Interscope/Shady/Aftermath
Release Date: June 21, 2010
In Short: Solid return to form from one of the most successful rappers of all time.
Welcome back/back again/Shady’s back/tell a friend…
After an extended break following his 2004 Encore album, Eminem
returned with last year’s Relapse, an overly-long and puzzling affair that showed little growth from the MC in the 5 year gap between releases – both in terms of skill and content. The silly faux-Jamaican accent that worked so well on Encore’s “Ass Like That” was present on nearly every song, the majority of those being nightmarish explorations of gruesome murders and/or tired celebrity bating, two things that Em had previously excelled at. The key here is that both worked well in small doses. Indeed, one of the most interesting aspects of Marshall Mathers’ music and personality is that they’ve always been multi-faceted. The classic trilogy of his first 3 major-label albums certainly had the murderous scenes and celeb-trashing, but also songs touching on his family, fame, other MCs, and fun-yet-twisted party jams. With Relapse, fans were left scratching their heads more than nodding them. Thankfully, with Recovery, the Eminem we loved (or hated, or pretended to hate but secretly loved) is back…mostly.
While Eminem spent the last few years dealing with drug addiction, the first sign for fans that things were on an upswing was last fall’s “Forever” from the More Than a Game soundtrack. Em’s blistering verse was a revelation. It felt like he absorbed and acknowledged all the criticism from Relapse and channeled it into magic. He brought the heat again on the Lil Wayne track “Drop the World” and most recently on the lead single “Not Afraid”, boldly declaring that his last CD was “ehh” and declaring the accents dead. Forget street teams, Facebook pages, or YouTube parody commercials; as a PR man, no one reps Em better than Em does.
So with expectations justifiably high, Recovery brings us back the Eminem of old: focused, driven, and immensely skillful on the page and on mic. Gone are the Paul and Steve skits, the D12 features, and the Dr. Dre duets. Gone are the wacky lead singles. Gone are the songs about Kim and his mom, though they do get mentions. What we’re left with is a guy who’s hungry to prove himself again. Mission accomplished.
Things start off a bit strangely, however. Opener “Cold Wind Blows”, while decent enough, is an odd choice for lead song. Its clunky chorus doesn’t pull the listener in immediately or address anything we want to hear about from a recently-sober Eminem in 2010. That shows up on track 2, the excellent “Talkin’ 2 Myself”. This is where the album gets going, as Em takes us through his internal dialogue, letting us into his frame of mind and admitting that “my last two albums didn’t count”.
Track 3, “On Fire”, displays one of my small gripes with the disc: weak hooks. The verses are clever, expertly-rapped, and contain plenty of “oh shit!” moments that the best hip-hop needs. The chorus, just a lazy “I’m on fiii-ya” is perhaps intentional as suggested in the second verse opening line “I just put a bullshit hook between two long-ass verses”. OK, but that doesn’t explain the similarly weak hooks on “Seduction”, “Cinderalla Man”, “Space Bound”, and frustratingly “You’re Never Over”. The latter track is a tribute to the late D12 member Proof and is an otherwise excellently sharp song which manages to be maybe the hardest and softest song in the Eminem catalog. That it’s nearly ruined by downright awful way he sings the words “without yoo-oou” in the chorus is a damn shame.
That the album is typically overly-long is a minor complaint. I’d rather have songs to skip over than not enough to justify a purchase, and luckily this is definitely worth your time and money. It’s a lot take in all at once, but that means there’s plenty to revisit and discover with each listen.
The final criticism I have for Recovery is what makes me the most nervous for Eminem’s future: lack of subject matter. Of course we want to hear about Marshall’s personal struggles. From the beginning, Em was at his best when vividly painting a picture of his troubled life. The problem is, as compelling as it is to hear someone striving for success (see “If I Had” from The Slim Shady LP) it’s the exact opposite hearing a celebrity complain about their fame. Em actually gets to have his cake and eat it in this respect on the track “Almost Famous”, putting him back in his former self’s shoes, but further complaints were exhausted by the end of The Marshall Mathers LP. The other Eminem staple, the acrimonious relationship song, is also on display a bit much here, and without context (who exactly is he talking about?) they’re missing something. It’s an interesting predicament: too many songs about Kim became tiresome, but the nameless faceless subjects of “Seduction”, “Space Bound”, and “Love the Way You Lie” aren’t nearly as compelling. Thankfully Rihanna’s hook saves the latter. In fact, the featuring tracks are the stars of the show here. P!nk amps up the already slamming “Won’t Back Down”, Kobe brings an extra earnestness to “Talkin’ 2 Myself” and Lil Wayne tees up the Just Blaze produced “No Love” for Em to drive it home as the standout track and centerpiece of the album. That Just Blaze was able to flip a sample of “What Is Love?” without sounding corny or making me picture the Roxbury Guys even once is amazing.
So taking away the tired troubled love songs, the songs about his addiction and recovery, apologizing for the last few albums, and declaring himself back to stay, what does Eminem have left to rap about? Truth be told, he could spit a Chinese takeout menu and sound good doing so, but he’s always been his best when there’s a passion behind the words. Hopefully he’s able to find that fervor without resorting back to drugs, accents, or more songs about his mom. We’ve already experienced the music scene without a good Eminem album for six years; here’s hoping we don’t have to wait that long again.
Pop Culture Beast score for Recovery: 8/10
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