The best album ever to be listened with headphones! I've been listening to it since 2008 and I still find out new stuff about each song. There are so many layers, so much talent. A real masterpiece!
You know, its funny but the same is kinda happening to me, I love this album but for whatever reason i took a few years to give it a spin again and now every time I listen to it I discover something new. This as you say is a masterpiece specially if you are into music making this is a great example on how to do it properly!!!
I finally listened to Patience on a family member’s amazing stereo, and I was just undone! It was absolutely overwhelmingly gorgeous! No surprise there, but phew I’d love an upgrade! (I make it a point to listen through lots of music whenever I can at their house!)
The fact that Buckethead and Finck have opposite playstyles helped a lot since they complemented each other really well and that can be heard beautifully in this song in the part where we go from Bucket's extremely difficult picking to Finck's melodic solo
Exactly, this is a great showcase of great understanding of musical arrangement as well as on capitalizing on the strengths of the talent at your disposal
Chinese democracy is such an underrated album, it's different from others gnr stuff, you should react to street of dreams too, its another good song from chinese democracy
It really is underrated, and it is so, exactly because it feels different from most of guns n roses stuff. But its definitely worth listening to. Ill check out the street of dreams
I remember discovering this masterpiece back in 2008, it's my favorite track from that album. It was nice watching your reaction, I did the same faces back then too. 😂
This is my favorite as well, probably because it took completely for surprise and blow me away by everything I discussed in the video. What do you think is the most surprising element of this album for you?
Glad you enjoyed it. Stay tuned to the channel. I'll be releasing videos like this one regularly and might end up coming back to this album and reacting to other tracks
I love your production breakdown! This album has finally really grown on me. I’m not much of a headbanger, but dang I can’t HELP myself when that section plows in! Love this track!
Great to hear your analysis on this one! Interesting album for many reasons. Obviously a lot going on as there were quite a few producers who put their hands on this album. I think everyone felt the need to put something in, sometimes less is more but it is what it is now. I enjoy coming back to this album though.
Thanks a lot!!! And you at right the production of this album is a story in and of itself haha. It is a miracle that it got released in the first place, let alone ending up the way it did haha. For me it is an extremely underrated album and gets way too much undeserved hate don’t you think?
@@bardonmusic for sure, we are all human at the end of the day and what the original guns did between 87-93 is unlikely to be duplicated in a centuries time. What Axl did with Chinese is what he felt was the best album he could make with the musicians he had chosen. Might not be for everyone but when a brain like Axl’s creates music I think it’s always worth listening to. There was a time, Catcher in the rye, and Street of Dreams are a few of my favorites
This I Love is the song that you'll wanna check out. An amazing piece of piano music, fantastic arrangements, some of Axl's best vocals, and Robin Finck's solo is absolutely gorgeous. This track was mostly Buckethead, I believe, and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal was also on the record. Those three obviously have some great reputations, as you know. This I Love is, for me, the greatest Guns N' Roses love ballad. Definitely worth a reaction, my guy!!! 😎🖤
@bardonmusic One of my favourite things about Chinese Democracy as a whole is the dynamic range is so high. It's amazing how low some of the sounds get but most importantly they are still clearly audible yet at the same time the highs are very high as well. This is something I find is rarely accomplished by any bands or musicians in general and when Chinese Democracy was released at the height of the loudness war, it was a breath of fresh air that was so unique at the time. This is why in my personal opinion Axl Rose is the second greatest musician of all time second only to Freddie Mercury.
DJ Ashba and bumblefoot were amazing on guitar during the north American tour...2011...ashba is very charismatic on stage. They played almost 5 hours too...BLS was the opener.
Muito bom. Eu concordo que é super produzido, mas o álbum até tem dinâmica sim. A masterização dele foi até tema de artigo do Loudness War. E sim, o Robin Finck usou fuzz no Guns. Se quiser dar uma olhada, eu fiz cover dessa e de outras músicas do Chinese Democracy, ainda que eu tenha equipamento e técnica limitados.
I'm ignorant in terms of producing, mixing etc... But i think the hyper compression comes from the fact that the tracks were recorded over a span of 15 years in different studios by different people (from the musicans to the producers) .. It was a choice made to "hide" that thing if you know what i mean. And i think you can easily feel that chinese democracy songs are more of a studio collage than the product of a band. The only tracks that sound tight like a song should are sorry, shackler revenge and IRS...and them are very different songs but probably were put togheter by the same people in a very short time.
