Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy flac album

Sorry to disrupt the pity party, but, outside of light surface noise these LPs sound great. Better than my CD for sure.

How do new sealed records come dirty and scratched? That’s the reality of today’s pressings. Good thing this was cheap.

The inner groove distortion on this is very noticeable and disappointing. I only paid $5 for mine, so I’m not about to write a strongly worded letter to the record company or anything, but still. This shouldn’t have happened.

Great album, cursed by a multi-million-dollar production nullified by absolute dog-shit mastering. Better off snagging it on CD.

Great album but the LP seems very poor quality. All the inner tracks have audible distortion...it's shocking. I've also problems with the record skipping during various songs.

Not the best pressing. A bit noisy. Great music, 1- appetite for destruction 2- chinese democrasy.

For the most part, this pressing is very clear and gives so much depth to the album, and manages to make it sound even better than it already did. However, the tracks closest to the center do have some distortion. Definitely a worthwhile addition to any vinyl collection.

Highly distorted... Almost unbearable :( Sadly, I was huge fan of this album too...

If you go into this expecting Appetite for Destruction II, you will most likely be disappointed. However, if you are expecting to hear what Axl Rose had been cooking up in his secret lab for 14 years, then a damn fine album awaits you. Chinese Democracy sees Axl exploring music beyond bluesy hard rock, with his electronic and industrial influences showing through, even including a few Nine Inch Nails members showing up on the album.The title track is kind of what you would expect from Guns N’ Roses in 2008, a straight-up hard, punchy rock song. A suitable opener, and is to this album what ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ was to Appetite. Considering that, ‘Shackler’s Revenge’ is a bit of a shock to the system, a nasty, industrial beast of a song with some disco beats thrown in for good measure. It includes some impressive vocal layering, showing the kind of meticulous production of the album overall. Definitely an album highlight. The style of ‘Better’ is more of a balance between the previous two tracks, with an excellent electronic breakdown and powerful vocals in the middle (the electronic aspects were more prominent in the leaked versions, but are now a lot lower in the mix). ‘Street Of Dreams’ is the kind of ballad Axl showed a liking to on the Use Your Illusion albums – it’s a good song, but the production definitely saves this one.‘If The World’ is very interesting, being the most “non-GNR” song on the album, most likely intended to catch the listener off-guard. Opening with some flamenco guitars, carried by a funk groove, some hip-hop beats and a slight reggae bounce, it’s a very fun song. ‘There Was A Time’ is a rock epic in the same vein as ‘November Rain’, ending with some fantastic guitar solos and epic Axl screams. ‘Catcher In The Rye’ is quite an introspective song, inspired by Holden Caulfield from the book of the same name.‘Scraped’ grabs your attention immediately, opening with some epic Axl screams. It’s a heavy, pounding song with some of the attitude from the classic GNR and is definitely another highlight. ‘Riad N’ The Bedouins’ starts with electronic ambient sounds sampled from Ulrich Schnauss, which suddenly bursts into another short, sweet but relentless rocker. Listen carefully for some more interesting sounds in the mix of this one. ‘Sorry’ has a slow, heavy groove and is lyrically vicious. Whoever inspired this song definitely didn’t endear themselves to Axl (Slash, maybe?). ‘I.R.S’ is definitely the track that sounds the most like classic GNR, but still sounds modern.‘Madagascar’ is a slower track with some weary and vulnerable vocals from Axl, which work quite nicely with the lyrics. And no, it’s not about singing lemurs – ‘Madagascar’ seems like a bit of a random title. The samples from Martin Luther King speeches work very well, and add a lot of power to the overall track.The final two tracks are absolutely amazing and are fantastic album closers. ‘This I Love’ was in fact written around 1993/94, and the melody even shows up in some Axl piano solos from the UYI tour. Despite the sappy lyrics, it’s a beautiful song, and the band managed make it sound even better by playing it down a semitone at the Taipei show in 2009 (definitely worth looking up). It’s a shame Axl’s vocals don’t have any rasp in the choruses on the recorded version, as it sounds amazing when he sings it live.‘Prostitute’ is an epic song, with heavy beats, powerful guitars, and a big orchestra. It ends with about 1:30 of absolutely beautiful and serene orchestral music, and serves as the perfect, albeit odd for GNR, ending to an amazing album.TL;DR = Get rid of all expectations of what you think GNR “should” sound like, and just take the music for what it is, and you come away with an album that is truly epic (you’ll notice that word pops up a lot here). While old and new GNR can’t be compared as they are two separate bands with completely different styles, with just one album Axl’s post-GNR effort stands head and shoulders above any other project from former members, and definitely sounds a lot better than anything Velvet Revolver have done. One very impressive aspect is that despite the over-production, the sheer amount packed into the mx of each song, there isn’t a single trace of any compression or distortion anywhere on the album, unlike other rock albums from the time such as Death Magnetic. And also unlike other haphazardly pressed albums today, it sounds even more powerful on vinyl.Considering the expectations and the money pumped into the project by the record company, a reported $13 million, it was a commercial failure. But listening to it, it sounds like it was worth every pennyHighlights: Shackler’s Revenge, Better, Scraped, This I Love, Prostitute.

Wow. That was easily the longest review I've ever seen on Discogs. Even the TL;DR was TL;DR! Writing like THAT takes some serious commitment.MY REVIEW - Chinese Democracy: Axl Rose n' The Guys Who Aren't Slash.

Side 4 is pressed off centre. Causes unbearable wobbling. Needle sways about 6mm. Only happens on Side 4, Side 3 is fine. I enlarged the spindle hole and marked the label for placement. Going to look for a EU pressing to replace it.

listening to this lp is excruciating . Axl , his voice is just painful to hear , whining trite lyrics mostly. the music is nothing interesting, nothing memorable except maybe the first song which does not mean it's really a good song. i realize this is the new g n r and i don't need it to sound like the best g n r but this is one of the worst albums ever. my copy , u.s. pressing sounds fine as vinyl . i listened to this a second time after hearing it once several years ago when i first bought it and i realized i have to sell it .

This EU pressing is significantly better than the US one. The US is severely noisy, the EU is as silent as a CD.

Awful pressing. Noisy, noisy, noisy, lots of surface noise, even after repeated cleanings. The European version is MUCH better.

Despite all the bad publicity and criticism, the absence of key members and most notably Slash (hm not sure that's a bad thing though ;)It's so different from the old Guns, frankly on another level musically.Long story short - it's just a brilliant record... Loved it back in 2008, adore it now.

Not a classic GNR record, Chinese Democracy combines Axl Rose' voice talent with modern rock guitarists like Buckethead, Robin Fink and Bumblefoot. It's not what one suspected from the 80s/90s hard rock band, but then again, it is not the Guns N' Roses we knew. Once you have overcome the wish that the band would have another name and forget how long it took to see daylight, you can fully concentrade on the music which proves brilliant in every aspect, though it is of course not the best records of all time or anything like that. Nice, nice music!