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Chinese Democracy
2008 studio album by Guns N' Roses From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 2008, by Black Frog and Geffen Records. It was the first Guns N' Roses studio album since the 1993 covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since Use Your Illusion I and II (1991). It languished in development hell for eight years, delayed by personnel and legal problems, label interference, and the perfectionism of vocalist Axl Rose. It was the first Guns N' Roses album without Izzy Stradlin, Slash, and Duff McKagan, and the first not produced by Mike Clink, instead, it was produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo.
After the Use Your Illusion Tour ended in 1993, Guns N' Roses spent several years rehearsing ideas for a new album. However, several members left following creative and personal differences with Rose, and no music was released. In 1998, Rose, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and guitarist Paul Tobias, alongside new members, guitarist Robin Finck, drummer Josh Freese, bassist Tommy Stinson, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Pitman began writing and recording new songs. Originally intended for a 1999 release, Chinese Democracy was rerecorded and delayed multiple times. The lineup shifted several times, guitarists Buckethead, Richard Fortus, and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and drummers Brain and Frank Ferrer all contributed. The band recorded over 50 songs, intending to release multiple albums. With costs reportedly exceeding $13 million ($22,000,000 in current dollar terms), it became the most expensive rock album ever produced.
Chinese Democracy was promoted with the Chinese Democracy Tour (2001–2011), gaining notoriety for canceled shows and riots. After missing a release date of March 2007, Chinese Democracy was released in November 2008, dogged by leaks and legal disputes. The release was preceded by the title track as the lead single. The album was distributed exclusively by Best Buy stores in North America and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and was certified platinum. It received generally favorable reviews, achieved international chart success, and sold over one million copies in Europe. Critics praised Rose's vocal performance and the instrumentation, although several criticized the production and claimed the album sounded dated. Retrospective reviews have been mostly favorable, noting the extended recording process and delays often overshadowed the music.[1][2][3]
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Background
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In September 1991, Guns N' Roses released the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, which have sold a combined 35 million copies.[4] In November 1991, during the Use Your Illusion Tour,[5] rhythm guitarist and founding member Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, citing touring exhaustion and conflicts with his bandmates.[6] He was replaced by Gilby Clarke.[7] In November 1993, Guns N' Roses released "The Spaghetti Incident?", an album of covers of mostly glam rock and punk rock songs.[8] Though it was certified platinum in 1994,[9] it sold significantly less than their previous releases,[10] and the band did not tour in support of the album.[11]
Guns N' Roses began writing and recording new music in 1994.[12] However, bassist Duff McKagan said the band "was so stoned at that point that nothing got finished".[13] Guitarist Slash accused singer Axl Rose of running the band "like a dictatorship".[14] Rose said the material was scrapped because the band was unable to collaborate.[15]
In 1994, without consulting his bandmates, Rose replaced Clarke with his childhood friend and Hollywood Rose collaborator Paul "Huge" Tobias.[16] Around this time, Rose became "obsessed" with electronica and industrial rock, particularly the work of Nine Inch Nails, and wanted Guns N' Roses to move towards a more contemporary musical direction.[17] Other members disagreed with Tobias's inclusion and a change in musical style, causing a rift.[17] In early 1995, Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde was brought in to audition as a second guitarist.[18][19] In August 1995, Rose legally left the band and created a new partnership under the band's name[20] (Rose reportedly purchased the full rights to the Guns N' Roses name in 1997.)[21][22] Slash left in 1996 citing creative differences with Rose and personal problems with Tobias.[23][24] McKagan said of the disjointed sessions "the music was going in a direction that was completely indulgent to his friend [Tobias]... Axl brought [him] in and told us, 'This is our new guitar player' ... There was no democracy there. And that's when Slash really started going, 'Fuck this. What, this is his band now?'. For a couple of years, I'd show up to the studio at 10, and Axl would show up at four or five in the morning."[25]
Slash was replaced in January 1997 by former Nine Inch Nails touring guitarist Robin Finck.[26] In February 1997, electronic producer Moby entered talks to produce and worked with the band for a few months;[27] he said: "They're writing with a lot of loops, and believe it or not, they're doing it better than anybody I've heard lately."[28] Moby's relationship with Rose quickly soured when he asked about recording vocals, he said "I asked the question I'm never supposed to ask... 'Oh, this is great, but where are the vocals?'. And everyone got very uncomfortable. They've been working on the record for six years and they hadn't done any vocals.".[29] He later stated "'Look, I'm not a producer. I can make my own records, but I've never produced a rock band in my life. And I just didn't think that my first job as a rock producer should be producing Guns N' Roses."[29] Moby soon pulled out to focus on his solo work.[30] Longtime Guns N' Roses producer Mike Clink is also reported to have been in talks to work on the album that year.[31] Scott Litt, Steve Lillywhite, and Mark Bell were all considered as producers.[26][30]
In April 1997, drummer Matt Sorum was fired after an argument with Rose about Tobias's inclusion.[32] In April 1997, professional basketball player and rapper Shaquille O'Neal jammed with Reed, Tobias and studio drummer Sidd Riggs, saying "I saw Guns N'Roses listed on the bulletin board in the lobby of the studio so I stuck my head in to check it out. They asked me to join them, so I started freestyling.". Rose downplayed it as a serious collaboration, saying, "I've never met the man. He goofed around with Paul and Diz and it went from there."[33][34] Former Nine Inch Nails touring drummer Chris Vrenna was brought in to audition for several months, and the tentative lineup was Rose, McKagan, Tobias, Finck, Vrenna and keyboardist Dizzy Reed.[35] Vrenna said of his time "When I was there, Moby was going to produce. Axl didn't come in very often... So sometimes we jammed. Sometimes me and Moby just sat and drank coffee and talked about music. Moby was rad."[36] Vrenna left and multiple drummers auditioned, including Riggs,[37][38] Dave Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam),[26] Michael Bland (Prince),[39] Joey Castillo (Danzig),[36] and Kellii Scott (Failure).[40] Eventually Josh Freese (The Vandals, Devo) was hired as the full-time drummer in mid-1997.[41] Freese was inspired to join when Rose wanted him to contribute to songwriting, atypical for his experiences as a drummer.[42]
McKagan, who had recently become a father, left in August 1997. McKagan was frustrated with the lack of progress: "Guns had been paying rent on studios for three years now—from 1994 to 1997—and still did not have a single song. The whole operation was so erratic that it didn't seem to fit with my hopes for parenthood, for stability."[43] Tool collaborator Chris Pitman joined as a second keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist in early 1998.[44] On Freese's recommendation, the band hired bassist Tommy Stinson of The Replacements.[45] By early 1998, Guns N' Roses comprised Rose on vocals, Stinson on bass, Freese on drums, Finck on lead guitar, Tobias on rhythm guitar, and Reed and Pitman on keyboards.[46]
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Recording
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Early sessions with Youth
In February 1998, the band's manager Doug Goldstein said "[the band is] three to five months away from actually recording, but [don't] expect a record until 1999."[30]
In early 1998, the band began recording at Rumbo Recorders, a studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns N' Roses had recorded parts of Appetite for Destruction (1987).[14] Around this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to finish the album and offered a further $1 million if he submitted it by March 1, 1999.[14] Geffen brought in A&R man James Barber to help the band, "Nothing else had worked, so Geffen figured they'd send me in to talk to Axl after I moved to Los Angeles. No expense was spared; they were the biggest band in the history of the label... We desperately wanted the new album for Christmas 1998 and I had a year to get it finished."[47] Barber later said the music the band was working on was "pretty incredible, [still sounding] like GNR, but with Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd mixed in. If Axl had recorded vocals, it would have been an absolutely contemporary record in 1999."[47]
