As a sort of response to Neemo's thread, I decided to dissect the current track listing by first known year of existence of each track. When you break it down, it looks like this:

This I Love ('93)

Prostitute ('98)

Catcher In The Rye ('99)
Chinese Democracy ('99)
I.R.S. ('99)
Madagascar ('99)
Street Of Dreams ('99)
There Was A Time ('99)

Riad N' The Bedouins ('00)

Shackler's Revenge ('02)

Better ('05)
If The World ('05)
Scraped ('05)
Sorry ('05)

This I Love was written by Axl in '93 and basic instrumental tracks were recorded during the UYI tour. Prostitute was known to exist during the time Youth had a handful of sessions with the band (mid-'98), though it may be an even older track, possibly from the 1996 sessions with Slash, Duff, Matt and Paul Huge.

CD, IRS, Street of Dreams/The Blues and TWAT were previewed to RS correspondant David Wild in November '99. Axl played Maddy to a fan who visited his house in Halloween '99. Brian May recorded guitar parts for CITR in November '99.

Rhiad was created no later than in '00, as it was featured on the House of Blues show on 01/01/01. Mysteron dated Shackler for 2002.

Better was first mentioned by Axl in January '06. Also, Dizzy mentioned Scraped/Lies They Tell in the same month, although the interviewer was caught a bit off-guard with the title. If the World was first seen as an option on the Fall '06 setlist. Sorry was first mentioned by Baz in Rolling Stone in October '06. It's safe to assume all these tracks date at least a year back, if not more. However, they were likely created after RTB's and Tom Zutaut's era, in between '02 and '05.

When the tracks are now placed into various slots based on the date of their original creation, we got something like the following:

'Vintage GNR'

This I Love ('93)
Prostitute ('98)

Typically Axl-ish songs with probably the strongest connotations to the UYI-era power ballads. Piano ballads, which could've been just as well been pulled off by the old band, without seeming to be out of place.

Beavan's GNR

Catcher In The Rye ('99)
Chinese Democracy ('99)
I.R.S. ('99)
Madagascar ('99)
Street Of Dreams ('99)
There Was A Time ('99)

Axl's lyrical high point. Sprawling tales of love's labour lost and ironic takes on his own persona. The DJ Shadow influences have begun to show and the backing tracks are compiled from beats and loops, with guitars melded into the foreground. The alternative method of composing remains Axl's own piano arrangements, which remain his forte of song-writing (The Blues, CITR).

Bucket & Brain -era

Riad N' The Bedouins ('00)
Shackler's Revenge ('02)

Both tracks feature a heavy influence from Bucket and Brain from the get-go. The lineup changes seemingly altered the songwriting dynamics within the band, with B&B's innate chemistry replacing the more straight-forward, punk rock/hard rock approach with technical wizardry, with Axl's vocals sprinkled on top. Without a doubt, this was the most significant singular event in the band's audial evolution.

GNR, produced by Axl

Better ('05)
If The World ('05)
Scraped ('05)
Sorry ('05)

The two known tracks of the latest batch are considered amongst the most hailed efforts of the band so far. All former eras are now served in equal amounts; keyboard loops and drum beats form the foundation of the songs (in ITW's case, Jay-Z's Can I Live comes to mind as a kindred spirit), while heavy-duty guitars slide effortlessly into the mix. If the sound should be coined in some way, it might be best termed as the melting pot of all previous sounds with various band members / producers.

Axl's experiencing an uphill battle in some ways; after the album drops, he still has around 20 tracks originating from the Beavan sessions, with around the same amount from later eras. While the songs have been re-recorded, re-produced and re-mixed to the brink of death, the basic structures remain more or less the same, which keeps them in varying degrees rooted to the era of original creation.

How uneven the sound will be remains to be known. The current band will not be featured as a song-writing and -recording entity on their own right for no more than possibly a few tracks on the subsequent albums, as much of the music has been done during the past decade. Therefore, the bulk of the sound is represented by the '01 lineup - and will be for some time.

This also brings up an interesting point on the subject of 'GNR membership'. The most heavily represented people of all eras are naturally Axl, Robin, Tommy, Dizzy and Pitman. Long-gone soldiers Paul Huge, Bucket, Brain and Josh Freese also left their respective imprints in songwriting and recording, which will be audible (in varying degrees) in the years to come. Fortus, Ron and Frank are the new kids, who bring comparatively less to the table as the bulk of basic songwriting / compiling was done before either of them joined the band. While technically proficient for the most part to pull the songs off live, it's hard to imagine their contributions as much more than window dressing, shoehorned to the existing pockets of their respective predecessors.

In short, the CD album represents a widespread outlook of the musical journey Axl has undertaken, as while he attempts to masquerade the older tracks to gel with the latest batch, the legendarily secretive midnight sessions in both Rumbo and Village continue to cast a shadow over every other song.

I maintain that this is a part of the album's allure; the overall sound cannot simply be described in one word or the other, as we're inevitably dealing with the cream of the crop which has been planted in vastly different environments by people who sometimes have extremely varying musical sensibilities.

Some songs have come up relatively fast, others have been nurtured into age with tender loving care by more than a few different people. Therefore, CD should overall be a quite mature and diverse album, as the current version represents what Axl seems to consider to be the band's evolutionary high point.

Contributors of the past join hands with live members of the present, which is probably the only reasonable way to pull out the best of everyone in this star-studded affair. Evolution through Democracy, even though Axl's version of 'power to the people' may sometimes resemble that of Chairman Mao.