I'd be inclined to agree with that if this was a rap album, but I think Kanye leaving hip hop behind for an entire album of vocals sung through a vocoder will hurt him in the teenage male demographic which is one of the demographics he sells the most records to

The comparisons to NR are pretty obvious even though The Blues is not nearly as epic in scope

The comparisons to SCOM come from people like me, who can not understand why certain portions of the GNR fanbase are so quick to call The Blues cheesy, yet love NR, SCOM and Don't Cry, when NR is equally melodramatic, and SCOM and Don't Cry both have much cheesier lyrics.  They're compared because they're all love songs in some respect.  I can understand if people don't like The Blues.  I just hope that they same people who call the lyrics cheesy at least think that Don't Cry and SCOM are cheesy because on a strictly lyrical level The Blues is much better than either of those songs

Here is my full review, expanded from the one I posted on Rolling Stone, posted on other GnR sites as well.  Yeah, I'm an Axl fanboy, so sue me

After years of studio time, polishing, and behind the scenes drama that outsiders will never fully comprehend, Axl Rose has resurrected Guns N' Roses and delivered his magnum opus.  Even if the sound and the musical style has evolved, make no mistake about it, this is a Guns N' Roses album in spirit, a group of musicians from different backgrounds with different influences coming together to make a great melting pot of a hard rock album.

Rose was smart enough to realize that they could never make another Appetite For Destruction, not even if the original lineup was still together.   That record was a snapshot of a place they were in at that particular time, a place that they would never return to. 

From the moment the minute long ambient opening of the album, it is clear that this isn't your 42 year old brother who still wears leather pants out to the bar's Guns N' Roses.  From the outset, with the title track's minute long ambient opening leading up to the crunchy, fist pumping riff, it's clear that this is something more ambitious.  At heart this is a straight forward rock song, is filled with a multitude of guitar fills and overdubs, vocal layers, keyboards, and oh yes, two guitar solos back to back, the latter punctuated by Buckethead's trademark beeping and shredding.  In other words, even the simplest songs on the album are chock full of layers and nuances that require multiple listenings to pick up.  But while Chinese Democracy is an example of a simple song that's been beefed up, the second single off the album is proof that Axl was intent that no good (or some would argue bad) ideas would be left on the cutting room floor.

Better, while clearly falling under the hard rock umbrella, is impossible to pigeonhole into one category.  In this sense, it is possibly the definitive song of the album and Axl's vision of where Guns N' Roses needed to go.  An instantly recognizable and infectious processed guitar intro with falsetto vocals soon gives way to a thumping power chord riff with a surprising groove that is topped by vocals and melodies that could never be mistaken for anyone but Axl Rose.  A shred solo courtesy of Buckethead gives way to a heavy metal section, which gives way to a solo and final verse that are vintage Guns N' Roses.  A hook heavy, radio friendly rocker that manages to combined a number of musical styles and ideas into one coherent, awesome track that sounds entirely distinct and original.

After three pulsing, hard rocking songs to begin the album, Better gives way to Street of Dreams, as Dizzy Reed kicks things off with a classical sounding piano intro that morphs into an instrumental that sounds reminiscent of a 70's Elton John song, if it were topped with heavy guitars and bluesy licks (courtesy of Ron Thal).  Meanwhile, Axl shows why he is quite simply the best rock singer of his era; nobody else sounds so completely at home on both brutal hard rock tracks and a sweet sounding piano ballads.  Robin Finck provides a wonderfully fitting guitar solo, which is followed by Axl wailing about a moment of clarity following a broken relationship:  "What I thought was true before were lies I couldn't see / What I thought was beautiful was only memories," leading into a soaring Buckethead outro solo as Axl belts out high notes that few male singers could reach. 

If The World is perhaps the most surprising song on the album, as a mysterious Spanish guitar lick segues into a funky groove that could have been the theme song to a 70's flick starring Fred Williamson or, as many others have pointed out, a James Bond movie.  The simplest and most straightforward song on the album in terms of lyrics, Axl belts out vocals that will silence anyone who doubts that he still has it, before giving way to arguably the highlight track of Chinese Democracy.

There Was A Time is the type of song that mainstream rock has been lacking for many years.  Everything including the kitchen sink is thrown in here.  A choral intro breaks into verses backed by orchestration (both real and courtesy of a Mellotron), wailing guitars, thick and heavy distorted guitars during the chorus, and featuring some of the most personal lyrics on the album:  "If there's something I can make of this, anything at all / It'd be the devil hates a loser and you thought you had it all.....if I could go back in time, to the place in my soul, there all alone / Lonely tear drops, ooh, are calling you / But I don't wanna know it now, cuz knowing you, it won't change a damn thing / But there was a time......"  The following 4 minutes slowly builds to a crescendo, as a mournful solo accompanies subdued vocals:  "Yeah there was a time, didn't wanna know it all, didn't wanna know it all and I don't wanna know it now."  A more uptempo solo accompanied by amazingly powerful screams of "I would do anything for you, there was a time!," which leads into another solo, a minute and a half soaring monster courtesy of Buckethead that is not only the best solo on the album, but one of the best on any hard rock song in recent memory. 