In mid-1998, producer Youth (U2, the Verve) was brought in to work on demos and help Rose focus.[28] Youth felt that Rose was not ready to record a new album, stating "He kind of pulled out ... He was quite isolated. There weren't very many people I think he could trust."[14] Frustrated, Youth left the project.[28] Rose later said he had stopped writing for years in the mid-1990s because of criticism from bandmates and his ex-fiancée Stephanie Seymour.[48] Rose did not appear in the studio every day. Engineer Dave Dominguez said: "He'd be 'on' for a couple of weeks and then 'off' for a couple weeks. He called in pretty much every day, though. He'd ask who was there, what they were doing."[49] Rose rarely sang while attending sessions, occasionally performing instruments with the band and spending many nights casually discussing non-music-related topics.[49] Rose ordered the studio engineers to continue recording ideas the band came up with in his absence. He was sent several CDs and DATs a week, featuring different mixes of possible songs.[14] Eventually, he accumulated over 1000 CDs.[14]
Goldstein said the band had "more than 300 hours" worth of recorded material, "they each take a CD home, listen for cool parts, pick them out, and that's how they build songs."[30] Dominguez recalled the process:
Some parts were three seconds long, some were three minutes long. Sometimes it was just a guitar lick. They were transferred to CD. Everything had an ID and a number, then the CDs were made for each member of the band. They could go, 'OK, on set four, CD three, idea 15, let's do something with that.' Then everybody would take their CD home, get the part and write something to that. It was intense.[49]
Sean Beavan joins
The band worked with producer Sean Beavan from late 1998 to early 2000.[50][51][52] Stinson said that "most of the songs on the album started and ended with what [Beavan] did".[53] Beavan recorded Rose's vocals in less than a week, most of which are the takes appearing on the final release.[51][54] Beavan claimed to have worked on 35 songs during his time with the band.[55] Billy Howerdel worked as a Pro Tools engineer during the album's early development, saying: "I came in, to start, making sounds for Robin Finck, and that kind of turned into this two-and-a-half-year gig with the band."[56] At one point, Rose temporarily abandoned the album so the new lineup could rerecord Guns N' Roses' debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987), with the intent of using newer recording techniques to "spruce up" Appetite. According to Rose, this forced the new members to "get up to the quality they needed to be at" and helped the writing and recording process.[57][a] In May 1999, Queen guitarist Brian May recorded guitar for several songs.[59][b] By mid-1999, Guns N' Roses had recorded over 30 songs, and the album was tentatively titled 2000 Intentions.[61]
Rose said in 1999 that the band had recorded enough material for at least two albums,[57] including the potential for an album more industrial and electronic than Chinese Democracy.[62] Sources said the band's initial plans were to record two albums, release Chinese Democracy, tour for a year or two, and release the second album without having to return to the studio.[63]
Title announcement and "Oh My God"
During a November 1999 interview, Rose announced the title Chinese Democracy, saying: "There's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talk about, and it's something that will be nice to see. It could also just be like an ironic statement. I don't know, I just like the sound of it."[57] Rose also said the album would feature a "melting pot" of varied sounds, including several heavy and aggressive songs.[57] In late November 1999, Rose played several tracks for Rolling Stone, who likened the new sound to "Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti remixed by Beck and Trent Reznor".[64] In 1997 and 1998, sources had described the album as different from previous Guns N' Roses records, with an electronic influence.[65][66] Chris Vrenna said that Rose wanted to create an album similar to U2 and Brian Eno's collaboration Original Soundtracks 1.[67] Though it was often reported as an industrial rock album, in 2001 Rose said: "It is not industrial ... There will be all kinds of styles, many influences as blues, mixed in the songs."[68]
In November 1999, Guns N' Roses released their first new track in five years and the first original song in eight years, the industrial metal song "Oh My God", featured in the film End of Days and released on the soundtrack.[69] The song features Rose, Tobias, Stinson, Reed, Pitman, Finck, and Freese, along with guitarists Dave Navarro (of Jane's Addiction) and Gary Sunshine (of Circus of Power)[70]).[71] Navarro (who the band had recruited to replace Stradlin in 1991 before he opted for joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[72]) recalled his involvement: "Axl called me one day and said, ‘I’m working on this record. … Do you wanna come and play guitar on it?... I showed up with my gear … there were 10 people in the studio, and I was like, ‘Where's Axl?’ And they were like, ‘He's coming. He's coming. But let's get started anyway... I recorded a couple of passes... and then [...] all of a sudden I hear in the background, ‘Yeah, that sounds really good. Why don't you keep that one?’ And what it was was Axl on speakerphone from his home listening in the whole time! It was … very strange – but I love that it was strange, you know what I mean?"[73]
"Oh My God" received mixed reviews; AllMusic described it as "a less than satisfying comeback".[14][74] Rolling Stone suggested the release was a stopgap to pacify fans and offset the mounting recording costs.[69] Beavan, who produced the track, said it was included on the soundtrack at the request of Jimmy Iovine, the head of Geffen, who had picked it for the film after listening to several work-in-progress songs.[51] Rose, Iovine, and several studio technicians stayed up all night adjusting the final mix before it was due.[14] Rose later considered the track an unfinished demo due to the timing of the release.[75]
Lineup changes, Beavan exits, and Roy Thomas Baker joins
While work was being finished on "Oh My God", Finck left to rejoin Nine Inch Nails.[69][76] In January 2000, Goldstein said Chinese Democracy was "99% done" and was set for release in mid-2000.[77] In a February 2000 Rolling Stone interview, Rose said it had been delayed partially because he was learning how to use new recording technology: "It's like from scratch, learning how to work with something, and not wanting it just to be something you did on a computer."[62] The band moved their base of operations to Village Recorders around this time.[78]
In March 2000, Rose hired the guitarist Buckethead to replace Finck.[79] According to Classic Rock, Buckethead's eccentric stage persona – he wore a blank white mask and a KFC bucket on his head – made him the "negative image of top-hatted, easygoing Slash", and rumors spread that Buckethead was Slash in disguise.[80] At the end of his three-year contract, Josh Freese left to join A Perfect Circle, a band recently formed by Billy Howerdel, who had left the project several months earlier.[81][82] Freese was frustrated with the lack of tours, likening the band to "a giant jumbo jet sat on the tarmac waiting to take off".[83] At the recommendation of Buckethead, Brain was brought in as drummer.[84][85]
In early 2000, Beavan left the project.[51] At this time the album was nearly complete, but after Rose hired Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker to replace Beavan, he was persuaded to do re-recording work on the entire album.[86][87][c] Baker felt Freese's drums needed to be rerecorded, as they sounded too "industrial"; Brain said they sounded digital, with "not a lot of air moving".[84] Rose felt that the finished album should reflect the "energy" of those who worked on it, and so felt Freese's drums should be replaced. Geffen employee Tom Zutaut said that Freese's drumming was "spectacular". He said: "I would not have wanted to be in Brain's shoes. Basically we were saying to [Brain] 'We have got a brilliant performance of this and now we need you to recreate it'."[80]
Rose had Brain learn Freese's parts note by note; Brain had the parts transcribed, then played them from a teleprompter before trying the songs again in his style.[84] According to Brain, he recorded his parts in eight months[89] and the final album features a hybrid of his and Freese's styles.[84] Bassist Tommy Stinson said he had to rerecord his bass parts with each change in drummer: "I probably ended up completely re-recording each part five or six times over the years."[90] Stinson was later critical of the rerecording process, saying that Baker "wasted many years and many millions of dollars trying to get us better sounds that we could have addressed in the mixing stage".[90]
At the end of Nine Inch Nails' Fragility Tour in July 2000, Finck rejoined the band.[76][91] Rose had previously threatened to remove Finck's parts from the album after seeing Finck perform with Nine Inch Nails at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.[92]
Composers Marco Beltrami and Paul Buckmaster worked on orchestral arrangements.[93][94] In 2003, Beltrami said of the experience: "I met with Axl and he played me these songs, asked me my ideas about them... I actually wrote some melodies and stuff. The music was eclectic and at the time that I was doing it there were no lyrics on the songs that I was working on."[93]
Rose said a large inspiration in his writing was "a final offering-up of his side" of conflicts between former bandmates and ex-fiance Seymour, he hopes that her son Dylan (whom Rose was very close to) will eventually hear the album: "I hope he'll hear it when he grows up, if he ever wants to know the story, to hear the truth".[62]
Tom Zutaut joins
