Review Summary: Wait, it ain't funny, man, it's urgent, I need one.
Sometimes taking a break can be a good thing, but even with the passage of five years' time, Eminem's sixth studio album,
Relapse, is somehow actually *worse* than
Encore, his biggest dip in quality at the time. But instead of focusing on what worked about albums like
The Eminem Show and
The Marshall Mathers LP, it's like Eminem decided to hone in solely on songs like the goadwful seven-track stretch on
Encore starting at "Puke" and ending with "Ass Like That" (which might some of the worst rap songs ever made), and dedicate an entire album around those kinds of songs. What a terrible idea!
A lot of the songs on
Relapse are ruined by one big, enormous problem that never stops popping up across the entire album. For example: "3 A.M." has some pretty tight bars and a fun beat, but...
what's with the stupid accent?? Why is Eminem so insistent upon this dumb new accent? Is this the new Slim Shady voice? Huh?? And the exact same thing happens on "My Mom", this straight-up unfunny, kinda-Middle Eastern-meets-Indian accent ruining an already whiney chorus (and that's not even getting into the fact that we've already heard all this stuff before! We know that your Mom sucks, Marshall), as well as "Bagpipes From Baghdad", a song that was already outdated in 2009 because he went in on Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon with this ***, lyrics that don't only matter but are ruined by that accent that Eminem seemingly thinks is the funniest thing in the world.
That accent KEEPS popping up in songs like "Hello" and "Same Song and Dance", and it actually begs the question: why? What does this accent add to the album? It ruins the otherwise-honestly-decent flows, beats, and (occasionally) lyrics - most of the time, you won't be listening to these songs, you'll be listening to that racist voice he keeps insisting on. "Medicine Ball" would be one of the most fire cuts on this record were it not for the stupid accent on the chorus, for example. Is this what five years' worth of time to reflect led to? Really?? It's really disappointing to see someone you greatly admire - an arguable genius - fall into a pit of unfunny running gags and irritating pop-culture trash talk. Apparently
Relapse is supposed to be the return of the Slim Shady ego and NOT the debut of his weird Indian persona probably called Raj or something, but honestly, the Slim Shady material just feels like the same edgy and racy stuff he's always been doing but a lot less interesting and awesome as it was ten years before this album.
For a so-called 'concept album', nothing about these songs really connect together, and I also just don't
care about the stuff he's rapping about even though I should care about it the most (given that there's apparently a story going on here or something). "Must Be The Ganja" may have a great beat, but it's just a boring weed song, same for "Old Time's Sake".
Relapse feels so
long, too - I feel like half of these songs could have been cut altogether due to how similar they all sound, feel, and flow. I usually skip around or just stop listening before the halfway mark.
It feels like all the good stuff's at the end (where, go figure, Eminem largely ditches the racist accent). "Deja Vu" is a super-sick song that sounds like a moody blend between "Still Don't Give A F*ck" from
The SSLP and "Marshall Mathers" from
The MMLP. The rap-rock ballad "Beautiful" is actually pretty touching, although I think it overstays its welcome just a little too long. "Crack A Bottle" is like the only attempted 'fun' song that actually works - it's a fun party track and we get to hear some cool guest verses from Dre and 50 Cent (some needed guest verses, honestly -
Relapse is like the first time when we've gotten a little too much Eminem). And thankfully, at the end, we FINALLY hit a genuinely fire song. The intense, fiery "Underground" is better than anything on
Encore, and it genuinely feels like a cut song from
MMLP that wound up on here by accident. It harkens back to the golden days of his career, and it's a shame that the moment
Relapse starts getting really dope, that it's already over.
Relapse is... bad. It's bad, man, it's easily the worst record that Eminem's ever made. Almost every song is way too long and the good stuff - like the interesting, surprisingly-sturdy beats - is almost always ruined by... well, by Eminem himself. I legitimately think Eminem put it best on "Not Afraid" in
Recovery: "In fact, let's be honest / That last Relapse CD was 'ehh' / Perhaps I ran them accents into the ground." The thing is, "Not Afraid" and
Recovery as a whole came only a little over a year after the release of
Relapse, so... if you were that self-aware about the lameness present on
Relapse, why did you go overboard with it in the first place? If you thought
Relapse was ehh, then why make it at all? It just feels like Eminem threw that verse into "Not Afraid" after seeing that nobody really liked
Relapse all that much, trying to appear self-aware and save face - and if that's actually the case, then
Relapse is a pretty shining example of Eminem losing his touch but afraid to admit it. This album hurts if you're an Eminem fan, and just makes you roll your eyes and sigh if you're not.
Regardless of whatever was going on in Eminem's personal life at the time, nothing excuses the badness of
Relapse. Even the best songs on this record (minus "Underground") don't stand a chance against the best songs from his first four albums.
Encore was the start of the fall from the top of the world, and
Relapse is the bloody, nasty crash-landing.
FAVORITE TRACKS:
Underground
Deja Vu
Crack A Bottle
