It’s a day many Guns N’ Roses fans thought would never come: Chinese Democracy, the album Axl Rose has labored over for more than a decade, will finally hit stores on Sunday, November 23rd (a departure from the normal Tuesday record release day). The album will be sold exclusively in Best Buy stores and online at Bestbuy.com and iTunes. A music video is in the works, and the band — in which Rose is the only remaining original member — is expected to tour in 2009, according to a source close to G N’ R. “The music is well worth waiting for,” says Gary Arnold, senior entertainment officer for Best Buy, which began negotiating the deal in 2007. “We’ve all heard the stories about this album, and now everybody gets to hear that it’s real.”
The album’s 14 songs include the poppy “Better,” rocker “Shackler’s Revenge” (featured in the new Rock Band 2), the power ballad “If the World” (which plays in the new film Body of Lies), the anthemic title track and a song called “Scraped” that was previously unknown to fans. “It’s going to be a great rock Christmas,” Arnold says. “I just hope it doesn’t take 14 years for the next one.” BestBuy.com has a listings page up that isn’t taking pre-orders yet but does have the full track list and suggests that there will be several different versions of the album available (or at least a few different covers).