I view it like this:

I dunno if i'd say the CD meterial has been "leagues ahead" as what we have is 5 awesome songs (better, twat, catcher, maddy, and CD). But then if you consider the 2 slash solo records, and both VR albums theres easily 5 fantasic songs there too. All i'm saying is it doesnt seem logical to rate them against each other to me until we have a similar level of output from both artists. As if you consider say 70 songs of each then we'd see on average who makes what. But at the end of the day its all subjective anyway. Thats the point of music - to touch people. So who can say what is good and not.

Anyway the real reason i dont wanna get into a CD vs VR thing is that i love both bands.

I will say this though:

There is a percentage of people who would buy ANY release from other VR or GNR due to fandom. (haha...i'm prob one of those people).

GNR is a MUCH bigger brand than VR and hense would have more of those type of fans.

For this reason - REGARDLESS OF QUALITY - that is even if CD was absolute garbage - i would expect GNR (the new lineup) 2nd Album to do better than VR's 2nd - simply due to the fact that theres more GNR fans than there is VR fans. I think anything released under the GNR banner will sell enough on reputation alone not to "fail" is where i'm headed with this.

As for libertad...i don't understand the hate from everyone, its not my favourite album from these guys, but it has some cool songs on it - like "Let it Roll" in particular rocked my world!

I will say that i think in general to me it seems like VR is too much Scott driven and not enough Slash, and i'm not sure Dave is the best foil for Slash's work. But thats not to say I don't like them cos I sure do.

I think libertad has been harmed by bad choice of singles also. To my ear they've picked the 2 blander tunes to release. But i guess thats a personal prefrence thing.