In February 2001, Jimmy Iovine, the head of Geffen Records, asked Tom Zutaut, whom the label had fired two years previously, to help Guns N' Roses complete Chinese Democracy. Zutaut was the A&R man who had discovered the band and guided them through the recording of their previous albums.[80] After they had resolved some personal differences, Rose told Zutaut of his frustrations in finding the sounds he wanted; for example, he had instructed the production team to recreate the drum sound of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind but was not satisfied with the results. With Zutaut's intervention, the team recreated the sound to Rose's satisfaction.[80] After having Zutaut approved by Rose's personal psychic, whom Rose believed could assess auras from photographs, Rose arranged for Geffen to pay Zutaut "whatever it takes". Zutaut's only concession was to defer some of his payment until the album was delivered, but the album missed the deadline.[80]
Zutaut said Guns N' Roses had 50 to 60 songs in development during this period.[80] By this point, Buckethead had left, following disagreements with Baker and frustrations over the lack of progress. Zutaut persuaded him to rejoin by installing a giant chicken coop in the studio for him to work in, with furniture, straw, chicken wire, and rubber chicken parts. Zutaut described it as "part chicken coop, part horror movie ... You could almost smell the chickens."[80] Only assistant engineers were allowed to enter, to adjust microphones.[80] Rose's assistant Beta Lebeis downplayed the coop as inexpensive and fun, saying, "It didn't cost money or anything – think about it, it's just wire ... It's something you do in three or four hours. Just for fun, to play a joke on somebody."[80] However, according to Zutaut, the coop caused friction when Buckethead began using it to watch hardcore pornography, disturbing Rose. Zutaut told an interviewer that, after one of Rose's dogs defecated in the coop, Buckethead insisted it not be cleaned up as he liked the smell. After three days, the smell had become overwhelming and the studio staff removed it, upsetting Buckethead.[80][d]
At Interscope's request, Zutaut investigated the project's budget. He found that the band was spending thousands of dollars a month on rented gear that went unused, and he made changes that he estimated saved around $75,000 a month.[80] Additionally, Rose kept erratic hours, which meant that the salaried musicians, engineers, and assistants were often unable to work. Zutaut said: "These fucking people are getting paid shitloads of money and they're sitting on their arse doing nothing because Axl's not coming to the studio and they can't get him on the phone."[80]
Zutaut tried to convince Rose to release Chinese Democracy as a solo album, feeling it would sell better.[96] However, Rose said in 2008: "I didn't make a solo record. A solo record would be completely different than this and probably much more instrumental. The songs were chosen by everyone involved."[97] Lebeis said in March 2001 that 48 songs had been completed and that Geffen had begun selecting them for the album.[98] Zutaut estimated that Guns N' Roses had 50 or 60 songs in development. He went through each with Rose, trying to decide which were worth finishing.[80] According to Zutaut, during his time with the band, they completed versions of "The Blues", "Madagascar", "Chinese Democracy" and "Atlas Shrugged".[80]
Zutaut and Baker exit
For his 2001 film Black Hawk Down, the filmmaker Ridley Scott asked to use the 1987 Guns N' Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" from their debut album Appetite for Destruction. According to Zutaut, Rose already had new band members rerecord the entirety of Appetite for Destruction as part of their induction, and so a day was spent mixing one of these versions.[80] Rose attended a screening of Black Hawk Down arranged by Zutaut and fired him when he realized it was not a private screening. Zutaut said he was "set up", which Rose disputed.[80] According to Zutaut, by this time, around 11 or 12 tracks were complete but for final mixes, the album could have been complete by September 2002.[80] Baker left the project a few months later.[80]
Tour
On January 1, 2001, Guns N' Roses played at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada, their first concert in over seven years.[99] This was followed by their headlining performance at Rock in Rio III on January 14, 2001, to an audience of 190,000 people.[100] On August 29, 2002, they made a surprise visit to the MTV Video Music Awards in New York; their set included one new song, "Madagascar".[101] The Chinese Democracy Tour was met with mixed reviews in 2002,[102] as no-shows in Vancouver[103] and Philadelphia[104] led to riots and the tour's cancellation.[105]
We composed and recorded for several years and, during that time, there were changes in the band and the staff of the record company. Every time we thought we had good songs, someone said that they could still be better, so we went back to writing and recording.
Rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias left the band in 2002, with Rose stating "Paul helped us a lot in the writing and the recording of this record and to me was a vital part of not only the band but also my life. The world tour really wasn’t his cup of tea whereas he's much more comfortable in a studio setting."[15] He was replaced shortly afterwards by Richard Fortus; he said all but his contribution, the chorus to "Better", had been written by the time he joined, and that some riffs on the final album date back to Slash's time in the band.[107] The band had considered The Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford for the role, but Ford turned it down.[108] In August 2002, Rose wrote on the Guns N' Roses website: "We feel that we have clarity as to the album we're trying to make, we're wrapping it up. We've sorted it down to what songs are on the record, what the sequence of the songs is. The album art is ready."[15][109] However, he told MTV News a few weeks later: "You'll see [the album], but I don't know if 'soon' is the word".[110] Reed said in November 2002 that the album would be released by June 2003 and that there were only "a few odds and ends left to do, a couple of finishing touches, a couple of vocals – and we need to mix it".[111] Rose also confirmed plans for multiple albums and said the delay was partly due to a lack of support from Geffen for older bands, saying: "I've had to do way more jobs in it than I'm supposed to. I've had to be manager, A&R man, producer, sole lyric writer, and a lot of other things."[111] Rose cited "giving into a lot of pressure" while recording the Illusion albums resulting in them not being to his standard as another reason for the protracted recording process.[15]
In 2003, radio DJ Eddie Trunk played a demo of "I.R.S." leaked to him by New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza.[112] He likened it to "Use Your Illusion-era stuff, with some modern flairs to it", with a loop track leading to "that same dramatic Guns N' Roses hard rock".[112] The same year, the Offspring jokingly released a press release saying their next album would be called Chinese Democracy (You Snooze, You Lose) about the album's protracted development.[113] In response, Rose sent the Offspring a cease-and-desist order, to which the Offspring singer, Dexter Holland, responded: "I think it got blown up a little more than we intended it to."[114]
In mid-2003, Guns N' Roses reportedly started rerecording Chinese Democracy again.[115] A music journalist said Rose told him in June 2003 that "he wants to make sure it is a perfect as possible before it is released".[116] In 2004, Stinson said Chinese Democracy was "almost done" and had been delayed by legal problems and because Rose wanted to ensure every band member had a say in each song: "It's a lengthy process because you have to get eight people to basically write a song together that everyone likes."[117] He also said Rose was a perfectionist. An engineer working on the album said: "Axl wanted to make the best record that had ever been made. It's an impossible task. You could go on infinitely, which is what they've done."[14][117] Stinson later said:
What really happened was the record company stood back and left Axl to his own devices. He had to basically produce himself, and that's not what he [wanted to do]... the record company really dropped the ball on this one ... everything changed when Geffen merged with Interscope. Axl was told that Jimmy Iovine would play more of a role [than he did].[90]
Conflict with Geffen
By 2004, Geffen had removed Chinese Democracy from its release schedule and withdrawn funding, stating: "Having exceeded all budgeted and approved recording costs by millions of dollars, it is Mr. Rose's obligation to fund and complete the album, not Geffen's."[14] Around that time, manager Merck Mercuriadis said the album was close to complete.[14] According to a March 2005 New York Times article, production costs for the album had reached $13 million ($20,929,801 in current dollar terms), the publication christening it "the most expensive recording 'never' made".[14][e] Mercuriadis dismissed the article, writing in a letter that the newspaper's sources had not been involved with the project for several years, stating "[You wrote this article] without even bothering to talk to anyone who has actually been involved in the making of the album. You quote five people [and all but Zutaut] have been out of the picture for between six and nine years.. [and] have never even heard the album.[119] At one point, the band was using a budget of almost $250,000 a month.[86] Rose said the expense would be negated by the recording sessions yielding multiple albums.[62]
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, not withstanding the emotional challenges endured by everyone—the fans, the band, our road crew and business team—has at many times seemed like a bad dream in which one wakes up only to find they are still in the nightmare.
