Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy | The A.V. Club

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Early buzz: Jones, Jonze, meh and more
Published 11/19/2008 by Whitney Matheson at USATODAY.com - Pop Candy
... Urkel has written a movie . - Stereogum has posted a ballot for its 2008 Gummy Awards. - The Chicago Tribune has a Q&A with Patrick Swayze . - Two screenwriters have been found for the Captain America movie. - Comics geniuses Harvey Pekar and Alison Bechdel collaborated on this strip . - The He-Man movie may have found a director . - Here's a clip from the Tropic Thunder DVD. - And finally, Chuck Klosterman has posted a review of Chinese Democracy . He likes it!

Shorties (Sarah Palin as Poet Laureate, My Bloody Valentine, and more)
Published 11/19/2008 by david (boy@largeheartedboy.com) at Largehearted Boy
... At the A.V. Club, Chick Klosterman reviews the A.V. Club reviews Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy. Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? ...

Chuck Klosterman Likes "Chinese Democracy" Even Better Now That He's Heard It [The Sex, The Drugs, The Stars, The Shocking Truth]
Published 11/19/2008 by Maura Johnston at Idolator
... Now: "Axl Rose put so much time and effort into proving that he was super-talented that the rest of humanity forgot he always had been. And that will hurt him. This record may tank commercially. Some people will slaughter Chinese Democracy, and for all the reasons you expect. But he did a good thing here. " So yeah, I guess Chinese Democracy was a lot of things that Klosterman expected it to be—except better. (No pun intended, ha ha.) Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy [AV Club] Earlier: Chinese ...

Chuck Klosterman reviews "Chinese Democracy" for the AV Club...
Published 11/19/2008 at OH NO!!
... Whole review here. Don't bother if you're tl;dr-ey...

Chuck Klosterman vs. GNR’s Chinese Democracy
Published 11/20/2008 by mrjohnnyv at Culturite
... Now this is where it gets good. On the eve of the week of the impending release of a monumental album that’s been fifteen years in the making, brilliant cultural journalist and music scribe, Chuck Klosterman, offers a riveting review of Guns N’ Roses epic album Chinese Democracy. As one commenter over at the AV club acknowledges, it’s “like the smartest thing anyone has ever said about music, GNR or anyone else”. Here’s a taste: ...

GNR’s Chinese Democracy
Published 11/20/2008 by mrjohnnyv at Culturite
... Now this is where it gets good. On the eve of the week of the impending release of a monumental album that’s been fifteen years in the making, brilliant cultural journalist and music scribe, Chuck Klosterman, offers a riveting review of Guns N’ Roses epic album Chinese Democracy. As one commenter over at the AV Club acknowledges, it’s “like the smartest thing anyone has ever said about music, GNR or anyone else”. ...

Myspace to debut 'Chinese Democracy' Thursday 12AM...
Published 11/20/2008 at The Daily Swarm - The Swarm
... Arguments by Paul McCartney’s side project group The Fireman. According to the Guns N Roses Myspace page, tracks should be streaming right about NOW… Chinese Democracy, will be streaming in its entirety tonight worldwide 9PM PST (12AM EST). Visit their Myspace page for your chance to listen to the full album. Bits from Chuck Closterman’s earlier review on AV Club… Here are the simple things about Chinese Democracy: Three of the ...

That sound you hear...
Published 11/20/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon Crowe) at Mostly Movies
...is a veil of irony being pierced. Chuck Klosterman reviews (and likes) the new Guns N'Roses album. (AV Club) I mean, one has to assume Axl thought about all of these individual choices a minimum of a thousand times over the past 15 years. Somewhere in Los Angles, there's gotta be 400 hours of DAT tape with nothing on it except multiple versions of the "Sorry" vocal. So why is this the one we finally hear? What finally made him decide, "You know, I've weighed all my options and all their potential consequences, and I'm going with the Mexican vampire ...

‘Chinese Democracy,’ Now Streaming, Is Better Than Chuck Klosterman Imagined
Published 11/20/2008 at Vulture
If you're not yet sure about committing 100 MB of your hard drive to an album that Axl Rose labored over for thirteen years, you should probably be aware that Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy is now streaming at the band's MySpace page. Also, Chuck Klosterman writes about it for The Onion and finds that it's improved markedly since he reviewed an imaginary version in Spin two years ago. [MySpace, A.V. Club, Spin] ...

