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- A Private Eye
- Rep: 77
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
Out of sight, but not out of mind
Why, like Guns N' Roses and Eminem, don't more acts choose to disappear from public view and retain some mystery, asks Miranda Sawyer
Miranda Sawyer
Though Guns N' Roses never rocked my world - apart from with 'Paradise City', a nursery rhyme with blow-off guitars - I was always quite happy that they were around. A Muppet Show rawk band, with names to match. Axl Rose in bandana, hi-tops and stars'n'stripes shorts; Izzy Stradlin, like John Cooper Clarke in a Ronettes cap; the two poodle blondes; and, of course, Slash, all hair, cig and top hat, so much like a living Muppet that it was a disappointment when he spoke. In your head, he talked like the Cookie Monster.
Mind you, that was 20 years ago. Since then, four original members have left, as have many of their replacements, including Buckethead, who liked to wear a bucket. On his arse. (Or am I wrong about that?) For the past decade or so, Guns N' Roses has just been Axl Rose. What has he been doing? Well, hiring and firing band members and managers; and obsessing over an album that has been scheduled for completion for, oohh, about a decade and a half now. This prannying about has given Axl a certain notoriety. Jon Bon Jovi, no fan of Mr Rose, complained two years ago that 'that motherfucker hasn't made a record in 13 years and he gets all that attention. You know what I've done in 13 years? A lot. But they have continued to write about him. Because he's a recluse.'
For a recluse, Axl gets out of the house a lot. He's managed to drag himself on stage for two Guns N' Roses world tours, in 2002 and 2006. He's announced the name of the forthcoming album, Chinese Democracy. Just in the past 24 months, he presented the Killers with an MTV award, was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine and sang on Sebastian Bach's LP. Still, because he hasn't brought out any product, he's been labelled 'the Howard Hughes of rock'. By those standards, the Reynolds Girls are the Greta Garbos of pop.
Axl isn't a recluse. But he is awkward, precious and neurotic enough to piddle away an unbelievable career. Guns N' Roses' first album, Appetite for Destruction, was the second most successful debut album ever. The band's second and third LPs, Use Your Illusion I and II, released at the same time, went to No 1 and 2 in the US charts. No other band has done that. But in the 15 years since then, rap has replaced rock as the US's most popular music. Teenage boys go through their masturbatory machismo phase with hip hop, not metal, as their guiding light.
Will Chinese Democracy do anything at all? Well, of course it will, despite Axl sounding like he has been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, as well as taking Buckethead's fashion tips a little too seriously. 'Chinese Democracy', the single that has finally arrived, is one big pile of rock pomposity - wiggly guitar breaks, 'serious' lyrics - let down by Axl's strange growling. Bring out the falsetto, Rose! Never mind. Another man with a Stone Roses approach to time-keeping, Eminem, is due to bring out his new album later this year or in early 2009, and I am genuinely excited about that. His new single, 'I'm Having a Relapse', isn't as in-your-face as you might imagine, especially compared to Guns N' Roses, or, more pertinently, 50 Cent. But it's still good.
Eminem and Axl Rose are important not just because they've been so successful. And not just because they're so similar, with that warped machismo, their desire to prove themselves to other males despite their mummy's boy nature. They're important because they disappeared. In a YouTube/Perez Hilton/internet era, both have managed to retain some kind of mystery, simply by staying home and not playing by record company schedules. Their fans - young, pumped-up, misunderstood men - still remain rabid. They just took some time out. And judging by the weight of expectation attached to their new records, you can understand why. That's some kind of pressure when, underneath it all, you're not completely sure of yourself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/no … nda-sawyer
Rock review: Guns N' Roses, Chinese Democracy(Geffen/Universal) Dan Silver
Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Geffen/Universal Imagine if 'Chinese Democracy' had never come to pass. Axl Rose would have retained an air of Machiavellian mystery and we would've remained complicit fall guys for the best joke played on the music industry. Now that this half-cocked hard rock anachronism is here, the only laughs are unintentional. Axl: you blew it.
2/5
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/no … -democracy
Decent enough article, how they can call that a review though I'm not sure.
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
Terrible. The dipshit admits to not being a fan, then actually types a line that any editor would have omitted, "including Buckethead, who liked to wear a bucket.", which happens to be one of only two mentions he gets, the other a jab about 'fashion sense'. Its just lame jabs at Axl, and why in the fuck is Bon Jovi mentioned in a review of this album? I don't care if Axl and Bon Jovi held hands while walking across the Great Wall of China, there's no reason for him to be in this review.
- A Private Eye
- Rep: 77
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
I didn't think the article was all that bad, a few poor jokes and jabs aside (perhaps I'm numb to those when reading about GNR now). The little review at the end was what irked me, how they can call that a review is beyond me. Not one mention of a single song or anything.
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
That article is horse shit. It is just a bunch of lame jokes at Axl, and even at the original line up of GNR.
This article proves this guy is not a journalist. Journalists are supposed to be no biased, and he clearly states in the first sentence that he is biased against this band.
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
Same here BLS.
Why do a want a review by someone who was never that much of a fan to begin with?
I love the new band, but there's nothing they have that's going to turn a non-fan into a fan. If you didn't dig November Rain & Estranged, you probably aren't going to like CD, 50% of which produce ballads in the same vein.
Re: Article and review of CD in the Guardian
still its amusing when there is a positive review and its all hunky dorey then there is a bad review and the journalist is a jackass....
i just find it funny is all....like i said in the other thread i dont give a rats ass about reviews of gnr at this stage,,,,everyone and their dog is gonna take a pot shot