Catcher In The Rye is perhaps the most subdued, restrained song on the album, as a poppy, upbeat musical soundscape stands in stark contrast to the lyrics, as Axl ruminates on themes from the novel and the murder of John Lennon, whose killer was obsessed with the book.  Rather than offering up a preachy anti-violence vibe or sugary tribute to Lennon, Axl offers up cryptic lyrics that could be interpreted in a number of different ways, but seem heavily focused on the concepts of being an outcast, the trappings of celebrity, and the loss of innocence of society as a whole. 

Given the downbeat tone of most of the album, Scraped is a welcome addition.  "Don't you try and stop us now - I just refuse / Don't you try and stop us now - I just won't let you," Axl growls in during the infectious chorus.  The verses are exercises in defiance, "Sometimes I feel like my life's a catastrophe," Axl opines, before coming to the conclusion that "I am unconquerable."  Riad N' The Bedouins is another crowd pleasing rocker, as an amazing intro riff leads into a full on assault of funky basslines, thick sonic soundscapes bursting with powerful guitars, banshee wails, and an off the wall Ron Thal solo, straight from outerspace.

While the overall tone of the lyrical content of this album is reflective, largely rooted in broken relationships and wayward dreams, there are times throughout the course of this album that Axl still displays some of the venomous, nihilistic lyricism he did during the old days.  However, he has matured as a songwriter. Nowhere is this more clear than in Sorry, a scathing "fuck you" of a song. In the past, Rose probably would have been tempted to display these types of emotions in a brutal, aggressive song. Here, he makes his words that much more potent, presenting them in a deliberately paced musical environment that is Pink Floyd-esque during the verses but contains on assault of ominous, heavy guitars during the unforgettable chorus, with a gorgeous guitar solo included for good measure.

However, that's not to say there aren't throwbacks.  IRS is an old school GnR rocker in the vein of You Could Be Mine.  Angry, vindictive lyrics discussing an old girlfriend are backed by a wall of massive sounding guitars, relenting only for several acoustic breakdowns, punctuated by an absolutely blistering solo backed by slamming drums and rhythm guitars.

On This I Love, Axl channels his hero Freddie Mercury, creating a musical piece that (minus the guitar solo) sounds as though it could have been composed 200 years ago, with a classical sounding piano track backed by a tasteful string section.  The lyrics read like a very simple love poem, and cynics will undoubtedly take pot shots and call it cheesy, but the vocals are too genuine and the music too beautiful to be denied.

Closing the show is the grandiose Prostitute, which starts off like a pop friendly ballad, then climbs to the heights you expect for the show closer on an album like this.  "What would say if I told you that I'm to blame? / And what would you do if I had to deny your name? / Where would you go if I told you I loved you and then walked away?," Axl asks, speaking of a relationship that has been damaged beyond repair, to the point where apologies and regrets have become pointless.  One has to wonder if he's speaking of a romantic relationship, or a certain former band member.  Nonetheless, the album closes with a statement that rings true:  Axl refused to compromise himself or his vision to cater to the demands of the public, the press, the record label, and anyone else.  "Ask yourself / Why I would choose, to prostitute, myself / To live with fortune and shame / When you should have turned to the hearts of the ones that you would not save / I told you when I found you, all this amounts to, is love that you crippled for fortune and fame," as the song makes way for one last Buckethead solo before fading off into a sunset of strings.

From top to bottom this is the type of ambitious, over the top mainstream rock album that has become all but extinct in the modern era. The style and sound of GnR is still present in many ways, but Axl embraces the bombastic, unapologetic extravagance of 70's era Queen, combining other influences as wide ranging as Isaac Hayes to White Zombie, with some of the most intensely personal lyrical content he has ever written.  The sheer audacity of including songs as drastically different Shackler's Revenge, If The World, Riad N' The Bedouins and This I Love on the same album deserves respect.  Pulling it off and making it into an effort that is somehow coherent and brilliant is almost unbelievable.  Is the album perfect or flawless?  Nope.  But I think it's safe to say there has never been any singular album quite like Chinese Democracy.  It's a wild ride, and some will say that it's a mess in certain ways, but if it is a mess, it's a beautiful and unique one.  And anyone who writes it off because Slash isn't there or because it took a long time to make is depriving themselves of one of the greatest rock albums in the past decade just for the sake of being petty or doing what they view as cool, and frankly it's their loss.

Old Band:

1. Locomotive
2. Rocket Queen
3. Estranged
4. You Could Be Mine
5. Coma
6. Nightrain
7. Don't Damn Me
8. Paradise City
9. Perfect Crime
10. Patience

That list can change day to day but oh well

Songs on CD:

1. TWAT
2. Sorry
3. The Blues
4. Better
5. Prostitute
6. This I Love
7. Scraped
8. Riad
9. IRS
10. Shackler's
11. Catcher
12. If The World
13. CD
14. Madagascar

Axlin08--

I can't help but think what would've happened if Axl had gone to that Buckethead concert two years earlier

Seriously, if Axl hit the studio in 1998 with Bucket, Paul Tobias, Pitman, and Dizzy we would've had an incredible album by 2000

I really think that Axl's 1999/2000 version of the album getting shot down caused him to second guess every move he made after that point