is really all over it. Robin Finck in '02 looking like Pinhead from Hellraiser and Buckethead look just as weird and gimmicky as Axl did wearing dreads and that hockey jersey in my opinion. I'm glad they adopted the "new vintage" rock look for their '06 tour though. Fortus fit the mold from the beginning it seems and Bumblefoot, other than a foot guitar, isn't too gimmicky in appearance I'm wondering if Buckethead will be back around now, but I'm not counting on it. I've been a buckethead fan prior to his GNR days, and as much as I appreciate his work and see how much he's all over this album, I still can't get used to seeing him in the band. I think its because, like I was alluding to before, I prefer the basic rock n' roll look over gimmicks when it comes to the land of GNR.

Onto breaking it down track by track. I wanted to give it a few days to digest the new tunes, and give a few time to grow on me. The songs basically fall into a few standard categories - Political, personal or romantic relationships, and soundtrack/single stand alone songs so it took a few listens for it to feel like a cohesive unit of songs, with most making it feel like a very personal album

Track 1 - Chinese Democracy

Honestly, from the leaks of the song I wasn't too impressed. Of course I shouldn't have listened to the unfinished product blah blah blah. I know all about perfectionism and wanting to make sure people hear what you hear in a song, but I figured this was pretty close to what it was going to be anyways. I was honestly surprised and pleased when I heard the album version because it gave it some balls and beefed it up. The vocal styles honestly feel a little of what I always figured to be a Duff influence on the Use Your Illusions albums. Kinda punk attitude sounding... I guess Axl has that in him too which is cool. I'm also glad that the title track isn't one of the Stephanie Seymour or naysayers slagging songs, but it does feel a little odd that the majority of the album does feel like its battling with the same few topics while one of the lightly touched upon subjects gets the title track. (That's not a slag just an observation.) When I first heard the leak of it I thought it sounded a lot like Nickleback's "Animals," because of the main riff, which bummed me out that the material laid around so long that someone else had already had time to do something similar. But once again like I said, when I heard the finished track it stood on its own and that thought was erased from my head. One of the few straight ahead and mainstream (God I had that word...) accessible rockers on the album. Once again, not a complaint, just an observation.

Track 2 - Shackler's Revenge

This one definitely feels like a last minute (or in this case year or so) add in to the track list. Its a cool tune that you have to get used to. If you're still wearing your Appetite shirt saying this Axl solo project sucks you're not going to like this one. With an open mind (as with much of the album) it is what it is if you don't try comparing it to old GNR. Again one of the few upbeat rocker tunes, but with a lot going on. Because of that I also feel it may be a tad ahead of its time when it comes to if the masses are ready for this type of song. The chorus is really catchy and the verses are straight ahead. The bridge into the chorus with its disco upbeat might be a moment you turn it down if you're cranking it at a red light because it is a bit out there, the guitar solo as well. The guitar solo does however touch on some interesting noises as I like to call it. Not noise as a bad thing, but noise as in experimental guitar sounds. As anyone that knows me will tell you, I'm a Randy Rhoads fan so prying some crazy (tasteful) sounds of of the guitar is up my alley. (Believer intro anyone?) Fortunately the guitar geekyness didn't get to overboard to where the shredding portion went from melodic to wanking either.

Track 3 - Better

This was the first leak I heard way back when so unfortunately its already filed under the heard it a lot category. When I first heard the leak I wasn't really warmed up to the new style yet so the intro honestly felt kind of embarrassing. Then the grinding heartfelt guitar riff kicked in with some soulful lyrics of a melody inside of me and a troubled heart. I knew Axl was still alive and well when I heard this. The newly mixed album version chorus is a lot easier to swallow as well. I gotta jump to the solo from here. I've heard a lot of mess about Robin but let me tell you something. The feel and soul on this solo stand out far beyond any sweep picking in my opinion any day, and that's coming from a Paul Gilbert fan. That solo had me rushing home to grab my guitar and start trying to figure it out. I'm guessing this one falls under the category of Stephanie songs.

Track 4 - Street of Dreams

Or "The Blues" to most of us die-hard dweebs. This one might as well have been a bonus track on Use Your Illusions. This is definitely one of the core tracks and one of the best tracks on the album. A very solid song of the "epic" persuasion. Another Stephanie song I'm guessing?

Track 5 - If the World

Love this song. Feels like a new James Bond movie theme and is a great late light cruiser. I file this one under the same category as Shackler's in that its one of those lets throw this in here to break up the songs that are about failed personal or romantic relationships. If you can't tell I have somewhat of a predisposed thematic idea of what fits on Chinese Democracy and that's probably once again due to the leaks. But it is good because it saves it from being a concept album of that sort. Great choice for a soundtrack which is why this and Shackler's Revenge (which are on respective video game and movie soundtracks) kinda feel thrown in there between things to break things up a bit.

Track 6 - There was a Time

Back to another what I'm guessing is a Stephanie song. I honestly think this, Street of Dreams, Better, IRS, This I Love, and possibly even Madagascar and Prostitute to an extent could have been placed together in some epic story telling track listing fashion. I can't help but to feel another trilogy-esque thing going on. Back to the music (what matters the most of course) this one feels familiar sounding again and is another UYI style track.

