2008.11.30 - Journal and Courier - Fans, Critics React To GNR's Much-Anticipated Album

Fans, critics react to GNR's much-anticipated album

By TIM BROUK

Chris Vester is only 24 and a 2003 graduate of Jefferson High School.

Yet the Jefferson radio and television assistant is often grilled by his students about the school's most famous -- and notorious -- student, Axl Rose.

"They ask me 'Did you know him?' They want to know stories of when he went to Jeff," Vester said.

But Vester wasn't even born when Rose left Lafayette for Los Angeles. He was still in diapers when Rose and fellow Lafayette native Izzy Stradlin (Jeff Isbell) formed Guns N' Roses and released "Appetite for Destruction," the most successful debut album for a rock band of all time. 1991 brought "Use Your Illusion" while Vester was in elementary school, the last full-length album of new music from GNR -- well, basically now just Rose -- until Nov. 23.

That was the day "Chinese Democracy" was finally released, and a week later, Vester and thousands of other rock fans around the world are still digesting the hugely hyped album, along with that leftover turkey.

Vester admitted having "low expectations" of the album after reading about it and hearing leaks on the Internet. But now that he actually bought the album, he was pleasantly surprised by "Chinese Democracy" overall.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Vester said. "It's nothing like , old Guns N' Roses but that wasn't what I expected it to be."

Vester's favorite tracks are "Sorry" and "This I Love."

"I thought 'Sorry' was interesting. It sounds like a conversation between him (Rose) and (former guitarist) Slash," he said. "'This I Love,' I like that track a lot. I don't know why."

As most GNR fans know by now, "Chinese Democracy" CDs and LPs are being sold exclusively through Best Buy. The Lafayette location's media supervisor Jacob Loveless reported steady sales throughout the album's opening day.

"Actually, people were still shocked they had another CD out," Loveless said.

According to Internet reports, sales of the have been strong nationwide and it is expected to be a Billboard chart-topper.

In the United Kingdom, the CD sold 50,000 on Monday alone, the Daily Mirror reported.

Most reviews so far have deemed "Chinese Democracy" a better than average rock record for 2008. Whether or not it is worth the almost 15 years of work Rose has put into it is debatable.

Rolling Stone: "Let's get right to it: 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."

However, Spin: "If you purchased a kitten on the day that 'Use Your Illusion I and II' arrived in stores, it's probably dead by now. As a consequence, there has been a great deal of pressure on Axl Rose to deliver a record that would validate a 15-year, $13 million wait. There is really only one way for 'Chinese Democracy' to avoid utter and absolute failure: It needs to be the greatest rock album ever made. Chinese Democracy is not the greatest rock album ever made."

Outside of Vester's office, there hasn't been much buzz about "Chinese Democracy" at Jefferson. When he was a student at the school, Vester remembered his teachers telling him stories about Rose, then known as Bill Bailey, goofing off and getting in trouble all of the time. The teachers told him Rose was similar in the classrooms of Jefferson as Rose was onstage.

While Vester is still a fan of Rose, his students are more interested in the band that existed before they were born. "A lot of them like the old Guns N' Roses," Vester said.