Relapse review

After a four-year hiatus due to his drug problems and writer's block, Eminem returned with Relapse, his 6th album overall. The album sees the long-awaited return of Slim Shady and focuses on Eminem' non-fictional relapse. Reviews have been pretty mixed, but it sold well.

Tracks:

1. Dr West (Skit): 8/10 both a very effective opener and a very alarming nightmare.

2. 3 a.m.: 8/10 a potentially repellent song concept (The song is from the POV of a serial killer) works since Eminem focuses on the psychological, internal fear instead of the violence and gives the song an appropiately serious tone.  

3. My Mom: 6/10 Eminem's assumption that people are sick of hearing about his mum is, for me, correct and he can't decide whether to talk about her or drugs during this song. Still, it has its moments.

4. Insane: 4/10 thoroughly tasteless, but worst of all too confusing to make you particularly disgusted.

5. Bagpipes From Baghdad: 6/10 it's gleefully shocking and well-written to some extent, but does it have to be quite so brutal?
 
6. Hello: 7/10 this one is again very intelligent and improves as it goes along. It just needs a little more restraint.

7. Tonya (Skit): 3/10 oh for crying out loud. This defines shock-for-shock's sake.

8. Same Song and Dance: 3/10 pass me the sick bags.

9. We Made You: 6/10 an inferior sequel to The Real Slim Shady but not entirely without hilarity.

10. Medicine Ball: 6/10 ditto.

11. Paul (Skit): 6/10 yet another Paul skit, although at least this one is better than some of the others.

12. Stay Wide Awake: 4/10 this song may be trying to explore dark themes (At least the chorus implies that) but there are far better- and less repellent- ways to explore this theme than just running through a group of hugely unpleasant rape scenarios. I know that because I've heard Eminem explore darker material in far better ways.

13. Old Time's Sake: 8/10 a far lighter and more enjoyable song than many on this album.

14. Must Be the Ganja: 6/10 it's as well-written as ever, but I've heard this kind of song too many times.

15. Mr Mathers (Skit): 8/10 the most hard-hitting Eminem skit yet.

16. Deja Vu: 8/10 a powerful and raw autobiographical account of Eminem's overdose.  

17. Beautiful: 8/10 aside from a corny hook, it's easy to see why this powerful exploration of depression is the most popular song from Relapse.

18. Crack a Bottle: 8/10 very formulaic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as Eminem normally does this kind of song very well.

19. Steve Berman (Skit): 9/10 The best Steve Berman skit yet.

20. Underground: 8/10 this closing track shows Slim on explosive top form, although the lyrics can be confusing.

Best song: Deja Vu
Worst song: Same Song and Dance

Summary: Eminem's return is a decent one, although it's not his best work at all. It's a lot better than Encore for certain though. Eminem himself doesn't appear to regard this one very highly. It's a tough, edgy and dark album with some very powerful moments and crucially some very entertaining ones as well. There aren't any all-time classics here, it's not as effective as some of his other work and I certainly could have done with fewer songs about rape and violence, but overall it's a good thing Eminem is making music again.



Final rating: 7/10