Idolator

"Welcome to the Jungle Gym"

All that time and this is the best he could do? Not awfull but extremely underwhelming. I'm sure somewhere Slash is having a good laugh. Velvet Revolver's first single was better than this.

I hope it's a fake because it sucks! If it took him ten years to make that, YIKES.

Oh christ. This is sixteen years in the making? It's fucking awful. Those vocals are cringe-worthy.

Take it back, Axl. Seriously. Let's quit while we're behind.

It falls in line with the stuff leaked last year, so I'm pretty sure it's authentic Axl. But I'm with everyone else commenting... this is the best he could do with over a decade to work on it?

This sounds exactly like I imagined it would: an amalgam of every passing fad (ska excepted) that's blipped through the popular music world in the past 10 years. Like Ross Robinson and the Matrix co-producing a track for a group made up of members of Godsmack and Justin Timberlake. A perfect trainwreck. Can't wait for the album.

He needs to put an exclamation point at the end of the album title and make everything seem ridiculously up. Like on a crazy sugar high, and the tour should have the title spelled out in huge letters on the backdrop in gold sequins.

"CHINESE DEMOCRACY! YEAH!"

This is very real. I heard this same mp3 from a label source when they put the track out to video directors. Maybe with a few more months, he could make it juuust a bit worse.

I like Buckethead's Bermuda Triangle better, and this is ok, but the new metal parts blow.

FUCK YES

I know this is hardly an erudite first comment but I'm hoping that the gravity of the occasion will permit me to just say OH OH OH FUCK YES this once

My honest reaction to the first 30-60 seconds was "Hmmm interesting, kinda raw sound to the old voice, this might not be awful."

By the halfway point I was thinking about how many different mixes of this song there must be..how many engineers mixed and remixed, added different processors, took them back out...the overdubs, etc etc... It sounds overproduced, as you would expect it to. I bet if you took the same song and forced Axl to re-record it in say, a day, it would be better.

And there's really not a decent hook.

It's better than I thought, and at the same time, disappointing.

I just got to "the breakdown", and I feel confident saying that this may be the worst song ever recorded. It's like Axl couldn't decide who was a bigger threat to his success, Dragonforce or Republica.

Great song. Great vocal melody. Great solo. It sounds like its been tinkered with for about 10 years, so it must be real. Now lets leak the whole album and force dude to finally release it!

Oh, thanks idolator for posting this. You'll be hearing from Axl's lawyers in about five seconds.

Meh.

It's sounds very Chinese to me, like if Chinese metal band tried create rock Guns Roses replica.

better than what, exactly? Chlamydia?

or to put it another way:

Worse.

Crybabies. This is better than half the hipster shit you can't get a ticket to without sucking someone's dick at Bowery Presents.

I like it actually. Have you listened to the crap on the radio? This is 100 times better.

The voice is there, still, & the intent is there... But it just doesn't go, anywhere. It reminds me of less-crunchy Godsmack (c. '99), with near-east melody & breathy female vox in the bridge. As well, that opening seems almost tAtUine.

(& remember: nobody knows that Axl's a lesbian.)

... As it stands, Axl is one of those personalities who would definitely be best served as a soloist, & I think, when he's another ten years on, he's going to get the "Johnny Cash" treatment from some equal parts honestly appreciative & ironocontrarianly dismissive by way of "enjoying" producer. Not Rick Rubin, though. Probably one of those cunts from Buddyhead. That will be the suxXors.

& of course, there's always the b-side of Lies. That was clearly Axl's baby, all of it, Patience ---> One in a Million, & it is prolly GnR's best work (outside of Rocket Queen).

Big, ugly, way overproduced, and quite interesting.

Far from great, though.

This should have been credited to Axl Rose solo. It just doesn't feel like "Guns 'N' Roses". I know, durhey. But getting those three letters out of my head, this isn't that bad at all. I'd rather listen to this than most indie crap these days. (I know, dial-a-cliche). Bold move to not double-track the vocals at all. In fact, the high voice thing reminds me of, um, dare I say Pinback? Very cold digital sounding, which isn't a bad thing to me.

Not sure about the guitar solo though. It basically screams "Slash, where are you man??!!". :(

this is the suckiest pile of suck that ever sucked.

Did it get mixed on a Sony My First soundboard? i know this project started before protools & the internet was invented, but it sounds like he called it in from a soup can...the guy who covers sweet child on Guitar Hero II sounds more like axl than this douche.

I heard this song before and this is by far the best version. True Guns n Roses fans will love the new cd. Please don't compare Axl Rose to Velvet Revolver. Scott Weiland can only dream to be a great artist like Axl has always been.

