It's the anti-Chinese Democracy. If Axl's masterwork was a solitary quest for perfection, Slash's solo debut is a freewheeling group hug. The former G n' R guitarist doesn't sing, of course, but his snake pit runneth over with all-star cameos. Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale gets his Zep on, Fergie plays Eighties metal vixen, Adam Levine massages a ballad, Ozzy phones one in from the depths, Lemmy barks some Seventies punk, Iggy slithers, Grohl crushes. Slash didn't need to give two songs to his hammy touring vocalist Myles Kennedy, but the guy's Axl-scat is pretty tight. Sure, the songs are Velvet Revolver-minus, but every solo Slash plays is like a crotch-rocket ride to the corner of Fire Street and Hair Boulevard.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.