Axl is the weak link on most of Chinese Democracy. His writing needed work and it's clear he shut himself in while doing all the writing.

Axl in all his moods oscillates between pompous grandiosity and misogynistic self-hatred which worked for the afterglow of 1970s glam rock and 1980s hair metal but when the 1990s rolled around, he didn't really have much to say.

It's why "Better" is such a punch-through song for me. He's writing in the first-person, reflecting, and actually working through his issues in song form. It's like, okay, yeah I can get this. There's something here to be said between author and listener. "There Was A Time but now you're Better". Okay, cool, got it. I've been there. Perhaps is kind of like the proto-Better but it's not there. Still too depressive and just like... You listen to it and you go... just go to therapy, man. Or something. You're a killjoy to be around when you're like this.

And again, why Izzy was so important. Izzy hearing Perhaps would turn it into a bar song about some chick. Oh sorry, Perhaps I didn't see you. He'd give it that cheeky, sing-songy, dry humor sort of thing.

I'm not optimistic that "The General" is anything than more of the same. I think he probably could write a decent angry song in that era so "Soul Monster" would be the one I'd hold out for.

I get the impression we're getting commercially safe B-sides. Either they hold back for one final hurrah, don't release them at all, or just let the fizz come out of the soda. Very strange that "Atlas" is supposedly coming out. Song is nothing more than a deep cut for hardcores, even less commercial than Perhaps which reads like a coda.