Has Axl ever talked about anyone on CD besides himself and those around him? Scraped is positive and I figure the chorus is aimed at her because she's one of the few that has seemingly stuck by him. He probably heard someone calling her names on the internet and wrote the chorus about being stronger than they tell her.

Unless he's talking about the fans (the ones that he owes not one god damn thing or how we're not supposed to tell him we care for him).

I'm also on the boat where it's not that I enjoy the album or am writing it off early, but I'm looking at things from a proven point of view. Nowadays, tons of albums sell on release date and at the very least, the sales prove that no one is going to go out of their way on an unproven GNR album. I realize a BB exclusive could hurt it (anyone know how long it's exclusive?) in the short run, but still, it doesn't seem like people are going to blind buy on name like we expected. I'm worried that with people's short attention spans in today's world that by the time it's not an exclusive, no one will care.

A lot of key factors (a video, promos, an interview and mainstream acceptance of at least one single) need to happen before the album can live up to sales expectations, and in my mind, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen. I know Americans don't really watch music videos on TV anymore, but in Canada people still check out the MuchMusic Countdown and there's even channels that exclusively play videos. GNR is worldwide and videos we've yet to see could really help world sales.

I think what it lacks is spontaneity. A lot of the great GNR songs have come by accident, but you get the idea that everything was unmercifully combed over to the point where some intent is lost in the process. I'm more of a lyrics man (and I do think the album has weak lyrics for Axl), but This I Love is the song I'd choose to back up my ideals about what is missing with the album

This I Love has so much going for it that I can't begin to start. I think it's one of the most intimate portrayals of Axl and you can picture the dude sitting at his piano, tears drying and eyes all red and just wailing out a tune, which can be portrayed in the simple (for the record), yet emotional journey the song plays out. I like how quickly he sings the chorus between breaths, it's like he's sobbing and pleading, then grabs a quick breath only to beg God (showing how little control in the matter Axl really has) and go at it all again. When songs are made like this, you don't need 9000 layers. In Scraped, the background lyric "I would have never made it so far" sounds great and I wish it'd have just been that instead of another voice on top of it saying "Don't you try to stop us now". It's just one of a few examples I can think of where the better vocals are clouded by something else without any real gain. And, the same can be said of the instruments in cases.

I don't mind people wanting a deal or waiting for a deal. But, why wait outside of Wal-marts (in some places in the freezing fucking cold) to save a hundred bucks when they could just go to work and make the money in the same time?

I think camping out has become fashionable like with video game console launches, which really sucks because you have assholes buying shit just to say they were there or did it (they're the ones causing shit) and then ruining it for the real fans who just want to buy their stuff because they're so eagerly awaiting it.

The funny thing with the console launches was people thought they'd be cool on the internet to wait in line and buy the shit to smash it. Then, when they did, everyone there just laughed at them rather than acted offended. What's the statement you're making when you do the same as them and then have them laugh at you for all the world to see? Epic fail. 1337, yo.