Chinese Democracy a "toe-tapper". Early Guns N' Roses guitarist Tracii Guns said he thought it was "over-indulgent, sterile and not that exciting". "Chinese Democracy"'s protracted recording process attracted extensive media coverage. According to "Spin", a cottage industry grew around covering its development; "the only way the record could have lived up to its legend would have been to never come out at all". Five years after its release, "Grantland" journalist Steven Hyden wrote: "For years, it was widely assumed "Chinese Democracy" would never come out; in retrospect, the delay is all anybody cares about ... As music, "Chinese Democracy" is merely the
Democracy (album) 1996 by Youth's record label Butterfly Records in conjunction with Big Life, on CD and cassette. It reached number 71 in the UK Albums Chart. One single, the title track "Democracy", was released on 11 March 1996. It reached number 39 in the UK Singles Chart. The album was reissued in remastered form in February 2008 by Let Them Eat Vinyl, featuring a bonus track, a remix of "Democracy". Critical response to "Democracy" has been generally mixed. Adrien Begrand of PopMatters commented that on the album "the band sounds watered down". "Trouser Press" called the album "the wrong kind of