— Axl Rose[120]
Buckethead exits and Greatest Hits
On March 17, 2004, Buckethead quit and Guns N' Roses canceled their planned resumption of the tour, including a headlining slot at Rock in Rio Lisboa I.[121] Buckethead's management stated his departure was due to frustrations with the band's "inability to complete an album or tour."[121] The band released a statement saying that Buckethead had been "inconsistent and erratic in both his behavior and his commitment... His transient lifestyle has made it near impossible to have nearly any form of communications with him whatsoever."[80] Rose then released a statement saying that they hoped "to announce a release date within the next few months".[122][f] Stinson said in September that the album would be in the mastering stages by November 2004.[124]
Later that week, Geffen released Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits since Rose had failed to deliver an album.[125][g]
Tour resumes, more lineup changes
Buckethead was replaced by Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and touring resumed in May 2006. According to Bumblefoot around this time, the album was "pretty far along. Everything was written, and a lot of things were recorded...there were still more guitar tracks to be done... [the album was roughly] eighty to eighty-five percent [complete]."[128] Bumblefoot added guitar to the album between tour legs throughout the year.[129] Bumblefoot wrote guitar parts for every song, tried hundreds of ideas, and contributed fretless guitar.[130] Bumblefoot said that working with such densely layered songs was a challenge, "..you go into a higher range, so you don't clash with it, and then it's, like, 'Oh, wait. There's that synth thing...' Or you go lower, and it's, like, 'Ah, it's kind of getting eaten up by the rhythms and the bass', so it was a challenge to find the right place."[131] For adding his contributions to the album, he said "I'd spend 14 hours each day hearing songs for the first time, and would experiment with different ideas and directions – fretless, fretted, wah, clean, heavy, bluesy, melody, rhythmic, technical. I wrote my own parts, never copied or re-played anyone else's, we'd mute other tracks and I'd create my own parts. 100 tracks for a song, with two people yelling opposite directions in my ear at the same time. In the end [producer] Caram [Costanzo] and Axl would decide want they feel was best for the songs."[132]
Brain left the band in July 2006 to help take care of his newborn daughter.[133] Frank Ferrer was brought in to replace Brain and added new drum tracks.[134][135] Ferrer said: "I did a few tracks with Brain and he told me to just make the songs my own. It wasn't so much conscious writing as focusing on how the music made me feel and not overthinking it." According to Ferrer, he is the only drummer on the title track; the rest of the album features drums by Brain and Ferrer, using Freese's arrangements.[134] Ferrer plays on five tracks on the album.[136]
Rose held listening parties in several New York bars in 2006, showcasing ten new songs.[137] In October 2006, Rolling Stone said the album had a "firm" release date of November 21, 2006.[138] According to Rolling Stone, engineer Andy Wallace, who had worked with Nirvana, Sepultura, Slayer, and Bad Religion, was working on the album that year.[139] Stinson said that most of the album had been recorded collaboratively in 2001, and had been "pretty much done" since then.[89] Dizzy Reed attributed the album's delay to a lack of "deadline or [...] pressure" in a 2006 interview.[140]
On December 14, on the Guns N' Roses website, Rose announced the cancellation of four shows, citing the need for more time to work on Chinese Democracy. He also announced that the band had ended their relationship with Mercuriadis, and announced a tentative release date of March 6, 2007; it was the first time the band had publicly given a release date.[141][142] In an interview held during the launch party for Korn's 2006 tour, Rose told Rolling Stone that Chinese Democracy was a "complex record", with Queen-like arrangements, and that he expected some fans to complain about the new direction.[143] In a 2006 Rolling Stone article, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach described Chinese Democracy as "epic" and "mind-blowing": "It's a very cool album—it's badass with killer screams, killer guitar riffs, but it's got a totally modern sound. The word for it is 'grand.' It's fucking epic. [Axl has] reinvented himself yet again."[144] Bach also described the album as having "the rawness and the power of Appetite for Destruction, but it also has the grandiosity of 'November Rain'."[145]
Rose said in 2006 that Guns N' Roses had 32 songs in development,[143] with Bach later confirming that Rose told him Chinese Democracy would be the first in a trilogy of albums.[146] Rose later in 2008 confirmed the working titles of 10 songs from the upcoming unreleased albums.[147] (see § Unused tracks and follow-up album)
Final sessions
Rose recorded the final vocal tracks in January 2007.[148] On February 22, 2007, the band's road manager Del James issued a press release stating there was no official release date but that recording had ended and mixing had begun.[149] In a 2007 interview, Sebastian Bach said Rose had planned to have the album released by Christmas 2007 and that the delays might have been caused by business problems.[150] In January 2007, Bach recorded backing vocals for "Sorry" at Electric Lady Studios.[151] He described the song as "almost like doom metal with Axl singing really clean over this grinding, slow beat that is fucking mean, I cannot get it out of my head."[144] Harpist Patti Hood, who had worked with Pitman on the album Free Mars, and conductor Suzy Katayama also recorded parts.[152][153]
In January 2008, rumors arose that Chinese Democracy had been handed to Geffen but was delayed because the label and Rose could not agree on the marketing.[154] Radio host Eddie Trunk said Geffen might have the album and that delays were due to financial reasons.[155] However, in a February 2008 interview with Classic Rock, Rose's manager Beta Lebeis dismissed Trunk's suggestion and said they were in negotiations with the label.[156] With a wealth of material to select from, Rose was solely responsible for track selection and sequencing of the album.[157] Stinson said that Jimmy Iovine "pulled the record out of Axl's hand at the fucking 11:30th hour" saying "He was this close to being able to sign off on that fucking thing, and they pulled it just before he was completely ready to be going 'I'm done with it', it was just a little too quick on that."[158]
According to Bumblefoot, the band and producer Caram Costanzo (who joined in 2003) spent 14 hours a day working on the album.[159] Producers who worked on the album included Bob Ezrin, Eric Caudieux, Sean Beavan,[117] and Tim Palmer.[160] Rose and Caram Costanzo are the producers credited on the finished album, with Baker, Caudieux, Beavan, and Pitman credited with additional production.[28][161] The band used 15 studios during production, including Capitol Studios, Cherokee Studios, Electric Lady Studios, Sunset Sound Recorders, and The Village.[161]
Mastering engineer Bob Ludwig offered three versions of the album for approval. Rose and Costanzo selected the version without dynamic range compression to avoid being involved in the ongoing loudness war.[162] Ludwig wrote: "I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned ... The fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above sheer level."[162]
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Release and promotion
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On September 14, 2008, the track "Shackler's Revenge" was included in the music game Rock Band 2, the first official release of new Guns N' Roses material since 1999's "Oh My God".[163][164][h] It was followed by "If the World", which plays during the closing credits of the 2008 film Body of Lies.[166]
On October 9, Billboard announced November 23, 2008, as the firm release date for Chinese Democracy.[167] In the US, the retail release was sold exclusively through Best Buy.[168][169] The first single, "Chinese Democracy", was released on October 22, 2008.[170][171] It was debuted on the Opie and Anthony show broadcast by KROQ-FM. Ad spots referencing the then-upcoming 2008 United States presidential election began airing in early November.[172] "Better" was released as a promo single on November 17, 2008,[173] followed by "Street of Dreams" in March 2009.[174]
It's the right record and I couldn't ask for more. Could have been a more enjoyable journey, but it's there now. The art comes first.
