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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Chinese Democracy
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 314 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Interscope
Release Date: 23 November 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock
Summary
The long-gestating Guns N' Roses album finally sees the light of day.
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Here are the simple things about Chinese Democracy: Three of the songs are astonishing. Four or five others are very good. The vocals are brilliantly recorded, and the guitar playing is (generally) more interesting than the guitar playing on the "Use Your Illusion" albums.
Read Full Review >MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
It's touching on a human level. Noble, even. I didn't think he had it in him.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
It's an exhilarating album. Seriously, after finally hearing these 14 tracks in their finished form I was so energized I wanted to climb a mountain.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
Whether history declares it a tragedy or a farce, this is one album that's more than a pop exercise. And for that, Axl Rose can finally take a bow.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
The first Guns n' Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record.
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
Chinese Democracy is comfortably the most consistent record the band have put out since "Appetite For Destruction," and proof the ginger midget can put out genuinely great rock music without the blonde giant and the black guy.
Read Full Review >Billboard
The artist is in fine, ever-changing voice throughout, and there's certainly a ton of musical food for thought here, requiring several listens before the nuances are revealed. Worth the wait? Maybe. Worth a few hours of your time? Definitely.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
While few have ever actually accused the singer of using good judgment, Chinese Democracy shows him to be a man who, however divorced from reality, hasn't lost the instincts that once made him great.
Read Full Review >Spin
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.
Read Full Review >Blender
Chinese Democracy's non-existence is so well-known and ingrained, the source of so many jokes, that its actual existence can only be a letdown. That is until you hear it. Then, somewhat astonishingly, 5,475 days, at least $13 million, fourteen studios, twenty or so musicians (including five guitarists and a harpist) seems just about right.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
At times it's possible to hear the world-changing CD that Rose--whose banshee howl remains gloriously intact....But too often quantity gets in the way of quality.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Chinese Democracy is clearly not the greatest rock album ever made, but nor is it an absolute and utter failure. The irony is, that for all the lavishing of money and time and technology, it's saved by something as old fashioned as a good tune.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
It is odd that something so standard provides the denouement to this album, trying to span over a decade of fan loyalty. Will they buy it? Undoubtedly. Will they like it? Who knows.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
It is ridiculous. It is overblown, it's pompous, it's aggressive and it's absurdly ambitious. But, here's the rub: it's actually pretty damn good. It rocks, often pretty hard.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Yet even if it defies expectations, Chinese Democracy is not the masterpiece that it so desperately wants to be.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
While the album can aptly be termed “good,” it isn’t the epic that many might expect, especially to those whose interests have long since shifted away from GN’R’s aesthetic and the younger generation unable to emotionally connect with the sounds.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Chinese Democracy reveals itself to be an ambitious, brave and expansive offering. [Feb 2009, p.108]
Pitchfork
Even if Chinese Democracy had dropped a decade previous, it would still sound dated.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
While the band's label, fans and a handful of rock journalists would like to hail this album as the Second Coming of Rock, the reality is that Chinese Democracy is neither a musical resurrection nor the audio equivalent of Ishtar.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
Too bad the epitaph’s already scrawled in Chinese Democracy’s anachronistic margins: a bottomless pit dug by disposable income, a persecution complex and egomania.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
For all the wank and bluster throughout the album’s 14 tracks, the bottom line is that the shit simply doesn’t rock.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
Meandering atmospheric intros and outros, with lyrics that often just repeat the same verse ad nauseum, overshadow what could be, at times, shorter, snappier songs.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
The album fifteen years in the making that sounds like a slick but robotic imitation of what it might have been long ago.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
By throwing everything at the wall and nailing up the stuff that didn't stick, he's done himself--and more importantly what he clearly views as his masterpiece--a grand disservice. [Jan 2009, p.110]
Prefix Magazine
Even if it came out in 1996, it would still be self-absorbed, turgid, over-produced and soulless.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Chinese Democracy is a multi-million dollar dud, an example of faded brilliance and wasted time. [Winter 2009]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 314 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Neil P gave it a10:
I feel 13 again, as if I've just heard rock and roll for the first time.
Shawn M gave it a10:
A perfect record, absolutely flawless.
dave p gave it a9:
Great album. there was a time is pure class.
Dudu C. gave it a9:
It's very different from the past and one must accept this, however, great songs ar still present on this album with the best being "This I love", first time I heard it a tear came down.
Abbas M gave it a9:
Well...i was waiting to hate it when it came out but after listening to it it's butt kicking, face-melting,gigantic power-ballad rock n' roll at its best. And Axl still has THE voice.
Johnson H gave it a10:
This CD is so good i have listened to it so many times.
James H gave it a9:
At its lowest ("This I Love", "Scraped", the title track, and "Sorry"), "Chinese Democracy" is a narcissistic, overdone, overdue, and overbearing mess. But at its finest ("Better", "Street of Dreams", and "Prostitute"), the album suggests that, yes, the 15-year wait was worth it after all.
