808 Democracy.

After work on Tuesday, I spent most of the night on the road. I picked up Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak and Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy before I left.

808s goes in a totally different direction, and I think the results are mixed. There's a couple tracks I keep going back to, namely Heartless, Amazing and See you in my Nightmares. But there's a handful of others that I can't even remember.

But I'm all for creativity and new directions. I'd rather have new and different things than the same old, same old. I always have the old albums when I feel listening to them, anyway. So bring on the new. And over all, I think the album is pretty good

I was actually expecting the worst from Chinese Democracy. Despite Appetite for Destruction being one of the best albums ever, I didn't really see how this could be very good. It seemed destined to be terrible, actually.

But it's not terrible. In fact, it's good. Although I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. I listened to it 1 1/2 times in a car with crappy speakers, so I've definitely got some most listening to do. But I was most impressed that the album sounded... fresh?

I had expected it to be one of two things: a weak retread trying to recapture the glory days, or an embarrassing attempt at sounding "current."

But it sounds like Guns N' Roses. Whatever that means. It doesn't sound like classic GnR, and it doesn't sound like late GnR, but there's no denying that it sounds uniquely Guns N' Roses.

And for the most part, it's pretty damn good. And that's more than I could have hoped for, at this point.