Check this out. Dr Pepper will give everyone in America (except Slash and Buckethead) a can of their soda if Guns N Roses (aka the Axl Rose band) releases Chinese Democracy. It’s a good move on Dr Pepper’s part, because it gets them a lot of publicity and is unlikely to cost them a cent. I’d rather they keep their can of soda though, because the worst thing that can happen is for Chinese Democracy to see the light of day. Right now, the album has almost mythic proportions. Even if you expect it to be good, which I don’t, the chances of it living up to the hype of an album whose recording began a decade ago (and whose roots reach back several years before that) are extremely slim. Everyone is waiting for this album, some for a classic and others for a train wreck. For the former, it’s unlikely that this Axl-only project will compare favorably to those albums on which he collaborated with Slash, Duff and Izzy. For the latter, the album itself isn’t likely to produce greater evidence that Axl Rose no longer matters musically than his inability to get the thing out. So the first camp will be happiest as long as they have hope for a good record and the latter will be happiest as long as they can laugh at Axl’s inability to release the stupid record. Frankly, if he’s not embarrassed that he’s taken this long, why would a challenge from a soft drink company shame him into anything?
