China's in charge and we never even voted for them.

The opening title track is the closest we get to actual G'n'R-sounding music.  The lyrics don't go anywhere but that's never a complaint from me, they're vaguely about China.  The downside is that the song just ends without going anywhere, sounding like boring late-90s rock.

The next song - so far I'm going to be deliberately lazy and not look up the titles so if they aren't memorable or even mentioned in the lyrics, that's on them - is obviously not G'n'R.  It may be part of modern technology in music, there's no sense that people are actually playing anything and using real talent, they could just push buttons and achieve the same effect.  And the track keeps breaking up into points that have nothing to do with each other.  Why are they even there?

The opening of "Better" is irritating but then it turns into a decent rock-sounding song.  Bucket's guitar-playing is actually annoying, it's really fast but doesn't otherwise do anything.  Slash can do that and actually play something interesting, check out "November Rain" and "Estranged" if you don't believe me.  Then it returns to the irritating ending.

"The Blues" (I think that's what this one is, might as well use the title it had all those years instead of the sudden change when the album was released) opens ok.  We know Axl is whining about Stephanie after nearly two decades but he's just keeps going after "you" and it also is annoying.  This is probably my favorite song on the album, it's the closest to a basic rock ballad.

"If The World" sounds like a 70s movie soundtrack.  There's no point to it and there's no reason Slash and Duff couldn't have done it.  I guess Axl's vocals do stand out and not even in a negative way.  And the track does sound more like an actual song than I expected.  Who knew?

The next song is also one of the better ones on the album but despite the fact that Axl isn't remotely silent for even a second, I have no idea what the title is.  "There Was A Time" finally shows up, before there's finally a break in the singing.  Then he just sings over and over "I would do anything for you / There was a time."  That doesn't communicate anything.  I won't say Stephanie didn't deserve to be treated that way but it's her own fault.  It's not good, it's not nice.  How did any of us get stuck with this?

The next one is something about John Lennon's killer.  I'm surprised, I actually recognized and even remembered "Catcher In The Rye" before it was one of the lyrics.  Hell, I'm surprised that I've actually been enjoying the songs more than I expected.  That's the point of A-sides but still, I didn't see this coming.  Ten and a half years after the album came out, I'm sorta partially enjoying it a bit.  This is truly a new era.

The next song just starts irritating, the opening, then it doesn't get any better.  This must be the opening of Side B.  There's definitely no sense of music, just noise packed on top of noise.  It's followed by noise that sounds like a record skipping, I assume that's the point.  Suddenly guitar and drums show up.  The vocals finally get around to actual lyrics but they're bothersome from the start and never quit.  I recognize the title but I'd have to look it up to get the spelling right so it's not that important.  It's another track that tries to sound like 90s/2000s hard rock and as little like G'n'R as possible.  In that regard, it's successful.  We're definitely on the pointless noise section of the album

So the next track changes mood by slowing down and gets back to complaining about "you."  The buildup to the chorus - "Sorry" - could be entertaining, it just doesn't quit.  It just goes on and on, whining about "you."  And then we're back to another irritating opening.  This is "IRS" or "FBI" or whatever it was that doesn't have any meaning or get any more attention than other lyrics.  It was probably a private joke, I-R-S standing for "I Remember Stephanie" or something like that.

And why the hell does Axl throw in vocals of just moaning?  I don't think he did that on previous albums.  If I'm wrong and he actually did, probably safe to assume they were for entertaining reasons and not whatever the hell he's doing here.

Then there's a vaguely-dramatic opening before the electric drum pattern starts and Axl's found yet another whiny voice.  Slowed down again, similarities to a ballad until the guitars start, briefly, and then gets back to the next verse.  Oh, this is the one with all the movie sounds thrown into a stew.  See, there's no way to know that.  There's no clue what he's singing about other than complaints about "you."  What's the point?  We don't know.  Once upon a time, singers were expected to make the lyrics clear to the listener but that hasn't been the case for decades.

Then there's, I think it's called "This I Love," the 'ballad' Axl wrote at the end of the Use Your Illusions tour, whining on endlessly and suddenly broken up by guitars.  The basic music is actually nice, there's just too much noise piled on top of it and it's pretended that a guitar solo makes it a real song.  If she's not somewhere near you, she won't hear you.  Simple as that.  There's no reason to believe he's even made it to Saturn, much less searched the entire universe.

Then there's more drum machines and more generic sounds that has been played this whole time.  I'm pretty sure this is the last song but it doesn't really matter.  I am surprised that I've enjoyed this more than I ever have before.  There are parts of most songs that I can at least tolerate.  Way too much production to come off as anything other than a lot of sounds played along with each other, nothing like a band, but there used to be potential.  There was a time indeed.