For this song: Axl Rose - lead vocals Buckethead - lead guitar, guitar solos (10:31 - 10:47 , 15:45 - 15:56) Robin Finck - lead guitar, guitar solo (16:40 - 17:00) Bumblefoot - guitar Paul Tobias - guitar Richard Fortus - guitar Tommy Stinson - bass, background vocals Dizzy Reed - keyboards, background vocals Chris Pitman - keyboards, background vocals Brain - drums, drum arrangement Frank Ferrer - drums
Thanks for sharing the line up. Even though its very different from what people expect when they hear the name guns n roses, its quite a team that they put together.
Yeah this was a standout song from this album. It has grown on me a lot over the years. The second half of There Was a Time, I really love too. Chinese Democracy (the song) was okay, as I recall, and I enjoy Shackler's Revenge as a kind of bonkers banger. I don't remember too much of the rest of the album, though.
Prostitute is the song that grew on me the most. First it was kinda meh to me, but now it's one of my favorites. I definitely recommend you to listen to that song.
It’s kind of interesting you found the compression so high. I read somewhere they actually didn’t use any sort of compression throughout the album. It’s entirely possible that that’s wrong, but I’ve definitely heard/read it somewhere.
it-s possible that they skipped the use of compressors directly on the instruments but you can hear some form of parallel processing going on specially on the drums. The mix itself is ultra loud so that in and of itself is proof of some form of limiting at least on the mastering stage. Thanks for sharing the info!!!
@@bardonmusic I'm not sure this is correct. The album actually departs from the loudness wars and is a much more dynamic record than most of the records coming out at the time. I certainly don't hear it being especially loud on any of my listening devices and Bob Ludwig, who mastered the record said: "In October, when I first heard some of final mixes which were incredibly multi-layered and dense, I was surprised by two things: The mixes were so finally honed that doing the smallest move sounded like I had done a lot and also that adding the typical amount of compression used in mastering these days took the life and musicality out of the recordings in a big way. The trial disc I submitted to the producers had 3 versions: The one I personally liked had no compression that was used just for loudness, only compression that was needed for great sounding rock and roll. Then, knowing how competitive everything is these days, I made two more masterings, one with more compression and another with yet more compression, but even the loudest one wasn’t remotely as loud as some recent CDs. Hoping that at least one of these would satisfy Axl and Caram Costanzo, the co-producers of the record, I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned. I think the fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above shear level."
@@mooney11 Yeah, back in the day Chinese Democracy was one of the few records that didn't take part in the loudness war. You only need to listen to Chinese Democracy songs back to back with other music from that time period and you can clearly hear that the Chinese Democracy songs are not as loud.
The best album ever to be listened with headphones!
I've been listening to it since 2008 and I still find out new stuff about each song.
There are so many layers, so much talent. A real masterpiece!
You know, its funny but the same is kinda happening to me, I love this album but for whatever reason i took a few years to give it a spin again and now every time I listen to it I discover something new. This as you say is a masterpiece specially if you are into music making this is a great example on how to do it properly!!!
For me the best Rock s album !!!! Saludos from Habana.
I hated Chinese democracy it was axl solo record I only like 4 songs of that record
Axl made incredible use of the stereo field. Patience especially when played through great headphones sounds surreal.
You are totally right!!!
I finally listened to Patience on a family member’s amazing stereo, and I was just undone! It was absolutely overwhelmingly gorgeous! No surprise there, but phew I’d love an upgrade!
(I make it a point to listen through lots of music whenever I can at their house!)
@@jennifervaughan2688 that is awesome! Rly epic you like it that much.
The fact that Buckethead and Finck have opposite playstyles helped a lot since they complemented each other really well and that can be heard beautifully in this song in the part where we go from Bucket's extremely difficult picking to Finck's melodic solo
Exactly, this is a great showcase of great understanding of musical arrangement as well as on capitalizing on the strengths of the talent at your disposal
Chinese democracy is such an underrated album, it's different from others gnr stuff, you should react to street of dreams too, its another good song from chinese democracy
It really is underrated, and it is so, exactly because it feels different from most of guns n roses stuff. But its definitely worth listening to. Ill check out the street of dreams
The song is well written, it has fundamental structure
I remember discovering this masterpiece back in 2008,
it's my favorite track from that album. It was nice watching your reaction, I did the same faces back then too. 😂
This is my favorite as well, probably because it took completely for surprise and blow me away by everything I discussed in the video. What do you think is the most surprising element of this album for you?