— Axl Rose[175]
Several days before its release, the band streamed the album on their Myspace page.[176][177][178] It was streamed over 3 million times, breaking the Myspace record for the most streamed album ever.[179] Band managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould wrote in early November: "The release of Chinese Democracy marks a historic moment in rock 'n' roll. We're launching with a monumental campaign... that matches the groundbreaking sound of the album itself."[180] The title track was used as the theme song for the WWE PPV event Armageddon in December 2008.[181]
The band announced a new leg of the Chinese Democracy Tour in March 2009, which lasted from December 2009 until December 2012.[182] Lead guitarist Robin Finck left before the tour to rejoin Nine Inch Nails; he was replaced by DJ Ashba.[183] A guitar tab book of the album was released in December 2009.[184]
Chinese Democracy was banned in China because of perceived criticism in its title track of the Chinese government and a reference to Falun Gong.[185] The Chinese Communist Party said through media that it "turns its spear point on China".[186][187]
Disputes with label and management
After the album's release, Rose did not appear in public for several months and did not respond to calls from label Geffen to promote the album.[188][189] On December 12, Rose answered questions and posted statements regarding the record, former bandmates, and tour plans on several Guns N' Roses fan forums.[190][191][192] On February 9, 2009, in his first official interview since the release, Rose said he had "no information for me to believe there was any real involvement or effort from Interscope".[175] In a 2018 look back, Billboard decried the marketing for the album, stating: "The most anticipated rock record in history was murdered by a thousand different jabs and body shots, including artwork the artist wasn't committed to, but the colossal marketing blunder was the Tyson-esque knockout punch."[96]
In May 2010, Azoff's company Front Line Management sued Rose over unpaid concert fees.[193][194][195] Rose filed a $5 million countersuit against Azoff claiming Azoff had "sabotaged" the Chinese Democracy release[196][197] by "purposefully spoiling" the album art, "botching" a sales deal with Best Buy, and leaking songs online.[198] Drummer Dave Abbruzzese said in a 2024 interview that the band's management told him executives planned for the album to fail to force Axl to reunite with Slash.[199] The lawsuit was settled in 2011.[200][i]
Leaks
In February 2006, "I.R.S.", "The Blues", "There Was a Time", "Better" and "Catcher in the Rye" leaked online.[202][203][204] The leaked version of "I.R.S." was aired frequently enough on various radio stations before the band's management intervened that it charted at #49 on the Radio & Records Active Rock National Airplay Chart for the week ending Feb. 24, 2006.[205] In October, "Better" was inadvertently leaked by Harley-Davidson in an online ad.[206] A "final version" was leaked in February 2007.[207] "Madagascar" was leaked in March 2007.[208] In May 2007, the title track leaked,[209] and updated versions of "Chinese Democracy", "The Blues", "I.R.S." and "There Was a Time" were leaked by professional wrestler Mister Saint Laurent.[210] The final version of "Shackler's Revenge" leaked in August 2008.[163]
By the time Chinese Democracy was released, only 3 of the 14 songs had not been leaked or played live.[211] In June 2008, five months before the album's release, music blogger Kevin Cogill streamed nine tracks on his website Antiquiet for "an hour or two".[212][213] The high volume of traffic crashed the website server and the tracks were removed. In August, the FBI arrested Cogill under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act for releasing copyrighted material.[214] Slash said: "I hope he rots in jail. It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair."[215] According to Techdirt, Cogill's arrest resulted in a large boost in illegal downloads of the album.[216] They also revealed that UMG showed Best Buy search engine traffic results shortly after the case to capitalize on the interest and help them with the distribution deal.[217]
In November, Cogill agreed to plead guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement, later reduced to a misdemeanor.[218][219] According to Cogill, he was not charged with copyright infringement because the court could not prove that the album was being prepared for commercial distribution: "The US government would have to prove, in court, that Chinese Democracy was really coming. And no one at the RIAA or the label had informed the government that these songs had been lying around for 14 years. Only that they had cost $12 million."[217] Cogill was sentenced to two months' house arrest and was required to produce an anti-piracy video with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[220] He said the video was never made as the RIAA did not want to spend money on production costs.[221]
In 2019, around 120 Chinese Democracy demos leaked online.[78] Zutaut had allowed a storage unit containing several CDs of recordings to expire, its contents were auctioned off, and the winner sold them to a fan, who circulated them online.[222] The "Locker Leaks" contained 19 discs of demos, mostly instrumentals, from around 2001–2002.[78]
Dr Pepper promotion
On March 26, 2008, media reported that soft drinks manufacturer Dr Pepper would offer a free can to everyone in America—excluding former Guns N' Roses guitarists Buckethead and Slash—if the band released Chinese Democracy in 2008.[223] On the Guns N' Roses website, Rose wrote of his surprise at the company's support and said he would share his Dr Pepper with Buckethead.[224]
After it was announced that the album would be released in 2008, Dr Pepper confirmed that it would uphold its pledge.[225] However, on the album's release, the Dr Pepper website servers crashed under the demand for coupons.[226] Lawyers for the band threatened Dr Pepper's parent company with a lawsuit two days after the album's release; in a letter to the company, Rose's lawyer Alan Gutman said: "The redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, ruined Chinese Democracy's release."[226] Gutman also demanded a full-page apology to appear in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.[227][228] Later, in an online interview with fans, Rose said he told his lawyers it was a "non-issue" and was surprised by their actions, and that he believed they should have focused on the record release.[229]
Copyright infringement
In October 2009, electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss's record labels Independiente and Domino sued Guns N' Roses, alleging they had infringed copyright by using portions of Schnauss' compositions in the song "Riad N' the Bedouins".[230] The suit alleges the portions are sampled from Schnauss' Wherever You Are (2001) and A Strangely Isolated Place (2003). Brian Caplan, attorney for Domino, said they first contacted Geffen on February 26. Caplan told New York Daily News the label "attempted to explain [the samples] away", and "They tried to justify it".[231]
Guns N' Roses denied the allegations. Their manager, Irving Azoff, said: "The snippets of 'ambient noise' in question were provided by a member of the album's production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately ... While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist's work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved." The two labels sought $1 million in damages against Geffen for the unauthorized use of the samples.[232]
Unused tracks and follow-up album
The record was meant to be more than one disc, but after spending so much time on it we just had to put an end to it. There's also stuff that was held over from before [the previous lineup] disbanded, so there's some stuff that should someday see the light of day.
