Biggest Suprise?

[Guns N Axl]

I love Scraped, Better, Street of Dreams, Shackler's Revenge, and There Was A Time! Epic songs!

[Quicksilver]

Due to the fact that I haven't heard a single leak before the album was released, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the experimental sort of moments which are present throughout a lot of the tracks. The most prominent example of this being (I think) is the start of Sorry.

[gdog4]

Sorry is the biggest surprise of this album.  I figured it'd be another ballad, but it's a ferocious rocker, with biting lyrics and it's sung with a power only Axl can manage.

I don't get why anyone would think that Chinese Democracy is 'soft'?  Is it 'Appetite' or even some of 'Illusions'...no, but it's not soft...not even...

[JDash10]

Well, as a 14 year old I have not really been following the release of ChiDem, I knew it was out there but I didn't know about demos and mix tapes, and ect.

I got the album and honestly this is the first album in my LIFE where each song was unskippable. I even had to skip through some of the GNR Greatest Hits, but Axl has come back with such bombast and so many different styles, he is so creative, from the Dragula-esque Shackler's Revenge (Now I scream "I don't believe in the reaper!!!" all over the house), to the great feel of Chinese Democracy and Better.


To answer the question, the biggest surprise to me was Street of Dreams. At first I thought it was about a girl splitting up with Axl (maybe it is) but thinking about the turbulent relationship between Axl and Slash (read Axl's own thoughts here http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=133371) I can't get over thinking the song was about him.

"I wanna make you change your mind"
About leaving GNR?

"And it hurts too much to see you"
Brings back old, painful memories?

"Everywhere I go I see you
You know it's what you planned, this much is true,
What I thought was beautiful, don't live inside of you any more"

^^ This is quite simple, Slash is a huge icon and maybe Axl feels he's stolen his thunder? Slash apparently planned to use and abuse Axl as he himself describes in the link above. As for the last line, it definitely sounds like Axl is saying what made him like Slash in the first place, all the honour and respect and comradery have gone and he sees SLash as 'sold out'.

Again, I am not stating this as fact, I am not Axl. But the theory sticks in my head. Also this song sounds the most like a classic GNR song on the album, even the solo is reminiscent of Slash in parts.

[Theodora]

sorry is the best song ever it reminds me of pink floyd just beautiful great voice great lyrics pure poetry

[MetaSouL]

In order of biggest surprise:

• Sheer epic performance on This I Love, from the melody to the vocals to the piano to the orchestration (and Harp) to Robin's solo.

• Pitman's work on all of the songs, especially lovin' the sub-bass. Picking up Pitman was one of the the best moves Axl's made.

• Vocal and instrumental break from the norm on Sorry.

• If the World vocals, bucket's solos and acoustic, and again Pitman..I think Pitman's work turned a good idea into a great song.

• Ending vocals & solo, and especially the backing vocals on TWAT...GNR should definitely continue to do more backing vocals with other band members (or put them higher in the mix), it really gives it a powerful feeling and melds together the fact that is a team effort.

• Axl's vocal melodies and backing vocals on CITR, along with the breakdown in the middle (again Pitman w/Dizzy over the top). Seems the basic rhythm and a lot of the great harmonies are covered-up in the mix, causing it to sound too busy, unfortunately.

• That Riad actually qualified and made it onto the album (this was the only disappointment of a surprise). I absolutely love the intro however, and I love how GNR is pushing the envelop outside the bounds of normal rock (I dig Silkworms and wish there was more stuff like this), it's just that don't like the melody of Riad and don't think it stacks up to the other songs, nor will be remembered 20 years from now.

~M

[aeroheadv1]

that it came out.


(someone had to say it)

Lmfao, indeed!

[GnrJanus]

scraped.

It's almost as if has been put on to fill some time.


it's a great tune.. but put it with the tunes on CD It makes me wonder... is it a filler.... is it just there to fill some last minute....  couldn't they put a better song on it... wasn't there enough MB left to place something better....?

[johndoe]

The songs that surprised me were Catcher in the rye, both how good it was and also how it stood out because of its different style. The other song was Street of dreams and that was only because of the name change, and the absence of the drums in the beginning after the intro

[Sweersa]

My biggest surprise was how little promotion there was for it, I was pleasantly surprised CITR made it, and upon listening to the album the AM speaker to speaker mix of that lalalalala part in If the World was pretty cool.