couple movie reviews + chinese democracy.
If you don't like/don't care about the current Guns n' Roses, feel absolutely free to skip the following section. It isn't nice. Not really. And it's just me stating what I already knew.
So, I downloaded Chinese Democracy. And I've listened to it fairly. But consider that I never listened to GNR because of Axl in the first place, I never was that great fan of his and I don't like the name business and never will. That said, review. And also, dear Axl, Lucinda Williams > you. Because I downloaded her latest record in two minutes counter while it took me a quarter of an hour for yours and I'm sure Lucinda's record wasn't as expected as yours is.
Chinese Democracy: sucks. Sorry to be that harsh, but it sucks. It's overproduced, has too many layers, it sounds like they put changes over changes on it for years (guess it's true, but anyway) and no. Just no. Horrible.
Shackler's Revenge: I can say the same I said about Chinese Democracy adding that this sounds blatantly like a filler. Absolutely not necessary.
Better: well, I was tempted to skip this at a half. It sounded better live three years ago or when it was that they played it live for the first time. Oversaturated effects as in the previous two, IDK what the hell Axl was trying to prove singing that way if it wasn't his voice being distorted and meh, I just don't like it.
Street Of Dreams: well, I need to be fair. This one is good. Really good. Especially because it doesn't have weird electronic effects, the music is really nice, Axl thankfully sings as he used to instead of doing strange things and it sounded like the lyrics were pretty nice. And it was well played. Nothing to say, I liked this one a lot. I have an idea that it's The Blues with another title, but I can't remember how that one sounded live except that I liked it.
If The World: see, my problem with Axl is that I kind of hate it when he goes and sings an entire song like he sang the bridge in Welcome To The Jungle. I mean, I can see his vocal chords stretching as I hear this and the music is just not enough to distract me from it. Not a bad song actually but it just doesn't tell me anything. Even though there's some nice guitar playing in the end.
There Was A Time: I had the demo for this one ages ago, it came on random on my player and I had to shut it down because it hurt my ears. This version here is way better, no shit, but still nothing I'd put on my mp3. Also, I like guitar solos but not when they're endless and when the guitarist isn't someone I care about. This one definitely isn't, whoever he is (Buckethead? The guy who plays the guitar that looks like cheese? the guy that looks a bit like Izzy?).
Catcher In The Rye: I think that Brian May was supposed to have played guitar in here and I guess he is but still, too many layers. Three guitars are too many, or so it seems to me. The music is good though. I mean, I can only hear him after three minutes and in the end. Brian May, I mean. Good song, but God, it'd have been much better a bit stripped down.
Scraped: oh God, Axl, please, I feel pity for your vocal chords. And I never liked you screaming just to show that you can do high notes. And then we're again with the electronica/oversaturated/layer-over-layer-voice stuff. Sorry but no on this one. I'd have skipped it if it wasn't the shortest of the bunch, thankfully.
Riad: Like Chinese Democracy but slightly better. Maybe I like the music better or maybe it's less oversaturated but same business. Too much screaming, music which isn't anything I'll remember in a week and I just don't like it. Not my cup of tea at all.
Sorry: Dear Axl, I like it when you sing straight rock music. That said, this one at least is original. It doesn't have the tons of layers, the music is fine and I figure that is good that he shows that he can do a lot of stuff with that voice of is, but I have a problem with this that I'll rant about when I'm through with the song-by-song review.
IRS: starts good and then it's just boring. I mean, it's Axl screaming and the guitarists playing heavy. 80% of this record until now was Axl screaming and heavy guitars.
Madagascar: boring. All I have to say. It just drags on endlessly and it isn't really anything special.
This I Love: Well, a bit late to start with the good stuff. This one has a lovely beginning, he really sings it well, the lyrics are good.
Prostitute: this is weird. I really like the stanzas and the intro, but I don't like the refrain. Not that bad anyway. Pretty good, if not for the refrain that to me sounds completely off with all the rest. Anyway, I'll take a Bon Jovi demo with the same title any day over this, sorry.
So, in short, it's one really good song and four good-but-could-be-better ones on fourteen, while the other nine are either completely irrelevant or just bad, at least for my tastes. Maybe it's just because this kind of music Axl's doing right now is not really my cup of tea, but the point it's also that since this thing has been in production for thirteen years (I mean, it was supposed to be out in 1999 and I can fucking remember that) I don't even know how much of it is genuine. I mean, who tells me that Axl's voice sounds awesome because it's awesome and not because they spent ten years working on the masters? I'm sorry but I like (mostly) straightforward records. With the exceptions to the rule, sure (see Bruce Springsteen, but it took him a year to make a record because he chose ten songs from one hundred. That's another story). Half of this sounds the same, half of the songs are too long and just plain boring and it's not like (apart from Brian May) any other musician he had here sounded like he had a distinct personality. I mean, the problem with THIS band is that it's the Axl Rose show while the original group was the Axl, Slash, Duff, Izzy and Steven show. It's not that his current musicians are bad, it's just that they don't stand up on their own. And I already read some review saying that this is the new Appetite for Destruction and sorry but no. We just aren't there. And even if nothing VR did was close to Appetite either, I'll take any VR record over this. Straight and square. And that's my very humble opinion.
