..... and what's worse is the leaks we got sounded fine.(the last set)
the finished album sounds like a rush job to change the sound of a bunch of songs so they could turn around and say: "Hey.. we TOLD you that the leaks you heard weren't the final product"... when CLEARLY shit was piled onto finished tracks with complete disregard for how said shit blended with the rest of the song. ... Prime examples:
1. Catcher.
the biggest abomination of them all. they suffocated a true masterwork of a track with random, unnecessary guitar noodling... All of the subtle, haunting vocal isms in the background of the song, as well as the piano part, which in my opinion is the backbone of the track were buried beneath a bunch of different guitar parts that seemingly have no relation whatsoever to each other or any relevance to the song they are attempting to "accentuate" ...
2. Riad..
Count me as one of the few people that liked this song since the first time i heard a live version of it on a mock up of the record that someone gave me a few years ago. i still think it's a great song.. the intro is cool, but for christ's fucking sake... what on earth would possess someone to hear the original, perfect solo and say to themselves "no.. we don't like that... bumble, can you have a monkey hold the fretboard and slap the pickup with your fucking cock for thirty seconds?"....
3. Better...
god... i love this song, but the slide during the "bubbles"...are you kidding?
it is clear that this was added, like, 3 days ago... they taped the song off of the radio and then played it back in a basement and hit "record"... it's way louder than any other part of the song..  i apparently did not receive the memo that there was anything that needed to be added to the antiquiet leak of the song.
3. Prostitute...
again.. what the fuck was wrong with the leak?
crank the volume up a little.. period. rerecord the fucking drums? weird glug noises that sound like AIM fucking noises to me.. maybe they were put in there as a nod to the leaks they planted.. i don't know.

i could go on....

In my opinion.. some of it worked. but very little.
As far as i'm concerned, ron thal's  presence on this album was completely unnecessary.... 'cept for CD..  but i'm pretty sure even that could have been an accident.  was there any shame in releasing the record without him? i'm sure if they had given him some more time to do some work on the next record  he would have come up with some brilliant shit.. but he was clearly under the gun. i really think the real crime in the production is the hasty addition of bumble and frank to the album.
you can listen to every single song and their parts stick out like sore thumbs.

this is proof that this record would have come out in 06 if axl hadn't got it in his head that both new additions to the band HAD to play on the already completed record....
my heads going in soo many directions... i don't want anyone to think i don't like the record.. i do. but this here is kinda wondering aloud why...
why?
if it ain't broke.....

that and it's been pushed up front HARD... (the solo)

i'm still so excited about the fact that i've heard it...
my typical longish posts are impossible because my brain is still in shock.
i got an email from best buy .com saying my order has shipped... so i'll probably get it early. I'm still gonna reserve judgement on the final product until when i unwrap the cd and pop it into the deck in the car... so i'm gonna lay low a little on my opinion.

so.. um.. did he take every bit of bucket off this thing?

American Communism Starts Now... haha

got the whole thing....done. it's minemineminemineminemine