Smell of Roses

CD CHOICE:This weeks CD of the week is Chinese Democracyby Guns n' Roses Polydor ***

Not as good as any album which takes 15 years to complete should be, but not nearly as bad as many feared this farcically delayed album would be.

The background to the release is already well-known, and while the Guns N' Roses fan boards are busy treating this as something bigger than the Second Coming, the media may have to put away their sharpened knives and rehearsed sneers - in parts this is very good.

The first indication that Axl (the only original member left in the band) has got his mojo back comes from the thundering Shacklers Revenge, with its grunge colour field of guitars and mini-blitzkrieg stylings. The similarities to Nine Inch Nails here are startling - although not legally so. There is an industrial feel and a slight flattening out of the rhythm section's sound, but Rose (and whatever number of musicians worked on the track) excels himself here.

The influence of NIN pervades a fair few tracks (younger readers: this is quite a good thing) but elsewhere the tempo is dropped dramatically as soft pianos tinkle and sweeping strings swoop over the tracks.

Street of Dreamsmay reek too much of a big hair ballad for hardcore fans, but on If The World(which many are comparing to a James Bond theme song for some reason) will surely give the band their lighter-in-the-air moment when they bring this album to an enormodome near you next year.

Some songs will divide opinion: Madagascarhas a slight dancefloor undertow to it, and a swing horn section that arrives unannounced. There are also (how very Obamatastic) samples of a Martin Luther King speech.

If they had got Chinese Democracyout two years after Use Your Illusionit would be viewed as a really good Guns N' Roses album.

Download: Shackler's Revenge, Madagascar