Guns N’ Roses Streams New Album On Myspace
Published 11/20/2008 at Music Blog
... . And yesterday came hipster-laureate, Chuck Klosterman’s winding, witty and ultimately incorrect piece of nostalgia. I’ve taken a listen to C.D. Let me be clear. This album is not good. Hell, Use Your Illusion wasn’t that good either. But 25-34 year olds are viewing it through that untruthful prism of their fond memories. Guys like Fricke and Klosterman do not allow themselves to dislike anything that their 16-year-old selves worshiped. I have plenty of adolescent music I’m vaguely ashamed and still in love with. I’ve somehow managed to convince myself that the last ...

Stream Guns ‘N’ Roses Chinese Democracy
Published 11/20/2008 at HYPEFUL
... page! While you are at it check out Chuck Klosterman’s review of the album. So, it looks like this thing just might happen! Now, I imagine, everyone is wondering if Dr. Pepper will be true to ...

Axl Rose, Guns N' Roses: Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy
Published 11/20/2008 at Prefix
... nothing on it except multiple versions of the "Sorry" vocal. So why is this the one we finally hear? What finally made him decide, "You know, I've weighed all my options and all their potential consequences, and I'm going with the Mexican vampire accent."Klosterman's piece is exhaustive, as is expected from the introduction. The best part though, is that after fifteen years of waiting, a Guns N' Roses geek of this magnitude is actually getting to write about the album. [ AV Club ]

'Chinese Democracy': What the critics say
Published 11/20/2008 by Simon Vozick-Levinson at Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
... Verdict: Positive (3.5/5 stars)"An outrageously overblown pop-metal extravaganza, Chinese Democracy feels like a perfect epitaph for all the absurdity and nonsense of the George W. Bush era — one final blowout before Principal Obama takes our idiocy away." —Mikael Wood THE ONION A/V CLUB Verdict: Positive (A–)"Still, I find myself impressed by how close Chinese Democracy comes to fulfilling the absurdly impossible expectation it self-generated, and I not-so-secretly wish this had actually been a triple album. I've maintained a decent living by making easy jokes about Axl ...

Chuck Klosterman’s Chinese Democracy
Published 11/21/2008 by krd1992 at The Gobblers Knob
... If you enjoyed that little tid-bit, then there is a whole lot more where that came from, thanks to Klosterman’s guest column with The Onion’s A/V Club site.  See ya at the Best Buy on Sunday! ...

BWE OPEN THREAD: How Much Of A Sh*t Do You Give About Chinese Democracy?
Published 11/21/2008 by Dan Hopper at Best Week Ever
... (the highest rating they can offer to any post-1980 non-Dylan record), and even more valuably, an extremely positive review from Chuck Klosterman, whose piece about the Guns n' Roses cover band from Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs remains among my favorite pieces of writing ever. Here's why I'm not buying in -- listening to Chinese Democracy won't count as listening to music. It'll be listening to an event or a milestone or some other ethereal act that we'll have to process intellectually but can never enjoy on any unselfconscious ...

How Could ‘Chinese Democracy’ Have Been Improved?
Published 11/21/2008 by Lane Brown at Vulture
... on Tuesday, and it's been in constant rotation on our iTunes since then. What do we think? Well, we tend to agree with critics like Chuck Klosterman and Rolling Stone's ...

"...more like reviewing a unicorn"
Published 11/21/2008 by heather (noreply@blogger.com) at I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS
... 15 years; during that span, I've thought about this record more than I've thought about China, and maybe as much as I've thought about the principles of democracy. This is a little like when that grizzly bear finally ate Timothy Treadwell: Intellectually, he always knew it was coming. He had to. His very existence was built around that conclusion. But you still can't psychologically prepare for the bear who eats you alive, particularly if the bear wears cornrows." Read it and weep (and by weep I mean laugh until you weep) ...

Chuck on Axl's Chinese Democracy (Why We Like Klosterman)
Published 11/22/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (2B) at Ryan's Smashing Life
... Read on... Breaking it Down: Let's be honest, these are odd days for music. Not only do we have resurrection albums from the likes of ACDC, Night Ranger and Guns N' Roses; (even Michael Jackson is rumored to be working ...

