Eminem - Relapse

The first release from Eminem since 2004's Encore brings us Relapse the fifth studio album on Shady/Aftermath. The process for this album is highly documented so this review will not discuss anything that pertains to the recording process or the reasoning as to why it has been five years between albums.

The album starts off in a manner that made me lose interest. That was until track 4 "Insane," an incestuous play on words that makes "Kim" from Marshall Mathers LP seem almost reasonable. "Bagpipes from Baghdad" contains one of my favorite lines from the album "...prepare your vernacular for Dracula acupuncture." had me paying attention again. Eventually the single "We Made You" hits, well at least it plays as I feel it is far from a hit. Here, Eminem explores pop culture and it appears he is trying to include people he knows little about only in hopes of making somebody offended.

The one thing that I found consistently great was the production. The previous four albums had a killer MC that was laying waste to the beats. I feel the bulk of this album is the opposite: the beats far outshine the vocals. Dr. Dre produced all but one track, "Beautiful" which Eminem produced himself, and is on top of his game. I mostly found myself nodding along until "Deja Vu" where the rapper admits "...I already told you my whole life story." Next comes "Crack a Bottle" which I would prefer to skip to the next track after Dre finishes as 50 Cent really takes away from the song with his boring flow. As has been customary a skit track entitled "Steve Berman" really hits home for me. Berman wants to know why Eminem has been away for so long to the point that he admits he doesn't care about the new material. Harsh, but true! Finally "Underground" had me hooked! The only thing I could think of while listening to this track is "Em's back!"

Something that must be noted is the lack of guest artists. As most rap albums are full of other people contributing a verse here or there, Eminem stayed true and limited the guests to Dre and unfortunately 50 Cent. Overall a jumbled mess of tracks and I would recommend listening to the album in reverse order. The best tracks are definitely at the end. Overall the ratings are as follows:

1. Listen start to finish - 17 (only cause I want to hear the last tracks!)
2. Listen again within a week - 18
3. Originality - 12
4. Advancement - 10
5. Remorse - 14

That gives the album a total rating of 71.