I suppose 15 times is enough for today

I forget the quote but Axl mentioned something about Madagascar just materializing around Rio 2001.

I know it's an early song from the project and dates back to Youth in 1997 but seems like the hallmarks from 2002 are there anyway. The middle of the song rhythm squeal. Fortus and Robin each played it at the VMAs, I think?

It's my favorite studio version of Madagascar out there.

The drums hang back and then kick in at the chorus, giving it the proper emphasis. The other percussive elements are more audible, you can hear the samba shakers for example. I liked how Andy Wallace's mixes would bring in the ambient elements as little flourishes here and there and this follows a similar style which is great.

The vocals are also pitched up with the various processing making it more in line to the superlative Rio 2001 performance and of course no horrid vocal stretching to be found.

If this were a final mix, I'd say the synth and strings during the sample should be brought up to cascade in levels but on the whole, it's the best version of Madagascar I've heard.

It also made me wonder about and pine for a truly seamless version of Chinese Democracy where each outro and intro blends into one another. This has another weird, extended outro like the Riad leak which I quite enjoy alongside the extended intro on If The World.

The blues sounded dead on arrival since the first leak to me it was very cold and robotic feeling

I love the piano and strings but the versions out there are quite sub par as others have said

The acoustic guitar added another style to the mix that it didn’t need. It needed consistency not changing every second

twat must’ve been the song Axl was tinkering on

So many versions to that one