@@bardonmusic Just the overall sound, it's like a new interpretation of the GnR sound.
Great video, can you react to some more songs from this album like there was a time, Chinese democracy, street of dreams etc
Glad you enjoyed it. Stay tuned to the channel. I'll be releasing videos like this one regularly and might end up coming back to this album and reacting to other tracks
I love your production breakdown! This album has finally really grown on me. I’m not much of a headbanger, but dang I can’t HELP myself when that section plows in! Love this track!
Great to hear your analysis on this one! Interesting album for many reasons. Obviously a lot going on as there were quite a few producers who put their hands on this album. I think everyone felt the need to put something in, sometimes less is more but it is what it is now. I enjoy coming back to this album though.
Thanks a lot!!! And you at right the production of this album is a story in and of itself haha. It is a miracle that it got released in the first place, let alone ending up the way it did haha. For me it is an extremely underrated album and gets way too much undeserved hate don’t you think?
@@bardonmusic for sure, we are all human at the end of the day and what the original guns did between 87-93 is unlikely to be duplicated in a centuries time. What Axl did with Chinese is what he felt was the best album he could make with the musicians he had chosen. Might not be for everyone but when a brain like Axl’s creates music I think it’s always worth listening to. There was a time, Catcher in the rye, and Street of Dreams are a few of my favorites
This I Love is the song that you'll wanna check out. An amazing piece of piano music, fantastic arrangements, some of Axl's best vocals, and Robin Finck's solo is absolutely gorgeous. This track was mostly Buckethead, I believe, and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal was also on the record. Those three obviously have some great reputations, as you know. This I Love is, for me, the greatest Guns N' Roses love ballad. Definitely worth a reaction, my guy!!! 😎🖤
Thanks for the suggestion my friend!!! will definitely react to it!!!
Nah, Robin is on a lot in Better, considering it's his song haha
@@NickDePanfilis, I'm aware now, though Robin's roles in This I Love are fewer.
@@chrismeadows4216 No, Robin plays lead on This I Love
@@NickDePanfilis, with minimal parts, given that it's a song which is driven mostly by piano.
This is my favourite track on the entire album.
Automatic Like. Best song on the album, thanks
Happy you liked the video. And it truly is a great track
@bardonmusic One of my favourite things about Chinese Democracy as a whole is the dynamic range is so high. It's amazing how low some of the sounds get but most importantly they are still clearly audible yet at the same time the highs are very high as well. This is something I find is rarely accomplished by any bands or musicians in general and when Chinese Democracy was released at the height of the loudness war, it was a breath of fresh air that was so unique at the time. This is why in my personal opinion Axl Rose is the second greatest musician of all time second only to Freddie Mercury.
You can get this song sectioned out if you have the rock band files
You should react to There Was A Time from the same album, another great song. Great video! ☺
Great suggestion!
@@bardonmusic thanks! Hope you can react to it 😊
My fav gnr song its so beautiful man
Guns N' Roses - Better (Keyboards Only)
ruclips.net/video/kNz8si5EUHI/видео.html
DJ Ashba and bumblefoot were amazing on guitar during the north American tour...2011...ashba is very charismatic on stage. They played almost 5 hours too...BLS was the opener.
that's a real musician!!!
A great song this record was a master piece also
The rough cuts of the Chinese democracy songs are way better than what made the album.
Muito bom. Eu concordo que é super produzido, mas o álbum até tem dinâmica sim. A masterização dele foi até tema de artigo do Loudness War. E sim, o Robin Finck usou fuzz no Guns. Se quiser dar uma olhada, eu fiz cover dessa e de outras músicas do Chinese Democracy, ainda que eu tenha equipamento e técnica limitados.
