Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:59:01 -0500
Subject: Dude Chinese Democracy
From: Arafat Kazi
To: Jarett Kobek

I’m really fuckin’ rocking out here.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:29:54 -0800
From: Jarett Kobek
To: Arafat Kazi
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy

Dude, I am listening to it right now too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s really weirdly good, isn’t it?

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:37:00 -0500
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy
From: Arafat Kazi
To: Jarett Kobek

Oh yes. It’s SO fucking good. It’s better than Use Your Illusion 1, as good as 2, and definitely better than Spaghetti Incident.

Did you get to check out any of the songs I sent you?

Also, I think “Shackler’s Revenge” is the only weak track in the album.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:49:35 -0800
From: Jarett Kobek
To: Arafat Kazi
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy

You know that I have issues with Use Your illusion 1/2– I don’t like either as an album. But for all the fan worship of Slash, the member that I’m missing is Izzy Stradlin. All the songs that I like from the Illusions were written by Izzy, and his imprint is pretty much what defines Appetite. Unlike you, I’m not addicted to Axl’s early ’90s vision, so I can’t stand 2. I would argue till I’m blue in the face that what Use Your Illusion represents, in retrospect, is Axl trying to get to the sound that he has found on Chinese Democracy. It’s more a transition point than a destination. Too bad it’s a shitty transition.

I agree though, Chinese Democracy is definitely better than either, but we’ve more or less known this for 7 years, when the tracks started being performed live– and how can you even talk about the Spaghetti Incident as a real album? Also, you know what I find sad? That “Oh My God” wasn’t included in some form or another. Fuck the haters, that’s an amazingly weird song. Kind of astounding it’s nine years old.

The question is: how do you feel Chinese Democracy compares to Appetite? I feel that they are totally incomparable, like apples and oranges.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:05:15 -0800
From: Jarett Kobek
To: Arafat Kazi
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy

Also, “Shackler’s Revenge” has grown on me. The only songs I can’t take are “Sorry” and “This I Love.” I’ll probably learn to like “Sorry” but I’ll never like “This I Love.”

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:10:21 -0500
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy
From: Arafat Kazi
To: Jarett Kobek

Oh I agree with pretty much everything you say here. See, I always value shit that I liked when I was thirteen. I think that both Illusion 1 and 2 have songs that we both like, for whatever reason—”Get in the Ring,” “Back Off Bitch,” “Garden of Eden,” “Dust N Bones,” “Right Next Door to Hell,” “The Garden”—and that’s just the first album. (Also I really love the video for “November Rain” but I don’t think I have a legitimate reason for it except for legs at 13.) Looking at the tracklists on Wikipedia: “14 Years,” “Get in the Ring,” “Pretty Tied Up,” “Locomotive,” “You Could be Mine.” That’s not so bad. I like “Civil War” for the same reason I like Meatloaf, so I’ll keep this out of this list. But that’s still a lot of good songs.

But you’re right, Izzy was absolutely fucking essential. I also agree that Chinese Democracy seems to be the final destination that’s only half-reached on the Illusion albums, and both those albums are only good as containers for five or six good songs as opposed to working like an album like Appetite does, even now.

You’re also right in that I don’t think we can compare Chinese Democracy to Appetite. But dude, fucking hell, Appetite was the work of super-talented young dudes, but Chinese Democracy is the work of a man who knows sorrow and who has felt love and has also felt it slip away. I love this album so fucking much.

Also, they covered Soundgarden and Nazareth in Spaghetti Incident, hence saving grace. NOW YOU’RE MESSING WITH A SON OF A BITCH. Allah I was just thinking of that fucking song a week ago I fucking swear, too cool.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:13:15 -0500
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy
From: Arafat Kazi
To: Jarett Kobek

“This I Love” is what he sings to his wife after beating her. A low song, meant to show sorrow that was not felt. “Madagascar” is such a good song though. God, this album is so strangely worth it. I wonder what Axl will do now. Do you think he’ll be cool or an asshole? Also tell Elly I said happy birthday and sent love please. I will wish her on Facebook.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:37:25 -0800
From: Jarett Kobek
To: Arafat Kazi
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy

One of my problems with Use Your Illusion 1/2 has very little to do with anything that the guns n roses boys could control– basically, every major studio recording from about 1990 through 1995 sounds like absolute fucking shit. I don’t know what the technical reasons are for this, but the sound from that period is awful and inorganic. The other album I think about in these terms is Nirvana’s Nevermind, which has some fairly shitty song writing made a thousand times worse by disgusting, ugly production. In Utero is a little better, but not by much.

There’s something about the studio sound on Use Your Illusion which taints even the songs that I love– take “Pretty Tied Up,” as good a song as they ever did, and I say this not simply because I live down on Melrose. Had it been recorded during the sessions for Appetite, or even Lies, it would be classic, but as it stands, it sounds sort of “bleh.” There’s a dynamism missing from the material. I think this is why the albums have become such retroactive jokes that no one can explain– how do you describe a missing sound range, really?

Chinese Democracy works, in part, because it was clearly built as a response to this artificiality of sound– so rather than have it be an artefact of the recording process, Axl has fully embraced it. This distinguishes Chinese Democracy from other recent rock– a band like Fall Out Boy comes to mind– where there is an overarching pretense of a room full of proletariat morons playing in time, when the actuality is individual sessions, overdubs and Protools. By shedding the rest of GNR and making a solo project, Axl has, pardon the pun, lost any illusion of the album being a live recording. The effect is freeing himself from a sound which must emulate that of a live band. Chinese Democracy is a totally artificial, constructed product and is open about its nature.

In many ways, I’m echoing a point that Chuck Klosterman made in an Onion review: the album is better for the lack of Slash or Duff. Had those dudes been in the picture, there is no way this sound could have been achieved. This is also probably true of Izzy Stradlin, but I hate to admit it.

–

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:44:58 -0800
From: Jarett Kobek
To: Arafat Kazi
Subject: Re: Dude Chinese Democracy

Also,

I think something should be said about the lyrics– I’ve read a few reviews suggesting that Axl is commenting on this and that, but no one has mentioned explicitly that these are the lyrics of a man who has spent about twenty years in constant therapy. There is a certain equivocation of feeling here– of trying to get to the root of why a person tells their self one thing and does another– and an acceptance of equal blame that I imagine can only be earned through couching surfing in the offices of therapists. Axl seems to have completely internalized the judgement-neutral vocabulary of the process. This is the best therapy album since Plastic Ono Band.

The only downside is that I have absolutely no idea what any of the songs are about, if one can speak to the meaning of songs in such concrete terms. But consider, oh, I dunno, “Mr. Brownstone.” I remember when you used to think that it was about an old man they liked to dance with– so did the Virginia Tech shooter, btw– but it was obviously about heroin. “Welcome to the Jungle,” “My Michelle”– each had a specific theme or subject. But what the hell is “Chinese Democracy” (the song) about? “Better”? “I.R.S.”? I couldn’t say.

My favorite example of Axl’s therapy speak is from “Shackler’s Revenge”:

“Don’t ever try to tell me how much you care for me
Don’t ever try to tell me how you were there for me”

This could be about anyone in particular– and I suspect it represents Axl attempting to express some of the primal anger associated with the G’N'F’N'R brand, but it’s been so filtered through the therapeutic process that it sounds more like someone in their 40s confronting their alcoholic parent about the role drink played in imbuing childhood inadequacy. This is remarkably different from the scum level lyrics of a dude who once sang, “You get nothin for nothin / if that’s what you do / turn around bitch / I got a use for you / and I’m bored.”

Just a thought, buddy!