I know, it's only rock and roll but I can tolerate it in small doses, if I've taken enough pharmaceuticals from the outset...

I have finally listened to a few songs credited to G'n'R that aren't on any albums.  Supposedly they were leaks but there's no way to know when they were done or by whom.  They're on Youtube, that's all I know.  They're listed as being from the "2000 Intentions" leak, back when the album was going to be released at the turn of the millenium.

"Hardschool" sounds good.  I've heard it might be something the new employees are working on, the guitar at the end is definitely not Slash, but it actually sounds like Guns'n'fuckin'Roses.  Axl's vocals aren't great but a lot better than on anything he's actually released in the last 25 years.  The lyrics aren't intelligible so there's nothing to complain about there.  This is something he could have done with new band-members and it would have been G'n'R.

"State of Grace" is definitely more "modern" and not in a good way.  Axl's vocals are like they are today and the music is definitely overdone, but there are still parts of it that sound workable.  It wouldn't be too hard to edit out the excess noise and make an actual song.  It could even work as a novelty compared to other rock songs, unlike CD which was that from start to finish.  This isn't remotely great but there's still some potential.

"Perhaps" is more of this, just endless noise and meaningless horrible vocals.  It does sound slightly closer to a typical song in places than the released tracks, that's about the only positive thing to say.  If I have any affection for this, it's because I've never heard it before.  Why would you call a song "Perhaps" when the closest to a chorus keeps repeating the words "you're all alone"?

"Atlas Shrugged" is still the same.  Meaningless sections that are put together for no real reason.  Is that Brian May playing a few bits here-and-there?

There's probably several more tracks like this somewhere in the vault, can't see any reason they couldn't have been released for real a decade ago like he had said he'd do two decades ago.

Apparently we're at the time of year where Sirius XM gives free access to people to convince people to buy it.  I obviously missed it last time around because I almost never used my car, now I need to use it so I've had the radio on more often (although possibly not even 50% of the time; I'm not listening to music or anything else as much as I used to.)  I went straight to the 1940s era.  Partially there's little else that looks interesting but I must admit I wanted to hear some actual music for a change.

I'm not enjoying it.  I'll probably keep it on for however the free access lasts but it's not that interesting.  Even though most of their songs include Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Fats Domino and a few other still-big names, I have to admit even those sounds usually sound weak.  This was supposed to be some great era of pop music but the lyrics are dorky and it often sounds like the singers are programmed into the music as just another instrument.

Popular music really doesn't hinge on talent so it's meaningless if the bands are any good or not.  Often they seem to be playing whatever comes into their minds - better produced than Chinese Democracy, but otherwise where's the difference? - and there's just seems to be a limit of how hard they're trying at whatever they're doing.

Just before noticing Sirius XM was available, I'd heard a Uriah Heep song on the local classic rock station.  I've almost never followed this band and couldn't even name the track, hell, I wasn't paying close attention here, but I still noticed that they were going all-out, leading up to a really cool wailing drum part for the climax.  I can't say whether the song itself was any good or not, but the music itself sounded great.

No matter how distant I get, there's still a part of me that likes rock'n'roll.  That sound is now past-tense and can probably be blamed for much of the suffering today, but it stands out for its own quality.