Guns N' Roses finally releases 'Chinese Democracy'

Too much of the 71-minute, 14-track album is overthought, and, its worst offense, it's sonically thin and poorly mixed. Unlike recent top-shelf hard-rock albums from Metallica, AC/DC and Nickelback, "Chinese Democracy" has no bottom end. We knew we'd miss Slash, but who figured that GNR's departed rhythm section would be missed even more?

But some of "Chinese Democracy" -- two gorgeous, Elton John-inspired tracks, "Street of Dreams" and "This I Love," plus "There Was a Time," another massive epic, which features six guitarists, a Mellotron, a choir, Rose's barbed-wire squeal and an orchestral arrangement it took five men to handle -- is, at the very least, lower-case great. This is music on par with the best from the sprawling "Use Your Illusion."

Then there's "Madagascar," another windswept tune in the "November Rain" vein. "Madagascar" employs sampled elements from two Martin Luther King Jr. speeches plus movie soundbites from "Cool Hand Luke," "Braveheart," "Seven," "Casualties of War" and "Mississippi Burning." All of this interweaves with more orchestra, French horns and guitars.

This is where some longtime fans might start to bail. Those hoping for the leaner, sleazier hard-rock muscle of GNR's 1987 landmark "Appetite for Destruction," get less attention from an indulgent Rose this time.

But Rose issues his critics a challenge up front: "(I)t would take a lot more hate than you/To end the fascination" and then closes more than an hour later with the confessional "Prostitute." "Seems like forever and a day/If my intentions are misunderstood/Please be kind/I've done all I should."

For the most part, yes, he has. Given the ambition, the majesty of its best material and the return of a singular hard-rock voice, the flawed but compelling "Chinese Democracy" impresses.

Pod Picks: "There Was a Time," "Street of Dreams," "Shackler's Revenge."

'X,' Trace Adkins (Capitol Nashville) 3 stars

Trace Adkins' "Sweet," a rocker about a hot woman he calls "diamond bling," the snarky "Marry for Money" and the "funk-a-billy" "Better Than I Thought It'd Be" cater to his lighter side on his 10th album.

But an improving Adkins applies his commanding baritone to the soldier's lament, "Til the Last Shot's Fired," a storyline that follows a soldier on the Civil War, World War II and Vietnam battlefields. No matter your view on wars or the politics involved, Adkins will touch you with his compassionate take on the elusive nature of peace.

Pod Picks: "Til the Last Shot's Fired," "Better Than I Thought It'd Be," "Marry for Money."

"24 Hours," Tom Jones (S-Curve) 2 1/2 stars

Tom Jones, 68, uses the occasion of his first American release in 14 years to co-write, for the first time, a number of songs that comment on his colorful past with honesty and surprising candor, as in "The Road," a melancholy confessional sung to his wife.

"24 Hours," with production by Future Cut, the U.K. team behind the overrated Lily Allen, also shows new retro acts Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Mark Ronson that the originator of their borrowed sound is back and he's in good, powerful voice to upstage the lot of them.

But not all of "24 Hours" is worthy of hype. "Sugar Daddy," co-written by U2's Bono and The Edge after a night of drinking, is a cringe-worthy hangover as it parodies the very sex-bomb image Jones has spent a good deal of the respectable "24 Hours" trying to live down.

Pod Picks: "I'm Alive," "In Style and Rhythm," "Never."