Eminem, 'Relapse' (Interscope)
Slim Shady gets back to his blood-soaked roots.
By Jon Dolan 06.05.09 8:02 AM
It's been five years since Eminem's last record, Encore, and on occasion, the world has felt somewhat empty without him. But that's nothing compared to the emptiness he feels. The death of his bro Proof, pill addiction, weight gain, rehab, three whole seasons of Rock of Love -- it's enough to make a 36-year-old pop star want to write a couple zillion rhymes about slicing up women. And so he has. Relapse is undiluted world-hate, a comeback record that screams: Don't you wish I was still gone?!
The 20-song, Dre-doctored disc is a poison popsicle -- Em opens an umbrella in a girl's hoo-ha, drops gross-outs like "I smell the scent of a placenta," drugs/murders Britney, kidnaps/murders Lindsay, and rapes and rapes and rapes. Those group sessions at Brighton Hospital must've been a hoot.
Somehow, years of Percodan/Doritos highballs haven't blunted his lyrical dexterity -- "Swallowin' the Klonopin while I'm noddin' in and out on the ottoman at the Ramada Inn," he rhymes on "3 A.M." But there's little of his early music's gonzo bounce, his joy in tweaking us. Relapse transforms the famous-guy self-pity of 2003's The Eminem Show into a standard gothic comic-book plot: stepdad sexually abuses him ("Insane"), mom does drugs ("My Mom"), and our hero is left to wander the permanent midnight, gobbling tranquilizers, avoiding eye-contact at record-industry functions, and mauling (more) celebrities with power tools. Dre's horror-show funk attempts to give the nihilistic grind some operatic pomp.
But once you're acclimated to the carnage, tedium sets in. Relapse is really just another overlong summer blockbuster. We sit through it, then go look at pictures of kittens on the Internet, and wait until our souls snap back into place. Eminem has made the world that crushed him a little less fun for us too.
WATCH: Eminem, "3 A.M."
Dane Cook?? Bitch please, you must subscribe to spin also, right? The delivery of the lines and the way he rhymes is out of the cozmos!! Would you rather he rap about money, cars & how many hoes he's ****ed? That's the same **** everyone else is doing. NOBODY is doing what he has, is, or will be doing in this life time. He changed the game like no other. Who could have predicted that the best rapper in game would be WHITE at any time in the game?
I see you wrote this at 12:43am on 05/18/09, you should have slept on it because your thoughts sound tired!
This album is amazing. I don't like every song on here, but there are some classics. Spin used to be about the art of music not the popularity. But in this era of music where Jay-Z, Beyonce', Rhiana and a certain few are being pushed on us all the time, Eminem is refreshing. Taylor Swift just won a grammy for album of the year? What happened to the grammys standards? It used to be heavy, culturally or socially aware music that won that type of award. Face it music is all about controlled imagery and controlled product beyond what we've ever seen. It doesn't feel natural....it all feels forced and processed...so my point is Eminem is still a big middle finger to the establishment and I echo his sentiment..
One of the best album i've seen since 808....Hope Relapse 2 will be sumthin different tho.
Two mistakes:
1.) "Relapse" comes four and a half years after "Encore," not five
2.) "The Eminem Show" came out in 2002, not '03.
yea i never baught a spin magazine, and after the review i never will, i baught relapse when it came out, all i can say is thank god that eminem released another album, if i could only buy 5 cds in my life, this one would be one of them, so spin is spun out
Very poor review of his album. Half of America is on some kind of prescription drug for mental issues and it's growing at an alarming rate. A lot of people can relate to the lyrics on the album. Spin go lick Jonas Brothers nuts some more.
wow, thumbs down on this review, you don't know eminem.
From the very first time I heard this album was coming out I had this horrible feeling that I couldn't quite place, and now I know what it is. Eminem is just a terrible played out artist that stuck with one style and hasn't changed but got more extreme on that one thing. He's kinda like dane cook, he uses shock value to entertain you, but it just gets really old really fast. how in the world did he think it would be a good idea to come back from such a long vacation and use the same one trick to an even more played out extent. He does accomplish one thing - he is able to play himself out more in one album than most artists can in a career. How can anyone say he is on the cutting edge of hip hop when all he is doing is the same **** everyone else is? Amen spin!
read below.
lets face it this album is going to be plantnum and fits into the legecay MM will leave behind.Love him of hate him (the reviewer was a hate-him-type) Listen to "beautiful" from start to finsh and tell me its not a five star recording. SPIN = BS & hate thanks!!
now i remember why i haven't renewed my subscription to spin, it hasn't called any good albums since the white stripes were comin up. this album is flames, a couple of tracks coulda been replaced by the two bonus tracks 'my darlin' and 'careful what you wish for'
And he is NOT a misogynist and his lyrics border DOES NOT BORDER hate speech, It's a F'in joke! Like Eminem said, people think that if he says he's gonna do kill somebody, then that means he's really gonna do it, or do some retarded s***, then people expect him to do that. IT'S A DAMN JOKE. Boo-hoo!
way to go, dock points for doing something that Eminem is KNOWN for; his violent songs. If you don't like it, then TOO BAD. That doesn't make the album bad, unless your a pansy, who can't take a joke.
this could be one of the worst reviews ive read in a long time. Relapse is Fire
I think this review was spot on. While Dre's music is on point and Eminem continues to boggle the mind with his flow, this persona/Slim Shady is getting tired. I can't imagine what it would be like if he started writing lyrics that were smart in a positive way, or at least like DeLaSoul says, trying... Whether relapse is social experiment to see how many people buy this album of "a twisted hateful character" or a true look into this world of Eminem's mind I wish him the best in his career. I've listened to the Relapse a few times now - I won't be buying it.
nein
I could have written this review without listening to the album, LOL
Eminem is a misogynist and his lyrics border on hate speech. Zero stars would be a better rating for this one.
That is some B.S. of a review........Oh wait, Em isn't rapping about B*****s and how much of a cash flow he has so he gets gigged for it. Spin, you just don't get it do you. The album is the ****z, it's different from what has been put out in the past 2 to 3 years. It must be the subject matter that no one talks about cause some of it is way out there in left field. Glad to see Em is back. Plus I think the best is yet to come when he drops the latter in late fall. I love that video for 3 a.m. for the reasoning on how it brings his lyrics to life. Don't be duped by this review......Remember everyone is a critic so it doesn't matter what I think, it all matters what you think.
I really disagree with this review. Relapse is a standout abum, that is pushing rhyming and music in general to it's limit. Eminem's rhyming, flow and delivery fits every beat perfectly. Relapse is a great concept album and displays Eminems versatility, crazyness and storytelling. Eminem can go from deep personal songs like De Ja Vu, to crazy childhood songs like Insane, to wilding out club song like Must be the Ganga to a detailed story of a psycho killer in Same Song and Dance. There is no other album with the varsatility or concepts, stories, rhymes, flows, beats, sounds than an Eminem album. Every songs sounds completely different from each other which just magnifys Eminem's talent and creativity. There is NO doubt Eminem has the best flow and rhymes in rap right now.
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