2018.07.27 - 4 Reasons A New Guns N' Roses Album Would Be A Huge Success

Brian Rolli wrote:Ever since Guns N’ Roses partially reunited in 2016 for their massively successful Not In This Lifetime… Tour, fans have been dying to know whether the renewed lineup will record and release a new album. On Tuesday, when the group visited Iceland to play the country’s largest concert ever, frontman Axl Rose opened up ever-so-slightly about the prospect of new music. “Right now our focus is on touring and the shows but everyone seems to be getting along so you never know,” he told Iceland Magazine.

Rose has become notoriously tightlipped over the years, and his response was characteristically vague. But considering the band literally named its current tour after Rose’s response to the prospect of a reunion, “you never know” sounds positively rosy (pun intended) by comparison. Guns N’ Roses have a fairly warped concept of time, to put it mildly, so even if they started working on new tunes tomorrow, a follow-up to 2008’s Chinese Democracy likely wouldn’t see the light of day for a couple more years. But after restoring their reputation and making a killing on the road for the past two-and-a-half years, the band would be wise to bless fans with a proper comeback album.

Here are four reasons why a new Guns N’ Roses album would be a huge success.

Goodwill and momentum from touring
Over 28 months and more than 100 shows, the Not In This Lifetime… Tour has grossed nearly half-a-billion dollars, the fourth-highest-grossing tour of all time. A reunited Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan have consistently delivered punctual and powerful performances, winning back the trust of fans who remember their dysfunctional heyday. Guns N’ Roses could reasonably continue packing stadiums for as long as they please on the strength of their beloved back catalog alone, but a new album would have a symbiotic relationship with their tour: Fans would snap up the new disc after having their faith in the band restored, and then they would buy tickets to hear the new tracks performed live next time GN’R come to town.

Renewed interest in the band’s back catalog
Guns N’ Roses seminal 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, reentered the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 earlier this month following its remastered reissue, including the mammoth Locked N’ Loaded box set that retails for $999. The streetwise hard rock masterpiece revitalized the bloated, late-‘80s glam rock scene upon its release, and today it still remains a landmark achievement of the genre. The Appetite reissue has inspired old-school fans to revisit the album and attracted younger listeners to delve into its treasure trove of hits and deep cuts for the first time. With all this renewed interest in the band’s back catalog, a new Guns N’ Roses album would captivate several generations of listeners at once. Who says these guys aren’t a family band?

They would enjoy a sizable streaming boost
Physical album sales still serve as most classic rock bands’ bread and butter, but Guns N’ Roses appeal enough to young listeners to perform respectably on streaming services as well. The previously unreleased “Shadow of Your Love” from early Appetite sessions has generated nearly 5 million Spotify streams since the band released it as a single in May; a primitive version of “Welcome to the Jungle” and acoustic rendition of Lies track “Move to the City” have each earned more than half-a-million Spotify streams as well. (The video for their 1991 hit “November Rain” just crossed a billion YouTube views too.) With the exception of “Shadow,” the band’s new releases are mostly curios that appeal to diehard fans. A complete new Guns N' Roses album, however, has the potential to do big streaming numbers while also dominating the languishing physical marketplace.

The band’s public image has improved monumentally
When Guns N’ Roses released Chinese Democracy in 2008, they were coming off years of lineup changes and canceled tour dates that alienated casual fans and tested the allegiance of even their most diehard followers. The band had become somewhat of a laughingstock, as Rose meticulously tinkered with the album for nearly two decades and constantly hired and fired new members on a whim. Consequently, Chinese Democracy greatly undersold expectations, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 261,000 copies and plummeting the following week, quickly making its way to bargain bins.

Fast-forward 10 years, and the band’s public perception has greatly improved. Now heralded as the rightful successors to classic rock legends such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses have secured their legacy as hard rock elites and won back fans who felt scorned by their old behavior. Still, many fans agree that the partially reunited GN’R have more to offer the world, since Rose, Slash and McKagan haven’t collaborated on new music in a quarter-century. They’ve all worked on side projects, supergroups and solo endeavors to varying degrees of success, but there’s no denying the demand for a proper new Guns N’ Roses album. They don’t necessarily owe their fans anything at this point—but perhaps they owe it to themselves to conjure up the old magic one more time.