Track 7 - Catcher in the Rye

Very cool tune and doesn't feel very contemporary, but still beautifully gets away with it without sounding dated. Very innocent (much matching a lot of themes from the titular book) and pretty (for lack of a better word) sounding. I can hear the old Guns playing this one for sure. Its just basic rock n' roll and its not pretentious which is refreshing on a very picked over and touched up album. Pure GNR with those vocal melodies that get the head bobbing.

Track 8 - Scraped

Ok so if you warmed up to Shackler's Revenge and the intro to Better you might be ready for this one. It took me a few days for this one to sink in, for me to "get it." I thought my CD was messed up when I first heard the vocal intro because of the high range and the fact I'm still getting used to the new guns backing vocal sound. It took me a while to appreciate this one but if you can see past all of the weirdness there is a nice vocal melody once again to sink your teeth into and wrap your head around. The "Don't Try to Stop Us Now" really works well with the descending chord pattern change chorus than the quirky intro also. I group this one in the single/soundtrack style category.

Track 9 - Riad N' the Bedouins

After an intro long enough to cause you to skip and possibly miss a great track passively, this one really delivers. As soon as I heard the Sweet Salvation My Frustration chorus the hook had me. This one is the only track that compliments the title track I feel. These 2 stand alone from the other songs with political statements without being cliche. Could this song be symbolic for something else? Unless its fairly obvious I try to take the songs as face value with minimal context clues and not delve to much into the smaller details because well, I don't know Axl well enough to know those type things and grasping at straws can turn into six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I doubt Riad and his Bedouins consist of Slash, the media, and Axl's ex girlfriends.

Track 10 - Sorry

Probably my favorite track on the album. I will go out on a fairly stable limb on this one and say for the most part its a safe bet its about Slash, and former gunners, for the sake of trying to set the record straight. If you've done your homework and remember a lot of quotes and interviews, there's a lot of lyrics that aren't hard to connect the dots too. I can't help but to feel that he's calling the fans "numb and naive" in this one. I could be wrong but like I said I feel fairly confident to make an objective educated guess at that. The grinding slow groove of the chorus on this will be stuck in your head for days. Very well written song and very tangible in the same UYI vein.

Track 11 - IRS

This one has that same naysayer ex-girl revenge (I can't tell if its one, the other, or both) feel to it so I'll put it in that category. Its right there with There was a Time and I'm glad those songs aren't back to back for that reason. I can't help but to believe they scattered these songs and placed them in this order so it would feel like one flowing album without grouping all the similar ones together. I've loved it since the leak and its a cool rocker. Not too much else to be said about it that wasn't already said about the rest of that group. Still a great song of course and stands alone well despite the fact that there are some similar songs theme-wise here. It's like an angry Estranged.

Track 12 - Madagascar

Another epic rocker that's a cathartic piece where it feels If these songs and track list order related to the stages of grief, I'd say he's on his was to acceptance stage of his troubles and digging his heels in the ground and taking control. Really not too much you can say on this one other than letting the music speak for itself.

Track 13 - This I Love

This is definitely the November Rain of the album, not as if every GNR album needs one, but this is it. Bargaining and depression stages here for sure. This is one of those songs you can obviously only write during a dark and troubling time and this one has dealing with heartbreak and expressing it perfectly all over it. The solo kicks in for a beautiful yet haunting twist of things that really compliments the song well. Don't have my list of credits in front of me for this one but if I had to guess I'd say its Robin from the pure feel and emotion of this solo.

Track 14 - Prostitute

Perfect ending for the album and sums up the whole personal song category. You can feel that there's a lot off of Axl's chest in this song and he's reminding us all that he does what he feels he has to do and just wants everyone to accept that and be ok with it. You gotta respect one following their vision and their dreams. There's no apologetic attitude evident here, but there is an amount of closure and what seems to be somewhat of an olive branch of reasoning. Can't help but feeling like he's reaching out to those wondering why he did this "Axl solo project," fans and former band mates included.

In conclusionness...

As of yet no one from the new Guns camp, Axl included, has stepped out to say anything about the new album or anything related to the release. But you can't help but to feel that the album itself, is Axl setting the record straight on exactly everything he's wanted to say for a long time now. I'm sure that there's a lot of things behind the scenes, other than Axl being a wacky mad-scientist in the studio for 14 years, that have delayed this album we have finally received. There was a lot of money and debt involved in this, as well as constant line up changes. It'd be too fan-boy to say that the entire reason was perfectionism but I don't kid myself either in thinking that he didn't take the time to get his thoughts straight and use this album to speak for itself and all the mayhem surrounding it, the band, and his life. I'm sure he'd have liked to be able to release it a long time ago. After all, it was Rose who stated "To say the making of this album has been an unbearably long and incomprehensible journey would be an understatement. Overcoming the endless and seemingly insanity of the obstacles faced by all involved..." I'm sure when he set the tentative release date in March '06 he was plenty frustrated by then as well. We may never know all the details of the long delay.

What's next after this is anybody's guess. I'm thinking that soon, once everyone in the band's schedule's line up, we'll see something promoting the band from the New Guns - be it a tour or a one off late show performance. I would venture to imagine that Axl probably would have probably rather released it at a time when the band was available to promote the release, but more than likely that the new management team wasn't about to delay it any longer and wanted an '08 release which would explain a lot of the silence so far in my opinion. Maybe down the road once this story plays out there might be a reunion in the works... Can't count it out because hell froze over when Classic Van Halen reunited. But in the end its all just speculation and if you've read this far then you're probably enough of a fan-boy yourself to have drawn your own conclusions...