The reviews so far have been mixed. I talked to a friend-through-a-friend that works in radio, specifically rock, and he said reactions have been mixed almost right down the line, and alot like people have stated. Younger fans, or fans who are just casual fans of the band, seem to really dig the track, whereas the old Gunners are just ripping it to shreds.

*his opinion below*

He is a GN'R fan, and likes the track, but like others have echoed... he just doesn't feel it's all that strong. As an album opener for Chinese Democracy, he feels it'll work great (I agree), but releasing it as a single, as the FIRST single seems to be a bit of a misstep. It just isn't there to be that for the band. He actually feels Shackler's Revenge would've been a better track to release first. The song, in his opinion, sounds so modern and so mainstream that it would appeal to a modern rock radio audience, unlike some of the more GNR-ish tracks on tap. Shackler's sounds like (*shutter*) a track Shinedown or Disturbed or some other very mainstream rock act would do, with the exception of the very exceptional guitar work, but the structure of the song is very "now". Then release Better as the second single, and TWAT for the third, unless some sort of ballad unearths itself to be a good radio-ready single.

He also feels Street of Dreams doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever charting if it's the 'ballad' that's released.

I agree with about 90% of that.

Actually I completely disagree. I think the leaks softened the blow, and warmed the audience up a bit. Same goes for the live performances.

If CD had hit radio waves for the first time ever yesterday, people EVEN MORE SO imo would've slagged it saying "15 years... for this?!?!?"

One of the problems with the vocals, something I noticed immediately, but let slide (because's it's Axl's thing) is this double and triple vocaling the fucking tracks.

I can't find one single person other than him that likes that shit. Not one.

It makes the vocals sound overproduced, and unbalanced. He started doing that during the Illusions, and believe me, it's still just as stupid sounding now as it was then.

The man has a beautiful voice. I love it. But I would much rather see him go low, mid, then high, as the sound keeps building throughout (think KOHD live), but doing this multi-layered vocal technique just leaves you... why?

After a few listens, instrumentally the song is the strongest it's ever been, but I think the vocals were better on the 2006/07 demos.

That's hilarious.

What McCain really needs is Michael Mann to direct his ads. Think Tom Cruise in Collateral. That'd be awesome...