This Is “Chinese Democracy”
Posted Thu 23 Oct 2008 3:59PM BST by Johnny Famethrowa in Touching The Void
So the holiday is over and Famethrowa is back after a couple of weeks traversing North America existing only on a diet of rock. While scanning the pop pages this morning, a thought occurred to me. Would the world still be here if this column fell silent for, say, a month? It's possible. But would anyone really still be waiting after 14 years in the blog wilderness?! Because this is the reality finally being confronted by Axl Rose and his errant, all-change Gunners, who have now announced the full details of their new album, "Chinese Democracy".Many surely thought it would never happen, but yesterday the comeback single of the same name was aired on British radio and can be heard below. Though you might be a little surprised by the swampy sonic cross-wires of the intro, there can be little mistaking the track's big power riff storm or Axl's Satanic shriek and informative lines like: "It'll take a lot more time than you have got for masturbation". But can it really be enough for a very different rock world, let alone the exhausted, dispirited die-hards, who've been waiting since 1993 for a follow-up to "The Spaghetti Incident"?
Well, before you check-out the new single, here are the facts, as we know them, about "Chinese Democracy", which has made forever delayed opuses from professional pop loafers such as My Bloody Valentine and The Stone Roses seem like the work of speed-fed sweat shop slaves in comparison:
- The new album is the most expensive ever made, costing around £13 million.
- Dr Pepper have promised every American a can of their fizzy pop upon release.
- "Chinese Democracy" will be sold exclusively through Best Buy in America.
- Five producers worked on the album, with Axl Rose heading its completion.
- Ten guitarists apparently worked on the album but Slash is not one of them.
- Queen's Brian May is, having recorded parts for the track "Catcher".
- Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, a harpist and Shaquille O'Neal also feature.
- Guns spent £200,000 re-recording the drums after John Freese's departure.
- Blogger Kevin Cogill faces five years in jail after allegedly leaking nine tracks.
- "Chinese Democracy" will be released worldwide on November 24, apparently.