According to Bumblefoot, one song, "Atlas Shrugged", was cut at the last second because of CD playing time constraints.[234] Songs mentioned by those involved in the recording that did not make the final album include "Atlas Shrugged", "Oklahoma", "Thyme", "The General", "Elvis Presley and the Monster of Soul", "Leave Me Alone", "Ides of March", "Silkworms", "Down by the Ocean", "Zodiac", "Quick Song" and "We Were Lying".[62][93][234][75][140] In August 2013, "Going Down", a song recorded during the sessions featuring Stinson on vocals, was leaked online, as well as several remixes by Brain and future Guns N' Roses keyboardist Melissa Reese.[235] In 2014, Rose said that a "second part" of Chinese Democracy and a remix album were complete and pending release.[236] In 2018, Billboard reported that a follow-up to Chinese Democracy had been planned for 2016, but was put on hold when Slash and Duff McKagan rejoined the band.[96] Guitarist Richard Fortus confirmed work on a new album in 2018.[237] In October 2021, Slash mentioned the band had been reworking songs from the Chinese Democracy period.[238] In 2021, starting with "Absurd", the band started occasionally releasing reworked singles.[239][240]
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Style and composition
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Perspective
Chinese Democracy marked Guns N' Roses' expansion into industrial rock,[241][242][243][244][245] electronic rock[246][247] nu metal,[85][242][248] and elements of trip-hop while retaining the hard rock style of previous albums.[249] Critics noted stylistic similarities on the album to the work of Queen, Paul McCartney and Wings, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.[85][250][251][252] Rose cited the influence of Dave Grohl's drumming on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the title track.[80] The song was inspired by the movie Kundun about the Dalai Lama,[253] as well as the three months Rose spent living in China, stating "When you stay in hotels there, you don't realize that the stuff you're seeing on TV, the average person isn't seeing. Everywhere I went, people are scared, they're frightened for their lives to have an opinion that deviates from the government about the simplest things, things that we take for granted."[254] The lyrics "Blame it on the Falun Gong / They've seen the end and you cannot hold on now" from the song caused the album to be banned in China.[253] The song starts with a delayed intro of ambient noise and guitar lines.[255] Spin likened the guitars to the work of Tom Morello.[256] Drummer Josh Freese wrote the main guitar riff, describing it as "really dumb, simple, dirty guitar riff."[257]
"Shackler's Revenge" was written in reaction to "the insanity of senseless school shootings and also the media trying desperately to make more out of one shooter's preference for the Guns song Brownstone to no avail" according to Rose.[123][j] Rose also compared the song's lyrics to "a horror flick or something like Dexter.. with an interesting menacing character."[123] The song drew comparisons to the music of industrial and electronic artists such as Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Korn, and Rob Zombie from critics.[259][260][261][262][255][263] The song features elements of industrial rock,[259][261] electronic rock,[262] nu metal,[259][261][264] sludge rock,[265][266] and alternative rock.[267] Multiple layers of vocals create what Rolling Stone described as "a demented choir".[163] "Better" is an electronic rock-influenced song that features Rose singing in falsetto at the beginning of the track "No one ever told me when / I was alone / They just thought I'd know better", over a "whining guitar line that bubbles and bursts".[241][249][266] Rose mentioned the guitar parts in the bridge as among his favorite parts of the album.[123] Loudwire described the song as having an Acid house-style beat,[268] while Rolling Stone described the intro as a "hip-hop voicemail".[249] Apple Music compared the vocals to the "gothic thrust of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson".[269]
"Street of Dreams", previously known as "The Blues", is a pop-influenced piano ballad similar to "November Rain" and "The Garden" with influences from Elton John.[249][266][270][269] The song was noted as similar to the works of Queen.[255][268] On "If The World", Buckethead played a flamenco guitar; it was described as having "an electronic funk slither", neo-soul, nu-metal, and trip-hop styles.[262][271] Keyboardist Chris Pitman said the song was "about environmental decay in its futurist context".[272] Pitman primarily wrote the song on a 12-string guitar, stating "I just started with this riff that allows for a pretty cool vocals... I wrote the drums with a dub / reggae beat... added strings, piano, bass, echo guitar, synth and sub-bass. I gave the recordings to Axl and he added his part by singing in one night."[273] Rose described the writing of the song as a combination of James Bond and '70s Blaxploitation films, with an "intentionally cheesy sounding chorus" to parody James Bond music.[274]
"There Was a Time" is a heavily layered melody-driven orchestral song with a Mellotron, violins, choirs, and multiple synthesizers.[255][266] Spin noted, "Bluesy piano and slyly cinematic passage set up the highest notes Axl's full-health throat has ever belted."[256] Apple Music described the song as featuring "prog rock mellotron and strings".[269] Ultimate Classic Rock said the song was "a mesmerizing cocktail of minimalist hip-hop beats, lush string arrangements, transcendent guitar solos and some of Rose's most ear-piercing, tortured screams—sometimes happening all at once."[275] Kerrang noted influences from Danny Elfman, The Eagles, and Carlos Santana on the track.[276] "Catcher in the Rye" was written after Rose watched a documentary on Mark David Chapman and wanted to write a song in dedication to John Lennon; the song is meant to criticize the book The Catcher in the Rye.[192] The song, a power ballad,[268] drew comparisons to Oasis[256] as well as Elton John, Queen, and the Guns N' Roses song "Yesterdays".[277] "Scraped" takes the album back to an industrial rock style with Rose singing "Don't you try to stop us now" and "All things are possible, I am unstoppable."[249][266] The intro has been described as "highly processed and strange".[255] A vocal bridge on the song was noted as similar to "Get the Funk Out" by Extreme.[277] It also drew comparisons to Soundgarden.[256] Loudwire described the song as a "musical Frankenstein", referencing the effects on Rose's voice.[268]
Discussing the origins of "Riad N' The Bedouins", Rose said: "Riad is the name my one-time momentary brother-in-law of Erin Everly went by when I knew him. Of part Lebanese descent and a former student of Pepperdine University, he claims to be an international arms dealer."[278] Rose's vocals on the song have been compared to Robert Plant.[255][269] The song starts with ambient samples of the songs "Wherever You Are" and "A Strangely Isolated Place" by Ulrich Schnauss (see § Copyright infringement for information on the lawsuit regarding the samples).[231] Several critics have theorized the song's lyrical content is about the Iraq War.[279][280] Rose said "Sorry" was about "anyone talking nonsense at mine and the public's expense".[192] The song is a power ballad that features a chorus "I'm sorry for you/Not sorry for me", described as a shot at Rose's former bandmates.[255] The song drew comparisons to Pink Floyd and Metallica,[255][281] and Rose's vocals were compared to Layne Staley.[256] The A.V. Club noted Rose's "bizarre, quasi-Transylvanian accent" on the line "But I don't want to do it".[277] "I.R.S." has Rose singing "Gonna call the president / Gonna call myself a private eye / Gonna need the IRS / Gonna get the FBI" over a guitar-heavy track.[249][266] The song was also noted for trip-hop influences.[256] Spin mentioned the main riff's similarities to that of Nirvana's "In Bloom".[256]
"Madagascar" has been described as having a "trip-hop pulse"; its bridge features interwoven samples of quotations from the movies Mississippi Burning, Casualties of War, Cool Hand Luke, Braveheart, and Seven,[282] and also contains several excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches "I Have a Dream" and "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool".[283] Time described it as "Axl's attempt to do Led Zeppelin's Kashmir".[284] Rose said of the quotes "Dr. King's words have been edited together from multiple speeches as to bring the sentiments of his messages into the context of this particular song and to present their importance as strongly as possible."[278] "This I Love" is a song written in 1992 that Rose called "the heaviest thing I've written".[285] The song is a piano ballad with Rose singing to a former lover.[266][277] Rose described the song stating "It's a lot more intricate than I think most realize yet as the guitar and vocals are placed as they should be so dominant. The main string melody in that section I had originally written to a hip-hop loop as well."[123] Spin compared the song to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber.[256] "Prostitute" is another orchestral-lined power ballad that features the lyrics "Ask yourself / Why I would choose / To prostitute myself / To live with fortune and shame".[249][266] According to producer Youth, Rose "labored" over the song because past successes weighed heavily on him.[286] The song was described by Loudwire as "blending classical orchestrations and electro-beats with blistering guitar solos and some of [Rose's] highest pitched shrieking."[268] Consequence of Sound compared Rose's vocals to "Bruce Hornsby with distortion."[266]
