Ok. I will admit. I expected to hate this record. When you hear that a musician spent $13 million dollars to record, fired every single member of several incarnations of the band, and the record takes 13 years to finish, the chances it will live up to the hype is slim to none. Welcome to slim.
I fell upon this review by chance. The record comes out on November 23rd, and unless I get an advanced copy, I will not steal the record online just to do a review. Before listening, I would have assumed there was no way in hell I was going to purchase this record. But GNR decided to stream the whole record via their MySpace page so I took a listen and it changed my mind completely.
This album is 14 loud, bloated, egocentric rock and roll songs, and boy have we missed that in recent years. Front man Axl Rose packs as much punch as possible in to every single phrase, chorus, bridge or otherwise invented part of the songs. Who cares if 947 different musicians played on it? The end justifies the means.
‘Better’ is the current single, and it is, in my opinion, the standout track of the album. It is a genuine and honest pop/rock song. Rose’s voice has never sounded better than it does on this song. The chorus has a very Alice in Chains feel to it.
Another standout track is ‘This I Love” as it feels very familar, almost ‘November Rain’ish. Long piano ballad with the epic rock and roll guitar solo.
Most of the songs clock in a little long in length, but what did you expect from GNR. If you are a GNR fan, you will not be disappointed even if you miss the ‘old’ days. After 3 listens, this album just gets better and better. Now if they can succesfully tour and make it a genuine comeback.
http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses
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