Live version from 2016 was my favorite
I'm ignorant in terms of producing, mixing etc... But i think the hyper compression comes from the fact that the tracks were recorded over a span of 15 years in different studios by different people (from the musicans to the producers) .. It was a choice made to "hide" that thing if you know what i mean. And i think you can easily feel that chinese democracy songs are more of a studio collage than the product of a band. The only tracks that sound tight like a song should are sorry, shackler revenge and IRS...and them are very different songs but probably were put togheter by the same people in a very short time.
Would love the hear the demo of this track
I would be really interesting
I have the demo of this song, I have like 5 versions of it if you want to hear it.
@@bardonmusic I have the demo of this song, I have like 5 versions of it if you want to hear it.
For this song:
Axl Rose - lead vocals
Buckethead - lead guitar, guitar solos (10:31 - 10:47 , 15:45 - 15:56)
Robin Finck - lead guitar, guitar solo (16:40 - 17:00)
Bumblefoot - guitar
Paul Tobias - guitar
Richard Fortus - guitar
Tommy Stinson - bass, background vocals
Dizzy Reed - keyboards, background vocals
Chris Pitman - keyboards, background vocals
Brain - drums, drum arrangement
Frank Ferrer - drums
Thanks for sharing the line up. Even though its very different from what people expect when they hear the name guns n roses, its quite a team that they put together.
I believe Chris Pitman did some sub bass on the record too so that will be adding some extra thickness under Tommy's actual bass parts.
wasn't aware of that, it makes sense the bass is thick and powerful!!!
Yeah this was a standout song from this album. It has grown on me a lot over the years. The second half of There Was a Time, I really love too. Chinese Democracy (the song) was okay, as I recall, and I enjoy Shackler's Revenge as a kind of bonkers banger. I don't remember too much of the rest of the album, though.
The album surely has its ups and downs but i'd say its still pretty solid, and I would definitely say that it is underrated.
@@bardonmusic I'll have to listen to the whole album again. "Better" is probably the song I've revisited the most.
The same happened to me haha. This is an underrated gem and yeah better is the best the album has to offer
@@bardonmusic Indeed that's how I feel. It looks like they're releasing some new songs so, hopefully a new album is on the horizon.
Prostitute is the song that grew on me the most. First it was kinda meh to me, but now it's one of my favorites. I definitely recommend you to listen to that song.
It’s kind of interesting you found the compression so high. I read somewhere they actually didn’t use any sort of compression throughout the album. It’s entirely possible that that’s wrong, but I’ve definitely heard/read it somewhere.
it-s possible that they skipped the use of compressors directly on the instruments but you can hear some form of parallel processing going on specially on the drums. The mix itself is ultra loud so that in and of itself is proof of some form of limiting at least on the mastering stage. Thanks for sharing the info!!!
@@bardonmusic I'm not sure this is correct. The album actually departs from the loudness wars and is a much more dynamic record than most of the records coming out at the time. I certainly don't hear it being especially loud on any of my listening devices and Bob Ludwig, who mastered the record said:
"In October, when I first heard some of final mixes which were incredibly multi-layered and dense, I was surprised by two things: The mixes were so finally honed that doing the smallest move sounded like I had done a lot and also that adding the typical amount of compression used in mastering these days took the life and musicality out of the recordings in a big way.
The trial disc I submitted to the producers had 3 versions: The one I personally liked had no compression that was used just for loudness, only compression that was needed for great sounding rock and roll. Then, knowing how competitive everything is these days, I made two more masterings, one with more compression and another with yet more compression, but even the loudest one wasn’t remotely as loud as some recent CDs. Hoping that at least one of these would satisfy Axl and Caram Costanzo, the co-producers of the record, I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned.
I think the fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above shear level."
@@mooney11 Yeah, back in the day Chinese Democracy was one of the few records that didn't take part in the loudness war. You only need to listen to Chinese Democracy songs back to back with other music from that time period and you can clearly hear that the Chinese Democracy songs are not as loud.
No there is a lot of compression in this song. Overly compressed actually
Pls react to buckeadhead Jordan culture room
Hey that's a great pick, will be it a shot soon!!!
You look like Trent Reznor via 1997
AFD did blow out them Facts Love both
What kind of GNR is this? GNR. Bye.
You do not know anything about mixing I am A SUPER PRODUCER QSPJAY ON THE TRACK . . . IT HAS A LOT OF LAYERS BUT SO DOSE THE BAND YOU SAID .