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Artwork
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Perspective
The cover art features a sepia photograph of a bicycle with a large wicker basket resting against a wall on which the band's name is graffitied;[287][288] it was photographed in Kowloon Walled City by Terry Hardin.[289] Three red communist stars are above the letters "GNR" on the side with the band name and album title, which are written vertically.[290] According to artistic director Ryan Corey, Rose conceived the bike cover at the album's inception.[291]
Rose approached Chinese artist Chen Zhuo for permission to use a painting of Tiananmen Square as an amusement park for the album cover, but Chen declined due to China's strict censorship laws and risks collaborating with a potentially controversial project.[290][292] Shi Lifeng's painting "Controlling No. 3" was chosen by Rose and used as an alternate cover for an "art edition".[291][293] It was used for the Rock Band 2 download and released on CD in small quantities.[291][292] The alternate booklet opens with a short essay written by Rose titled "Fear N' Freedom: The Future of China and Western Society".[278] The album booklet features several artworks by Shi, including a bloodied fist holding a star covered by flailing human figures.[294] Photographs of the Hong Kong skyline and the Chinese military also appear in the booklet.[295] The booklet also includes pictures of Rose, Buckethead, Stinson, Pitman, Finck, Fortus, Bumblefoot, Reed, Brain, and Ferrer alongside lyrics to the songs.[296]
Rose said in December 2008 that two alternate booklets were pending release, adding "The artwork has always been something I've been passionate about, and to release the album with unapproved and unseen final artwork with a 1st work only error-filled draft when others more recent were readily available still has not been explained."[75] However, plans fell through and only the "art edition" was released in limited quantities.[291] Stinson said executives "ripped away" from Rose the artwork "right at the last second, when he wasn't ready".[96]
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Critical reception
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Perspective
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Chinese Democracy received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 from 28 critic scores.[298] Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers called it "a test for contemporary ears" and "a cyborgian blend of pop expressiveness, traditional rock bravado and Brian Wilson-style beautiful weirdness".[252] Chuck Klosterman, writing for The A.V. Club, praised the vocals and guitar parts but criticized some production elements, saying "Three of the songs are astonishing. Four or five others are very good. The vocals are brilliantly recorded, and the guitar playing is (generally) more interesting than the guitar playing on the Use Your Illusion albums."[277] Klosterman also commented that the album is "the last Old media album... the last album that will be marketed as a collection of autonomous-but-connected songs... the last album that will matter more as a physical object than as an Internet sound file."[277] Rolling Stone writer David Fricke commended Rose's unrestrained approach and called it "a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record".[249] Rolling Stone later ranked the album number 12 on its year-end list of 2008's best albums.[304]
Jon Dolan from Blender found some of the music "ludicrous" and other parts "brilliant", writing that "these aren't songs, they're suites, energetic and skittering and unpredictable hard rock hydras cut with miasmic industrial grind, stadium rattling metal solos, electronic drift and hip-hop churn."[299] Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said Rose "succeeds, kind of, on his own totally irrelevant terms" and added, "Since he's no longer capable of leading young white males astray, this effort isn't just pleasurable artistically. It's touching on a human level. Noble, even. I didn't think he had it in him."[301] CTV News compared the production to the Wall of Sound style of Phil Spector.[305] People's David Caplan said that "everyone loves it" and "It is really great for Guns N' Roses fans because it's pure Guns N' Roses."[305]
In a mixed review, Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot found Rose's production over-embellished, saying "[the songs] sound like the work of a fading rock star with far too much money and time on his hands".[306] The Guardian criticized the album as incohesive and "exhausting", but praised Rose's melodies.[262] Pitchfork complimented the vocals but criticized the "dated" sound.[302] Q considered the album overproduced, stating "by throwing everything at the wall and nailing up the stuff that didn't stick, [Rose has] done himself a grand disservice".[303] Kitty Empire, writing for The Observer, accused Rose of "cribbing" from the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails, calling the album "a mish-mash of portentous digitals in search of a purpose."[243] The New York Times writer Jon Pareles described Chinese Democracy as "a transitional album", saying "By holding it back and tinkering with it for so long, Mr. Rose has pressured himself to make it epochal... Sometime during the years of work, theatricality and razzle-dazzle replaced heart."[307] Rock biographer Stephen Davis was more vitriolic and named Chinese Democracy "the worst album ever", saying "It sounds like a Rob Zombie album from 1995".[308]
The album was nominated for the Juno Award for International Album of the Year in 2009, losing to Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.[309][310] The song "If the World" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 13th Satellite Awards, losing to "Another Way to Die" by Jack White and Alicia Keys.[311] The album was included on several publications' lists of the best and worst albums of the year.[k]
Buckethead's guitar solo on "There Was a Time" received acclaim. Consequence wrote it was one of the best solos of the decade,[321] and Total Guitar editors ranked it as the 32nd best of the 21st century,[322] while readers of that magazine ranked it 6th.[323]
Former band members' opinions
Slash reacted positively to the title track: "That sounds cool. It's good to hear Axl's voice again, y'know?"[324] Of the album, he said, "It's a really good record. It's very different from what the original Guns N' Roses sounded like, but it's a great statement by Axl ... It's a record that the original Guns N' Roses could never possibly make. And at the same time it just shows you how brilliant Axl is."[325] He later said the album was "exactly what I thought it would sound like", with synthesizers and digital augmentations.[326] After rejoining the band for the Not in This Lifetime... Tour in 2016, Slash complimented Buckethead's guitar parts and spoke of the album in a 2018 interview: "It is very different. It's really cool stuff, but it was played by guitar players that are very different from me, style-wise... I also want to give credit where credit's due—the guitar players that played on Chinese Democracy... are fucking amazing."[327]
Izzy Stradlin said, "I have listened to some tracks off the record and I enjoyed them," and "I like what I've heard."[328][329] Duff McKagan said: "I was glad to hear Axl's voice, I've always been a fan of his voice. I'm not listening to it for it to sound like anything I was part of, because I know it's not that. I think Axl sang his ass off. He made the record he wanted to make and I'm happy for him. I thought he did a great job."[330] Matt Sorum said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the title track, and called the album a "toe-tapper".[331][332]
Gilby Clarke said: "I think it's a really good record—I honestly do... Knowing [the] direction [in which] he wanted to take the band, I think he hit the nail on the head; I think he did a great job".[333] Steven Adler, asked if he liked the album, said, "Not one bit. I didn't recognize Axl's voice on it. There's occasional parts where he does his loud scream but I didn't even know it was him."[334] He also criticized labeling the album as Guns N' Roses, stating it should have been released as an Axl Rose solo album.[335] Founding Guns N' Roses guitarist Tracii Guns found it "over-indulgent, sterile and not that exciting".[336]
Accolades
Legacy
