Chinese Democracy second-worst GNR record; as a figure of speech, it is shorthand for the grandest of boondoggles." Hyden wrote that the album had served as a lesson for acts who took years to release "comeback" albums, demonstrating the perils of allowing backstory to overshadow the work and failing to provide a familiar product. He compared "Chinese Democracy" to subsequent, successful comeback albums by acts including Daft Punk, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake and My Bloody Valentine, which were "more modest" and offered "well-trod musical territory associated with each artist". "Far Out" saw the album as anachronistic; where Rose had once commanded "loyal
Chinese Democracy its pledge. On the album's release, however, Dr Pepper's online distribution of coupons proved inadequate. Lawyers for the band threatened Dr Pepper's parent company with a lawsuit two days after the album's release; in a letter to the company, Rose's lawyer Alan Gutman said: "The redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, ruined "Chinese Democracy"'s release." Gutman also demanded the company make a full-page apology that would appear in "The Wall Street Journal", "USA Today", "The New York Times", and "The Los Angeles Times".