Guns n’ Roses
Chinese Democracy

Review By Kurt Hernon

So after 15 years, who cares? Why should, or would, anyone give a damn about Axl Rose’s extended exercise in rock ’n’ roll narcissism that is Chinese Democracy? Even the album’s title, having existed as a phrase for a decade or more itself, has become something of a Spinal Tap-esque joke by now. So why? Why now? Why write a review of an album that still, even as I listen to it, seems to be more a myth than reality?  The short answer, I suppose, is that the editor of this paper and I have had a near equally long running joke about me writing this damn review if and when Chinese Democracy ever saw the light of day (which neither of us, I am sure, thought would ever happen). The longer answer? Well, I went out and picked up my copy of the record on vinyl the day it was released and that long answer has become a bit more complicated and compounded now by the simple fact that Chinese Democracy is, against all odds and quite surprisingly, a pretty goddamn terrific rock ’n’ roll record. 
At first, Chinese Democracy sounds and feels like a time capsule, hearing Axl Rose’s whiny howl crescendo into the very hard rocking title track somehow erases all of the years that have passed since the Use Your Illusion recordings. Tracks like “Better,” “Catcher in the Rye” and “Scraped” are such fine and logical and utterly reasonable evolutions of late ’80s early ’90s hard and alternative rock that you find yourself wondering why that sound ever did die away. But then cuts like “If The World” (the standout track here), “There Was A Time” and “Madagascar” come along and update the hard rock brand, making the form sound viable once again. Rose’s voice is in perfect form (check out the ballad “Street of Dreams” for evidence), the guitar work is brilliant and concise, and the beats more lively and funky than hard rock beats have a right to be.