Slash the album: a guitar hero’s return to form

Then there’s the discordant imagery conjured by the vocal track for the tune featuring Ozzy Osbourne being recorded in a studio at Ozzy’s house. It’s official: rock’s animals have been domesticated.

Another incongruous glimpse of mundane administration in the life of a rock legend is the story of how Slash roped in Kid Rock. It will resonate with pretty much anyone who uses email - his first attempt at contact were met with no response. Slash emailed him saying he had two songs, sent him the second option, and Rock responded immediately, saying he was in.

What must that email have been? Something like this perhaps: “Dear Kid: Been trying to reach you - I used to be the Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist - you might know my sound from songs like Sweet Child o’ Mine and November Rain. I’ve worked with a few other people like Michael Jackson. Anyhoo, wanted to see if you might like to record a song with me on this album I’m trying to get done. Drop me a line if you get a chance. Warm regards, Slash.”

Yeah, yeah. What’s the album like?

Look, if you want an objective critical assessment of the relative merits of this record in the panoply of yada yada, you won’t get it here. I’m part of a large global cohort of people for whom Appetite For Destruction changed many things, like the people I hung out with and the length of my hair.

That said I haven’t thought much of anything Slash has been involved in since the Use Your Illusion albums, the dual release that was probably about as good a studio follow-up as you could get to Appetite. Velvet Revolver and Slash’s Snakepit, his main bands since G ‘n’ R, are holes in my music collection I couldn’t care less about. I was happy to stick with the classic G ‘n’ R era.

Yeah yeah yeah. Album.

OK: I’ve declared my prejudices but still I think this is the best rock record made in years.

The opening track is like you’re listening to Appetite for Destruction – it features the distinctive sound of Slash playing with Izzy Stradlin, the original G ‘n’ R rhythm guitarist - except the vocalist isn’t squeezing his crotch in proportion to the pitch of the note. (It’s Ian Astbury, singer from The Cult.) If you come to this album looking for some Appetite nostalgia, this is your instant gratification.

Track two features Osbourne, then next up it’s the infectious and pounding Beautiful Dangerous featuring Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas. Yes, that Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas of My Humps fame. Slash has been careful to balance the opportunity to work with some ageing rockers like Osbourne and Lemmy from Motorhead with some fresher talent - you know, musicians who don’t look like miracles of modern medicine. But it also pointedly demonstrates how real talent can cross conventional divisions in musical taste.

I’ve seen some rock types on websites saying they have found themselves surprised to enjoy the Fergie track, which says more about the problems with workaday rock music reviewing than the song itself.

In what smacks deliciously of a flirty exchange between Slash and Fergie, the song is about a beautiful girl who loses her inhibitions around hard rock music. The chorus has a funk-driven vocal line about wild times and Fergie’s in her element doing it.

Oh yeah, there’s plenty of heave-ho guitar on the record too. Now sure, it’s a guitar player’s album, but it’s not an album just for guitar players. This is an album for rock lovers.

You get to the fifth track, Promise, featuring Chris Cornell from Soundgarden. By now you’ve basically heard a G’n’R song, a Black Sabbath-esque tune, a bit of pop-funk rock, and a grungy number in Back from Cali with Myles Kennedy.

And with Promise you get something that sounds like Soundgarden after everyone has had a nice cup of tea and is singing a song in front of a mate’s mother. It could be, say, the Manic Street Preachers or Franz Ferdinand. This is a potential frat-house anthem, with it’s chorus line: “Promise me you won’t let them put out your fire”.

None of which is to say it’s a poor song. Hands-down, it’s one of the best tunes on there – it’s shamelessly written for the masses and I enthusiastically endorse the shameless affront to rock purists who roll their eyes at the hint of a foot-tapping, jangling guitar line.

The next song features Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale and starts like it could be a Steve Earle acoustic number before the guitars crank up in a joyous celebration of rock. One of the great things about Slash’s songs is that while heavy they are strewn with happy, devil-may-care notes. The misery and doom written throughout so much rock music is overrun by a general optimism and sense of fun, which Slash clearly had making the record.

I think the key thing is whatever your taste in music you could find yourself catching one of the songs and wondering who it is, because there are so many different styles and voices washing around in it. One of the tracks is essentially a Megadeth song, others are soft-rock ballads that will go down a treat on US commercial radio. But more simply if you enjoy honest rock, you’ll enjoy this.

For that cohort of fans who grew up with Slash’s music, it’s a welcome return of his songwriting talents and that unique guitar sound. Good to see he’s still got it, but also pleasantly reassuring for old Gunners fans that we were right - it really was top shelf rock music.

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