Then. I watched two movies this week. First was Rules of Attraction some days ago, the other was Changeling today. Regarding the first... well, it's worth for His Prettiness going around with pro-masturbation t-shirt, being pretty and being absolutely and utterly gay. Oh, and dancing in his underwear. The rest was kind of plain disgusting and it was definitely one of the most pretentious movies I've ever seen. Said it all. Not recommended if you're not into His Prettiness. While The Changeling, oh, OH, GOD. Best movie I've seen all this year.
Okay. I cried for 85% of the second part. Seriously. I lost it at one point and never regained it. It was completely draining and it packed more than one punch and it wasn't an easy movie to watch, but God, it was just so GOOD. I don't know how can Clint Eastwood make all of his movies so fucking good. And while I'm glad I didn't know what was going to happen (all I knew was that they kidnapped her child) as soon as they started to imply what had happened I just completely lost it. There was some pretty fucking incredible acting in there, the kids were all excellent, I loved John Malkovich and I really liked Angelina Jolie, too. I don't think I've ever seen her acting better even if to be honest I haven't seen her in that many movies. Also, all the people playing the policemen were excellent. Also the bad guy, who was a perfect bad guy. I don't think I wanted to strangle someone so badly during a movie in the last three years or so. And it was also so well done technically, wow. Just wow. I loved it. Dear Clint, please keep on making a movie each year until you can't physically stand up. Possibly also appear in them though, but I'm not holding it against you. Why didn't it get anything at Cannes? *sigh* God. I went out of the cinema completely shaken. Clint, I love you. And you managed to make five movies in a row (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima and this one) and make me cry at each one. Now I kind of feel lame but that guy just gets me every time.
Cheers if you read all of this post and arrived to the end ;) and now I'm getting on the novel. Or trying to, if I don't end up procrastinating. And BTW, mood is ecstatic because of The Changeling. If this had been just the Chinese Democracy review, it'd have been something like discontent or aggravated.
So, I downloaded Chinese Democracy. And I've listened to it fairly. But consider that I never listened to GNR because of Axl in the first place, I never was that great fan of his and I don't like the name business and never will. That said, review. And also, dear Axl, Lucinda Williams > you. Because I downloaded her latest record in two minutes counter while it took me a quarter of an hour for yours and I'm sure Lucinda's record wasn't as expected as yours is.
Chinese Democracy: sucks. Sorry to be that harsh, but it sucks. It's overproduced, has too many layers, it sounds like they put changes over changes on it for years (guess it's true, but anyway) and no. Just no. Horrible.
Shackler's Revenge: I can say the same I said about Chinese Democracy adding that this sounds blatantly like a filler. Absolutely not necessary.
Better: well, I was tempted to skip this at a half. It sounded better live three years ago or when it was that they played it live for the first time. Oversaturated effects as in the previous two, IDK what the hell Axl was trying to prove singing that way if it wasn't his voice being distorted and meh, I just don't like it.
Street Of Dreams: well, I need to be fair. This one is good. Really good. Especially because it doesn't have weird electronic effects, the music is really nice, Axl thankfully sings as he used to instead of doing strange things and it sounded like the lyrics were pretty nice. And it was well played. Nothing to say, I liked this one a lot. I have an idea that it's The Blues with another title, but I can't remember how that one sounded live except that I liked it.
If The World: see, my problem with Axl is that I kind of hate it when he goes and sings an entire song like he sang the bridge in Welcome To The Jungle. I mean, I can see his vocal chords stretching as I hear this and the music is just not enough to distract me from it. Not a bad song actually but it just doesn't tell me anything. Even though there's some nice guitar playing in the end.
There Was A Time: I had the demo for this one ages ago, it came on random on my player and I had to shut it down because it hurt my ears. This version here is way better, no shit, but still nothing I'd put on my mp3. Also, I like guitar solos but not when they're endless and when the guitarist isn't someone I care about. This one definitely isn't, whoever he is (Buckethead? The guy who plays the guitar that looks like cheese? the guy that looks a bit like Izzy?).
Catcher In The Rye: I think that Brian May was supposed to have played guitar in here and I guess he is but still, too many layers. Three guitars are too many, or so it seems to me. The music is good though. I mean, I can only hear him after three minutes and in the end. Brian May, I mean. Good song, but God, it'd have been much better a bit stripped down.