Buddyhead wants to give you free Duke Spirit and Vestal Watch stuff
Published 11/22/2008 by Travis Keller at Buddyhead
... Oh and by the way, everyone keeps sending me Chuck Klosterman’s review of “Guns N’ Roses” new album “ ...

the sonic equivalent of a Russian robot wrestling a reticulating python.
Published 11/23/2008 by .:DataWhat?:. (noreply@blogger.com) at .:DataWhat?:.
Chuck Klosterman reviews the new Guns n' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" with hilarious results. Some gems: "I've thought about this record more than I've thought about China, and maybe as much as I've thought about the principles of democracy." "This is a little like when that grizzly bear finally ate Timothy Treadwell: Intellectually, he always knew it was coming. He had to. His very existence was built around that conclusion. But you still can't psychologically prepare for the bear who eats you ...

Some Sunday Links...
Published 11/24/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Chad) at Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands
... his change of faith, he said, after a two-year-long debate with a musician friend, Larry Graham. “I don’t see it really as a conversion,” he said. “More, you know, it’s a realization. It’s like Morpheus and Neo in ‘The Matrix.’ ” He attends meetings at a local Kingdom Hall, and, like his fellow-witnesses, he leaves his gated community from time to time to knock on doors and proselytize. “Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they’re really cool about it,” he said. Chuck Klosterman reviews the new Guns n' Roses record (A.V. Club) It's ...

Chinese Were The Only People Taken By Surprise When Chinese Democracy Finally Came Out [Bourgeoisie Rebel]
Published 11/24/2008 by Richard at Gawker
... Their reaction, though resoundingly nationalistic and scary, is probably kind of what Axl and his newish bandmates were hoping for here stateside. Instead all they got was a deliciously side-winding review by Chuck Klosterman, and ...

Do You Care About Chinese Democracy?
Published 11/24/2008 by BuzzSugar at BuzzSugar -- Entertainment hourly.
After a long wait — at least one reviewer has compared it to waiting for a unicorn — Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy officially hit stores over the weekend. Now comes the flurry of reviews, purchases, and people signing up for their free Dr Pepper (hurry — that part only works till 6 p.m. EST today!). All of this leads to my question: Do you care about Chinese Democracy? Source ...

I want to brag a little but at the same time be thankful and maybe tell a dick joke too.
Published 11/25/2008 by Travis Keller at Buddyhead
... the actual number. Ok, that was a terrible analogy. Sorry. But yeah, this record should be Axl Rose solo record, not the new Guns N’ Roses record. Don’t worry kids, as always… when it matters Buddyhead is gonna step up to the plate and smack the bullshit outta the park with the definitive review of “Chinese Democracy” by Buddyhead. But please, you’re gonna have to be patient because unlike “The Greatest Rock Journailist In The World”, Chuck Klosterman, I don’t like to listen to shitty music. I gotta space it out, I ...

Friday distractionfest
Published 11/28/2008 by mrdiscopop (noreply@blogger.com) at Discopop Directory
... :: "Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros?" The most entertaining 1,000 words you will read about the new Guns N' Roses' album. ...

Week in Rock: Gobble Gobble Edition
Published 11/28/2008 by Jeff Baum at Gothamist
... hovering in the high 60s (a number being significantly buoyed by Chuck Klosterman's epic love letter). Whether the album has legs to beat the Kanye's and Beyonce's this holiday season, or if there is a future for the band in any way, shape or form is yet to be seen. But credit should be given where it's due: It's out, it's real, and it could be a whole lot worse. ...

Stamped Review: Chinese Democracy
Published 15 days ago by Brinson at Brahsome - Care To Get Nice?
[image] We all like Guns N’ Roses. Why wouldn’t we? They rule. But there was certainly some hesitation on my part when Chinese Democracy dropped, mainly because I felt like it would just be, well, lame. It is not. In fact, it kind of rules. But don’t let me tell you what rules … let Chuck Klosterman! Read his awesome, all-encompassing review here . Of course, if it’s early and your hungs, don’t. Because it’s full of big words. I highlighted the section below while reading because it was exactly what I thought. I must be a brilliant hipster as well. Anyway, I recommend you ...