10 Artists That Ended Their Career With One Album

There was already a legend surrounding Guns N Roses’ Chinese Democracy before it had even come out. In the wake of the Use Your Illusion mess that happened in the early ‘90s, almost half of the band were sent packing during the tour and the rest of the band quit after the fact, leaving Axl Rose as the only consistent member of the band. He could have done anything with that kind of power, so how does this record still feel half baked?

Going through the trajectory of this album getting made, Axl made announcements that new music would be on the way soon for years, all with a rollercoaster of lineup changes like having Buckethead and Bumblefoot in the band. From being originally scheduled for sometime in the mid ‘90s, Chinese Democracy was finally released in 2008, sounding like one of the most bloated projects ever made. Although the entire album cost a whopping $13 million dollars to create, the whole thing sounds too disheveled to even hold together properly, especially Axl’s singing, where you can practically hear his voice change from just how long he’s been working on the project.

There are still some great players who contribute decent stuff to the record…it’s just too scattered to make out half the time, like trading guitar solos back to back that don’t even have enough time to register before you get to a completely different section of the song. Chinese Democracy may certainly sound larger than life, but Axl forgot one of the golden rules of making records: before you make it sound big, make sure it sounds good.