Scraped: oh God, Axl, please, I feel pity for your vocal chords. And I never liked you screaming just to show that you can do high notes. And then we're again with the electronica/oversaturated/layer-over-layer-voice stuff. Sorry but no on this one. I'd have skipped it if it wasn't the shortest of the bunch, thankfully.
Riad: Like Chinese Democracy but slightly better. Maybe I like the music better or maybe it's less oversaturated but same business. Too much screaming, music which isn't anything I'll remember in a week and I just don't like it. Not my cup of tea at all.
Sorry: Dear Axl, I like it when you sing straight rock music. That said, this one at least is original. It doesn't have the tons of layers, the music is fine and I figure that is good that he shows that he can do a lot of stuff with that voice of is, but I have a problem with this that I'll rant about when I'm through with the song-by-song review.
IRS: starts good and then it's just boring. I mean, it's Axl screaming and the guitarists playing heavy. 80% of this record until now was Axl screaming and heavy guitars.
Madagascar: boring. All I have to say. It just drags on endlessly and it isn't really anything special.
This I Love: Well, a bit late to start with the good stuff. This one has a lovely beginning, he really sings it well, the lyrics are good.
Prostitute: this is weird. I really like the stanzas and the intro, but I don't like the refrain. Not that bad anyway. Pretty good, if not for the refrain that to me sounds completely off with all the rest. Anyway, I'll take a Bon Jovi demo with the same title any day over this, sorry.
So, in short, it's one really good song and four good-but-could-be-better ones on fourteen, while the other nine are either completely irrelevant or just bad, at least for my tastes. Maybe it's just because this kind of music Axl's doing right now is not really my cup of tea, but the point it's also that since this thing has been in production for thirteen years (I mean, it was supposed to be out in 1999 and I can fucking remember that) I don't even know how much of it is genuine. I mean, who tells me that Axl's voice sounds awesome because it's awesome and not because they spent ten years working on the masters? I'm sorry but I like (mostly) straightforward records. With the exceptions to the rule, sure (see Bruce Springsteen, but it took him a year to make a record because he chose ten songs from one hundred. That's another story). Half of this sounds the same, half of the songs are too long and just plain boring and it's not like (apart from Brian May) any other musician he had here sounded like he had a distinct personality. I mean, the problem with THIS band is that it's the Axl Rose show while the original group was the Axl, Slash, Duff, Izzy and Steven show. It's not that his current musicians are bad, it's just that they don't stand up on their own. And I already read some review saying that this is the new Appetite for Destruction and sorry but no. We just aren't there. And even if nothing VR did was close to Appetite either, I'll take any VR record over this. Straight and square. And that's my very humble opinion.
Then. I watched two movies this week. First was Rules of Attraction some days ago, the other was Changeling today. Regarding the first... well, it's worth for His Prettiness going around with pro-masturbation t-shirt, being pretty and being absolutely and utterly gay. Oh, and dancing in his underwear. The rest was kind of plain disgusting and it was definitely one of the most pretentious movies I've ever seen. Said it all. Not recommended if you're not into His Prettiness. While The Changeling, oh, OH, GOD. Best movie I've seen all this year.
Okay. I cried for 85% of the second part. Seriously. I lost it at one point and never regained it. It was completely draining and it packed more than one punch and it wasn't an easy movie to watch, but God, it was just so GOOD. I don't know how can Clint Eastwood make all of his movies so fucking good. And while I'm glad I didn't know what was going to happen (all I knew was that they kidnapped her child) as soon as they started to imply what had happened I just completely lost it. There was some pretty fucking incredible acting in there, the kids were all excellent, I loved John Malkovich and I really liked Angelina Jolie, too. I don't think I've ever seen her acting better even if to be honest I haven't seen her in that many movies. Also, all the people playing the policemen were excellent. Also the bad guy, who was a perfect bad guy. I don't think I wanted to strangle someone so badly during a movie in the last three years or so. And it was also so well done technically, wow. Just wow. I loved it. Dear Clint, please keep on making a movie each year until you can't physically stand up. Possibly also appear in them though, but I'm not holding it against you. Why didn't it get anything at Cannes? *sigh* God. I went out of the cinema completely shaken. Clint, I love you. And you managed to make five movies in a row (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima and this one) and make me cry at each one. Now I kind of feel lame but that guy just gets me every time.
Cheers if you read all of this post and arrived to the end ;) and now I'm getting on the novel. Or trying to, if I don't end up procrastinating. And BTW, mood is ecstatic because of The Changeling. If this had been just the Chinese Democracy review, it'd have been something like discontent or aggravated.