Was that convincing? Because it was a lie. Sure, there have already been enough leaks of this to flood a low-lying country, so this whole “official release” thing is a bit anticlimactic, but yes, the new G N’ R song, the title track from the album Chinese Democracy, will be delivered to radio tomorrow. It’s also been posted on the band’s Imeem page, which means I can do this:
The album’s wicker basket-y cover art is already getting mocked, although so far you can only see it in thumbnail form at Best Buy’s web site. The retailer will, by the way, be the exclusive provider of the physical CD (and, it seems, vinyl) to potential buyers, whoever they may be.
Wired’s Listening Post blog has a little poll going about the track, and the verdict seems to be “weak sauce,” which is pretty much on target: the song’s rawk-by-numbers three-chord pattern is dumbfoundingly boring, and the strutting vocal and guitar noodling overcompensate hilariously for the track’s weaknesses without ever providing, you know, a hook. I do kind of like when it goes “all I got/is precious time,” even though that doesn’t really make any sense: if you’ve got a lot of time, then it’s not really precious, is it? Oh, Axl.