Chinese Democracy's protracted recording process attracted extensive media coverage.[341] According to Spin, a cottage industry grew around covering its development; "the only way the record could have lived up to its legend would have been to never come out at all".[342] Five years after its release, Grantland journalist Steven Hyden wrote: "For years, it was widely assumed Chinese Democracy would never come out; in retrospect, the delay is all anybody cares about ... As music, Chinese Democracy is merely the second-worst GNR record; as a figure of speech, it is shorthand for the grandest of boondoggles."[341] Hyden wrote that the album had served as a lesson for acts who took years to release "comeback" albums, demonstrating the perils of allowing backstory to overshadow the work and failing to provide a familiar product. He compared Chinese Democracy to subsequent, successful comeback albums by acts including Daft Punk, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, and My Bloody Valentine, which were "more modest" and offered "well-trod musical territory associated with each artist".[341] Ultimate Classic Rock noted the album's reception, stating "The fact that it was, by all standards, a fairly good album, was completely eclipsed by its backstory" and stating that artists such as Bowie, Steve Perry, and Tool used the album as an example "by keeping a low profile during production and staying relatively faithful to what fans expected" for long-awaited albums.[343] Multiple publications have since used Chinese Democracy as a noun when describing other long-delayed albums.[344][345]
The New York Times saw the album as a "loud last gasp from the reign of the indulged pop star"; where Rose had once commanded "loyal audiences, bountiful royalties, escalating ambitions and dangerously open-ended deadlines", the music business in the early 21st century had become "leaner" and "leakier".[307] Jim DeRogatis compared the album to the movie The Godfather Part III, claiming it was a "late-career installment in a beloved franchise that we never thought we'd see," but lamenting that it was "nowhere near enough to stand as an equal artistic accomplishment."[346]
In 2012, Complex named Chinese Democracy among the "50 Albums That Were Unfairly Hated On", praising Roses's vocals and the musicianship of the band and stating that the album's biggest flaw was the delays in release.[347] In a 2015 review inducting the album into their "New Classic Albums" category, Artistdirect praised the album, calling it "a timeless work of art".[337] In a 2018 look back, Billboard called the album a "sonic anomaly" of the time due to the mixing and lack of compression making it sound "vintage or alien to rock music fans".[96] A 2018 retrospective review by No Recess magazine compared the album to "their own version of Danzig's Blackacidevil", stating "[After the '90s] the only thing left was to repeat or radically reinvent themselves. Chinese Democracy tries to do both, to varying degrees of 'okay, sure'."[348]
Loudwire, although ranking the album second to last out of Guns N' Roses studio albums, wrote that there "was a lot of expectation and backlash built up before release" and highlighted "Better", "Madagascar", "Street of Dreams", "Shackler's Revenge" and "Catcher in the Rye" as standouts.[349] NME ranked the album last, stating "if you make your fans wait nearly two decades for a record, it's probably going to have to be the best record ever made to impress anyone. Chinese Democracy wasn't that, but nor was it the worst thing ever either. Instead, it was what you might have expected—epic, overblown and full of noodling guitar solos."[350]
In 2021, Ultimate Guitar called the album "unfairly maligned" while highlighting "There Was a Time" as the standout track.[351] Ultimate Classic Rock also highlighted "There Was a Time", and wrote: "At its best, Chinese Democracy recaptures the metallic thunder and epic grandeur of GN'R's heyday."[275] Journalist Gary Graff wrote "its sprawling, indulgent insanity is maybe even more fun to hear now than it was at the time" after re-listening to the album in 2021.[352] In 2022, Loudwire placed the album on a list of "10 Hated Rock + Metal Albums That Are Better Than You Remember", stating "it may be a mess, but there are still some great jams here."[353] Rolling Stone's Joseph Hudak referred to the album as "criminally under-appreciated" and listed "Catcher in the Rye" as the standout track in 2023.[354]
When listing "The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History" in a 2022 article, Rolling Stone's Andy Greene listed "Guns N' Roses begin work on Chinese Democracy" as 29th, saying "Axl and a rotating crew of new gunners spent nearly 15 years laboring away at Chinese Democracy, burning untold millions of dollars and an incalculable amount of fan goodwill in the process... When it finally came out in 2008, few fans were still paying attention. A little patience is one thing. Nearly 20 years is something else."[355] In 2024, Greene ranked the album 4th in Rolling Stone's list of "The 50 Most Disappointing Albums" saying "Despite a handful of strong songs [...] the album is ludicrously overcooked".[356] In 2025, former Guns N' Roses band manager Alan Niven dismissed the album as an "Axl solo record masquerading under a GN'R logo" and said "The biggest sin of the record was that it was boring".[357]
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Sales
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Best Buy purchased 1.3 million copies of Chinese Democracy from UMG for $14 million[358] ($20,446,059 in current dollar terms) before release and pledged not to return unsold copies.[359] The album was released on November 22, 2008, in Germany,[360] Switzerland,[361] and Austria.[362] It was released the following day worldwide, except for the United Kingdom, where it was released on November 24.[363]
Chinese Democracy debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 261,000 copies in its first week, well below expectations.[364][365][366][367] It debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart.[368] Second-week US sales dropped significantly and it fell from #3 to #18 on the Billboard chart: a 78% drop.[369] The programming director at KLOS-FM said the low sales were due to the holiday season release and lackluster lead single,[369] while Reuters blamed the Best Buy exclusive deal for lower-than-expected sales in the US.[370] Critics also cited Rose's lack of promotional appearances as a factor.[369][371]
After selling 21,000 copies in its sixth week and charting at #30, Chinese Democracy was certified Gold, passing the 500,000-shipped mark on January 7, 2009.[372] It was certified Platinum by the RIAA on February 3, 2009, having shipped one million copies in the United States.[373][374] It placed 55th on the 2009 Billboard 200 Year End charts.[375]
Chinese Democracy won an IFPI European Platinum Award, having sold more than one million copies in Europe,[376][377] and had sold 2.6 million units worldwide by February 2009, according to Universal Music.[374] It reached triple platinum certification in Canada and was awarded platinum certifications in many countries including Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.[378] It was certified gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, and Colombia.[378] After Best Buy put the album on clearance for $2 in April 2011, it re-entered the US Billboard 200 chart in the week ending April 3, 2011, at #198, selling 3,200 copies. By then, the album had sold 614,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[379] In the UK, it had sold 365,899 copies by July 2014.[380] After the 2016 Not in This Lifetime... Tour (during which most songs from the album were played), Billboard reported the album's digital streams jumped from 8 million streams to 24 million, as well as 7,900 additional copies sold.[96]
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Track listing
Songwriting credits via ASCAP.
All lyrics are written by W. Axl Rose. "Madagascar" contains samples of speeches written by Martin Luther King Jr..
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Personnel
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Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[161]
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Guns N' Roses
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Additional musicians
Design
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Production
- Caram Costanzo – engineering and digital editing (all tracks), arrangements (tracks 2, 3, 6, 8 and 14), initial production (track 8), sub drums (track 13), production, mixing
- Roy Thomas Baker – additional production and preproduction
- Engineering: Jeff "Critter" Newell, Dan Monti, Jeremy Blair
- Eric Caudieux – digital editing (all tracks), drum machine and drum programming (track 5), arrangements (tracks 6), sub drums (track 13), additional production, Pro Tools engineering
- Sean Beavan – recording and digital editing (tracks 1, 4–6, 9, 11, 12 and 14), arrangements (tracks 1, 4, 6, 9 and 11), initial production (tracks 4–6, 11 and 12), additional production
- Youth – initial arrangement suggestions, Additional Demo Pre-production (track 12)
- Pete Scaturro – arrangements and initial production (tracks 2 and 10), keyboards, digital editing and engineering (track 10)
- Billy Howerdel – recording and editing (track 6), Logic Pro engineering
- Stuart White – Logic Pro engineering
- John O'Mahony – Pro Tools mixing
- Engineering Assistance: Okhee Kim, Andy Gwynn, Brian Monteath, Dave Dominguez, Jose Borges, Joe Peluso, Christian Baker, James Musshorn, Jan Petrov, Jeff Robinette, Bob Koszela, Paul Payne, Mark Gray, Xavier Albira, Dror Mohar, Eric Tabala, Shawn Berman, Donald Clark, Shinnosuke Miyazawa, Vanessa Parr, John Beene, Al Perrotta
- Additional Pro Tools: Greg Morgenstein, Paul DeCarli, Billy Bowers, Justin Walden, Rail Jon Rogut, Isaac Abolin
- Andy Wallace – mixing
- Mixing Assistance: Mike Scielzi, Paul Suarez
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
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See also
References
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External links
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