I...um...I...

Um...

I kinda like it.

Overproduction and all.

(I feel like the guy in the skits on the second De La Soul album who keeps getting his ass kicked for saying, "I kinda like it, man...")

You know what this reminds me of? "Love Spreads" by the Stone Roses. Similarly delayed album, similarly horridly flat opening single, similar feeling of "I waited all these years for THIS pile of suck?"

Sad.

this song sounds about as good as axl looks now...

maybe even a little worse (i know, youll REALLY have to use your imaginations)...

it's still better than Silversun Pickups. also, Stone Roses - Second Coming is severely underrated.

Being not particularly high minded about music, I like what I like. I can't say definitively what's good or bad music (except my certainty that Nickelback are Beelzebub's hack progeny who employ amazingly inventive video directors). I liked it also. Hearing Axl's voice again was strangely comforting.

@theHL: But, but, but - that stuff is actually good. This is a just bland, pedestrian, overproduced bore. Hell, it doesn't even have violins.

Hell, I like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7PE5wIE4GM

Aaron North from Buddyhead (and NIN) interviews Jess from Eagles of Death Metal after they got kicked off the GNR tour.

Shoulda knew from back then that anything new by WAXL would honk.

its not bad at all, not a hit but its only 1 song on the album. as more i listen to it the more i like it

@cerulgalactus: Well, at least you admit going to extremes for fucking Oohlas tickets.

The thing is, the verse is pretty decent...it's the rest that's just WHAT. Like, I'd see some sadass opening band at the Viper Room play this and not even notice.

Beats "November Rain."

Not as good as "Beautiful Imbalance" by Thrashing Doves. Or "Call Me Blue" by A House.

Could have done with some "Believe"-style vocoder.

@NickEddy: Beats "November Rain."

That was my reaction as well!

whats wrong with you people??? this song is good, and if you were true guns fans you would know his music is much better live anyway ( since he is a GREAT musician ). i saw him do a few of his new songs this past year and it made me very excited for his new album. don't compair him to godsmack-ever! axl is the man and always will be- jg

@NickEddy: You're a skirt.

Oh my God, a Thrashing Doves reference?! Well played.

@ihatethekids:

Everything Jesse Hughes says in that interview is bullshit. According to Jesse, Tommy threw his bass at Axl and Axl threw it back during NOVEMBER RAIN, you know, the song where Axl plays piano...and he managed to catch a bass midair and throw it while playing piano? Show me a video.

Mr. Hughes sure is milking his 15 minutes from that whole incident. I've heard him say 15 times in the last 6 months that he doesn't like Axl, but um, whats the name of his album again? Where's he touring? Exactly. He's a sellout attention whore.

25 years from now, when we have to condense 1997 to 2007 in a Rock History survey course, this song will be the perfect example of what happened to mainstream culture. Make sure to accompany it with a slide show of Britney, Paris and so on.

Good? Yes.
Ten years in the making good? No.

Already 13 years of promotion for this chinese album... and you already can listen to the songs everywhere although you can't buy them anywhere - this is ridiculous. GNR will never be as souvereign like in 1987 when they published the fucking damn best rock'n'roll album ever made. In fact, we all know that GNR are a dead horse.

maybe Chinese Democracy would be better received if it hadn't been leaked...after 10 years of anticipation. second proposition: isn't the single typically the least exciting song on an album? if only the music industry didn't rely on leaks, hype, etc...

http://www.culturecloud.com/Articles/00002026/Supporting_a...

sounds cool.... will this be the new single?
is http://www.newgnr.com the official site to this guns?

As everybody knows, we generally don't roll with the wham-bam-linked-you-ma'am style here. It's not without its appeal; it's immediate, and lively, and dynamic. It just generally ain't our thing. But moments like this call for an exception to the rule.

Wow - I love it! The first couple of times that I listened to it I was like Meh, but after listening to if a few more times I LOVE IT!

BTW: This is the official GN'R website:

www.gunsnroses.com

Until I see a release date on that website I'm not believing it's coming out.

HUH guys please wait for the real whole thing to come out , im pretty sure that if you have any deepness of thought as well as good musical understanding , anything Axl chooses to release will impress the fuck outta you , all we heard so far is leaked demo version of a few songs and the fucking thing will actually include 32 songs so relax. I f you dont have faith in Axl as far as music goes then you dont know him for sure.You really think that with such a project Axl would let the best stuff leak???? if so its time you take your fucking meds.

GO AXL!