predicate.

I haven't paid for my own music (unless you count last.fm registration fees) in close to ten years, and I see no reason to start with Chinese Democracy.

If Irish buys and recommends it, I may go that route. Otherwise, meh. Even Use Your Illusion was heavily adulterated with self-indulgent twaddle, and I have little doubt that fifteen years of noodling by W. Axl Rose has produced more of the same.

It is, for lack of a better way to phrase it, a continuation/conclusion of Use Your Illusion. This doesn't make it bad, but the self-indulgent twaddle you mentioned...this is still Axl.

It does sound different, obviously. Axl is the only one left of the original band. It's less bluesy sounding, bit more aggressive style of music. Which is not a surprise when his guitarists for these tracks included Buckethead, Tommy Stinson and Robin Finck. Plus, he's been tweaking every song for 17 years!

In conclusion, me likey.