I have listened to this album several times recently. I’m going to try to make this review as short and to the point as possible, yet easy to understand.
First of all, no matter what anyone says, people are more likely to diss this album because of all the time it took to get it here, you wouldn’t want to mention this in the same sentence as Appetite for Destruction. Let’s just get that out of the way. Not even close.
That said, if you like the “Use your Illusion” albums, then you will probably really like this CD.
I will sum this album up in three statements:
- Even though this album has a lot in common with the material on the Illusion CD’s (it wouldn’t sound out of place to listen to “Use your Illusion 1″ after this CD, for instance, or Vice-Versa), there is nothing on this CD that is good as the “high points” of the “Illusions”. That is to say, there is nothing on this album as good as “Civil War”, “Right next door to hell”, “Yesterdays”, and CERTAINLY nothing touching the greatness of “You could be mine”.
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OK, that said, *ALL* of the songs from Chinese Democracy are better than the weaker cuts from either of the Illusions.
- This album is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more consistant that either of the “Illusions”. This is a very consistant album. The songs are all consistantly GOOD. But none of them are great.
VERDICT: It’s harder rocking that EITHER of the Illusion albums, but the songs aren’t as “catchy” as the best cuts from the Illusion albums. The songs are ALL good, and they all rock hard, but just aren’t very catchy.
About Axl, am I the only one who can tell Axl’s voice is completely fried? I love Buckethead and Bumblefoot, but it seems their talents have gone wasted. The guitars are very nu-metal-ish. Axl needs Slash like desert needs the rain.
Sounds nothing like Hybrid Theory or Meteora and I liked those..
Mike Shinoda is attempting to sing now. On a song called ” In Between” he does and it’s not that good. It’s a decent attempt but they should just let him do his thing with the rap since that seems to fit.
The slower songs are all pretty good. They might be hated by people who just want them to redo their previous albums, it’s definitely not the Linkin Park I used to like. Little driving guitar work, Mike barely raps and Hahn is barely noticeable throughout the album. If you expect Minutes to Midnight to be another Meteora or songs similar to What I’ve Done, then you are mistaken. Their music is pretty much a total rip-off of NIN “The Fragile” era. They are trying to change, and I give them some merit, but I just prefer their earlier stuff.
Only really weak song is In Between. And what’s with all the clapping in the damn background of Bleed It Out?! I also miss Joe Hahn having a track to himself, but this isn’t a nu-metal record.
I’ve listened to the whole thing about 3-4 times now, would give it a three and a half stars out of five. Not the best album this year but it’s good.
Great news! I’m excited because the Smashing Pumpkins were one of my all-time favorite rock bands. But then, I don’t expect them to match the quality of Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie again, nor do I expect them to create the same kind of impact they created on the rock scene during the early nineties. A touch of nostalgia? Maybe…
I also wonder who will complete the line-up, besides Jimmy and Billy. I can’t imagine both James and D’Arcy joining the band again.
I would just like to say, before I get distracted and forget again, Happy Holidays to you all.
What’s up man? I keep telling jokes today. No, these are not jokes, these are real life incidents. I can’t tell if I’m lucky or not to work with these people. They drive me crazy sometimes.
This is hilarious! And don’t miss the Twist…
Today, D and V – while talking about R (behind his back) being a crazy “memory freak” who always memorizes useless cop news in his head, but can hardly remember important things related to office work – placed a Bet:
D said R can remember the exact Date of the devil cop’s shoot out with 2 policemen. V said no he can’t and he won’t, otherwise he really would be fucking nutty lunatic, a normal person just can’t remember such thing! Well all we do know it’s around mid-March but not the Exact date.
The moment of truth came: R heard the question, and without a pause, he answered “March 17, Friday!!!” D and all of us laughed at poor V who just lost $500.
Then the hilarious twist came – “It was my Birthday, that’s why l remembered.” said R. More uncontrollable laughter followed!!!
For the first time l can understand the tragedy of V, even though his theories are most often correct – as in this case – but he still lost anyway. It’s his fate, always the Tragic Gambler.
W. told D. to write JY on behalf of him, asking for meeting in UK, though guessing she’d say no, coz she’s always ill the last few times W went to London. Then her colleague SS wrote back saying JY passed away last Friday but surprisingly D didn’t know what ‘passed away’ mean! So D replied SS, knowing JY “has left the company” and tell SS to give JY our best wishes if you get to talk to JY!! More unfortunate is W didn’t happen to read SS’s email himself, so W couldn’t stop this embarrassing email going out…
LOL. Then W read SS’s email himself and said Oh god JY died, then D panics the whole afternoon until he turns himself in. W choped off his head of course, and W wrote back to SS this time. (“sorry SS, my assistant misinformed me…”)
G: It’s the 28th complaint emails we received in this month already.
Me: Today is the first day of this month.
This week everyone’s talking about HK’s biggest “cop kills cop”crime news in a decade:
Last Friday, a thug who planned to rob a pistol or two from police for his own use (!) had a fierce shootout with two beatcops inside a pedestrian tunnel; in the struggle he killed one cop and heavily wounded the other, but the first cop shot the thug 5 times in the chest killing the thug instantly before he died a hero himself.
Now the biggest catch: the thug was an off-duty COP himself and he possessed and used the gun of another cop he killed 5 years ago – it was a shocking unsolved murder until now. That same year, he put on a mask and used same gun to rob a bank and killed a Pakistano security guard, the case was again unsolved.The outrageous thing is, in between these two crimes in 2001, this guy went on TV’s Millionaire game show with his wife and won HK$60,000! And he was even on news footage before as a protester in a high profile HK democracy parade in 2004. He seemed to love the camera and media coverage. There will be books written about the “devil cop”(as crowned by media) for years to come, his wish somehow fulfilled.
You can count on this as one of Top Ten HK News this year 2006. KCR another one.
