here’s our track-by-track breakdown of the new album and our final verdict on Chinese Democracy:

Chinese Democracy - So overproduced that it hurts the ears. The guitars sound like they were programmed. The drums sound like they were recorded off a toy electric drum pad. Axl’s has three vocals on top of each other. As a song, the lyrics are horrible, but I could image this being a good song if it were completely stripped of all it’s awful production. The demo of this song, which I thought was also overproduced, sounds better than the album version.

Shackler’s Revenge - Horrible. Just a horrible song. Sounds like a Korn cover of a Butthole Surfers song.

Better - A really good, but not great, song. Sounds almost identical to the leaked version. The lyrics and vocals are pretty strong. The drums loop is a bit obnoxious, but all-in-all not a bad song. What could have made this a great song is some sort of great lead guitar riff, the kind of simply but awesome shit that Slash used to do perfectly. That’s what this track is missing: Slash.

Street of Dreams - This was known as “The Blues” and it’s classic Guns N’ Roses power-ballad. The production is the most stripped down of any track so far and it sounds better than anything on the album so far. The piano-refrain gives an obvious nod to “November Rain,” but it doesn’t sound like the Use Your Illusion track and is much shorter. It has a Queen feel to it, complete with soaring chorus, guitar solo and strings. A definite single.

If the World - Um. What the fuck? It sounds Axl was jamming with Sting when he created this mid-tempo piece of shit. The awful electronic loop mixes with middle-eastern guitars, programmed bass and a distorted guitar that sounds like it was sampled from a cd of bad effect. Also includes one of the lamest bridges I’ve ever heard.

There Was A Time - A bit different than the leaked demo, with more strings and a choir introduction, but it sounds strikingly similiar to the albums opening track. Not a bad song, but not striking at all.

Catcher in the Rye - Before I heard it, I expected this to be the worst song on the album based on the title alone. I love the book and figured Axl would fuck it up, but to my great surprise, he hasn’t. It’s a really strong track, actually, it reminds me of “Yesterday” in a weird way. It’s a bit of mid-tempo pop-rock track with a good hook. Again, the track could have been a whole lot better if the production was toned down a whole lot. Lose the loops and the over-produced tinny guitar and you’d have an absolute hit single.

Scraped - An unbelievably awful vocal opening that goes into another one of the more industrial tracks. Again, another track that could have benefited from less production. I can see this being the song that Axl opens up live shows in the future though with it’s “Don’t try and stop us now” refrain.

Sorry - Another Sting moment as Axl goes for that ambient, industrial vibe. This sounds like something that should have been in the Jecklyn & Hyde musical when Sebastian Bach was in it, which is fitting cause he does backing vocals on this piece of shit.

Riad N’ The Bedouins - Awful. Just an awful song. Like bad industrial metal. The worst song production on the album as well.

I.R.S. - Almost identical to the leaked demo. It’s a good tune, a bit repeatative, but not horrible.

Madagascar - Funny that this song was written before those Madagascar cartoon flicks came out, but is finally being released after the second movie. Anyway, live this song always sounded pretty fantastic. A strong mid-tempo and thunderous rocker with an excellent “we will rock you” breakdown. On the record, it’s overproduced to the max and the soul of the song is totally ripped out. he samples of MLK and various dialouge, including a nod to “Civil War” sounds weird here. Again and again, this album is being weighted down by it’s production value.

This I Love - This I don’t. An awful ballad that even Sting wouldn’t touch. It’s just awful music-theatre. Crap piano and strings. Ugh.

Prostitute - This song shouldn’t be the last song on the album, it should be the opening track. It’s a rocker. Sure it has awful production and bad drum loops, but it’s a strong song that seems to be the only track directed at the album’s long delay and his old bandmates. The “I have a message for you” lne propells the track forward. As the closing song, it sounds like a plea to his old bandmates to save him.

VERDICT: As a whole, the obvious flaw is the production, which is overproduced and awful. It’s also not an album that you can listen straight through. It’s 14 random songs recorded over the course of 14 years (Where’s Izzy?) that sound like 14 unconnected pieces. “Better,” “Catcher In The Rye”, “Prostitute,” and “Street of Dreams” are the albums highlights, but all get points deducted becuase of the production value. All in all, this is an album that certainly wasn’t worth a 14 year wait and does nothing to enhance the legacy of Guns N’ Roses.

It doesn’t sounds like Guns N Roses and doesn’t feel like Guns N Roses, mainly cause it’s not Guns N Roses. Where are the Slash lead guitar riffs? Where’s Duff’s pop-punk bass riffs? And where is Izzy’s great songwriting and dirty rhythm guitar? As none of them are in this band anymore, we know the answer.

What this album does have going for it, and this is a big plus, is that it has Axl’s voice and man is it great to hear it sing some new songs again. Seriously, his voice is killer. I wish he was singing good songs, but it’s still just good to hear him back.

Here’s what I hope: I hope now that the record is actually coming out, we can hear it and put it behind us and Axl can beg his old bandmates to come back. They should spend two weeks writing songs and then record an album in two weeks. You know that Slash, Duff and Izzy are holding onto some riffs and material for just such an occassion. Here’s hoping that the real Guns N’ Roses drop a new album in 2009. That would be killer. And then we can forget this piece of shit record.