With Best Buy Deal in Place, Guns N' Roses Album Finally Arrives

It's a day many Guns N' Roses fans thought would never come: Chinese Democracy, the album Axl Rose has labored over for more than a decade, will finally hit stores on Sunday, November 23rd (a departure from the normal Tuesday record release day). The album will be sold exclusively in Best Buy stores and online at Bestbuy.com and iTunes. A music video is in the works, and the band — in which Rose is the only remaining original member — is expected to tour in 2009, according to a source close to G N' R. "The music is well worth waiting for," says Gary Arnold, senior entertainment officer for Best Buy, which began negotiating the deal in 2007. "We've all heard the stories about this album, and now everybody gets to hear that it's real."

The album's 14 songs include the poppy "Better," rocker "Shackler's Revenge" (featured in the new Rock Band 2), the power ballad "If the World" (which plays in the new film Body of Lies), the anthemic title track and a song called "Scraped" that was previously unknown to fans. "It's going to be a great rock Christmas," Arnold says. "I just hope it doesn't take 14 years for the next one." BestBuy.com has a listings page up that isn't taking pre-orders yet but does have the full track list and suggests that there will be several different versions of the album available (or at least a few different covers).

Related Stories:
• Guns N' Roses Premiering New Song "If The World" In Body of Lies
• New Guns N' Roses Song Premiering on Rock Band 2
• The Guide to the Leaked Chinese Democracy Tracks

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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