Chinese Democracy tracks released on MySpace

The long-long wait for “Chinese Democracy” is over Now all 14 tracks of the long-anticipated album began streaming on MySpace.com Thursday. The CD goes on sale Sunday, but you can listen to all the songs online first. I am listening to a few of the tracks as I write and it sounds good but not up to were GNR was, when this all started. Recording began in 1994, when Guns N’ Roses was perhaps the best hard-rock band in the land, fronted by singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash. After myriad delays and false starts, Geffen Records announced in October that the album would be released Nov. 23. Some tracks leaked online in 2002 and two were released earlier this year: one in the “Rock Band 2″ video game and another in the film “Body of Lies.” On the new album, Rose is backed by an entirely new band and the songs don’t have that GNR balls out sound and are a bit over engineered.

Photo: Axl Rose of Guns ‘n’ Roses performs in concert at the Ritz on February 2, 1988 in New York City