Huh?

Seventeen years after Use Your Illusion I&II, Axl Rose delivers an album which for all intents and purposes should be called 'Use Your Illusion III'. I must ask, WTF has he been doing for the last fourteen years? Why spend all this time, fire and alienate all the members of the band, have all this endless talk about a new sound, re-record over and over, spend a reported eleven million dollars on production costs and still come up with an album that sounds like it could have been released in 1991? I mean, WTF dude?

As for the album itself, it's good. I'm not disappointed. The music is so densely produced that it takes a few listens to reveal itself. Axl has essentially taken the more bombastic elements of the GnR sound and re-created it with a different bunch of musicians. It's not the tight sound of Appetite for Destruction but the more overblown sound of Use Your Illusion. Guitar solos, pianos, a string quartet, voice overs - you name it, it's in there somewhere. You would admire his sense for detail and song craft, if only he hadn't taken a decade and a half to come up with it.

To sum it up, it's a good album and Axl Rose is a prick.

8/10