‘Chinese Democracy’ missing in action
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- June
- 20
It took Axl Rose 13 years, 14 studios and an estimated $13 million to put together Chinese Democracy, billed as Guns n Roses’ sixth studio album.
But some seven months after its release, it seems nowhere to be found – and I’m having a hard time finding it on store shelves these days.
Obviously, this was Axl’s baby – the rest of GnR was off with Velvet Revolver, even if the troublesome singer kept the brand name to himself.
And the album did start out well: It sold 261,000 copies in the first week and went Platinum. It came in at No. 3 on the Billboard charts. Rolling Stone magazine also gave it four out of five stars, and called it “a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record.”
But, as the LA Times reported less than a month after the Nov., 2008 release, sales plummeted in the second week – dropping as much as 78%.
Geffen Records wasn’t thrilled that Rose didn’t do much to promote the album, and word was that he disappeared for two months after its release.
It’s unfortunate. The cuts I’ve heard showed promise, although I hardly gave it a complete listen. I’m sure I’ll pick up a complete copy at some point – or simply wait 13 years for the sequel.
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This entry was posted
on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon.
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