Eminem-Relapse Review 9/10

Better than Encore. 

 

 

Isn’t that what you want to know? Eminem is always at his best when he has something worth talking about. Pills have given him a reason to rap, and he murders this whole album.  Sure, the voices get a little annoying, and some of his pop culture references are dated, but at its core, this is a truly fucked up album about addiction and mental instability.

It opens with a nightmare and never really comes out of it. You’ve all heard 3 a.m., which I think is amazing. Eminem has always been able to paint a picture in your mind, no matter how crazy that picture is.

  

Aside from We Made You, the rest of the album is really solid. Dr. Dre’s beats work much better with the song concepts than on Encore.  You don’t find gimmick songs like Ass Like That and Just Lose It on here, which is a welcomed change of pace.

The tone of the album is very similar to Marshall Mathers LP, which is a good thing. Same Song & Dance is a brilliant song about a guy who kidnaps a woman named Tonya, forcing her to dance for him and generally ruin her life. It’s vintage Eminem, putting himself into the mind of a serial killer and flowing over a dark Dre beat.

Eminem’s flow and lyrics are absolutely top notch. A line from Medicine Ball actually made me laugh out loud. In Deja Vu, he lays down his whole drug problem and the rationale behind it. It works perfectly with the beat and really makes you sit and soak in each lyric. Hell, the guy even sings on key in Beautiful, which is much better than his attempt to sing on Crazy In Love off Encore. 

It’s great to see Em back in top form. This CD is much much better than Encore, and up there with The Eminem Show. It doesn’t reach the level of Marshall Mathers LP, but what does? Here’s hoping Eminem doesn’t make us wait 5 more years for another album. He’s back.

 

9/10