I firmly believe this isn't how Axl envisioned his "lifes work" being released.

I also can't understand how he could be pissed though - I mean any contracts he signed or deals he did with Azoff I am sure he fully knew the consequences.  Unless he was finally forced into a corner where he had no choice, then I might understand how this thing could come out in a fashion that wasn't to Uncle Axl's liking.  Under those circumstances I would probably sit in Malibu with my mouth shut too.

Perhaps $$'s really was an issue?   I can't see any other reason why he would cave in - I mean shit, he held out this long to try and do things his way.  What difference would another year or two have made.

After listening to the album quite a lot more, I am still overall happy with it and feel it's a pretty strong album, particularly when compared to other albums on offer currently and in more recent times.

It's certainly no Dark Side of the Moon but I will admit that I felt I had pretty realistic expectations of the album.  I never thought it would be a masterpiece that would change the music scene, cure world hunger and everything else some people were expecting.

I simply look at it as if it was an album released say 2 or 3 years after their last one.  In that context its pretty decent.  As for the filler discussion I will be skipping Scraped and Riad most times I listen to it and possibly IRS (although I don't have the same hatred for that as I used to).  Other than that, I'm pretty much happy to let it play right through.

I can't think of too many other albums in recent times that I feel that way about.  Most have one, two or maybe three songs and the rest I don't even bother listening to.

Sure there are plenty of issues we could mention about being overproduced, the quality of the mixes, too many sounds and noises at times burying things etc etc.   But even despite those points, for what it is (if you can ignore the time taken, the people playing on it and the revolving lineups and jokes etc) it's a reasonably solid album for me.  No more, no less.

I'm happy to have it, a little disappointed maybe but not too much.  I'm even happier to hopefully have this damn saga behind us now.  It's also a bit of a shame for Axl that it doesn't appear to have been wrapped up and launched exactly how I presume he may have wanted it.  But I believe he only has himself to blame on that front - there were plenty of opportunities over the years to have this thing out 100% his way.  Oh well, such is life.  I still expect the album to get lots of airtime at my house.

JB Hifi were actually selling it yesterday (Thursday) that's when I picked mine up.

^ Good call Tommie, it does sound similar to his postings.

The ony thing that made me think Imposter may have been someone with some idea of what was going on and not just a troll, was the fact they would post and then you would hear nothing from them for weeks.

A troll would be posting every few days - they wouldn't be able to help themselves from playing the game.