 | Tracklist:
1. Dr. West
2. 3am
3. My Mom
4. Insane
5. Bagpipes from Baghdad
6. Hello
7. Tonya
8. Same Song & Dance
9. We Made You
10. Medicine Ball
11. Paul
12. Stay Wide Awake
13. Old Times Sake
14. Must Be the Ganja
15. Mr. Mathers
16. Deja Vu
17. Beautiful
18. Crack a Bottle
19. Steve Berman
20. Underground/Ken Kaniff
Release Date: 2009 | |
| | other reviews | Blswylde (4.5)
Eminem is back with a different, but outstanding album.... | sublimefan1991 (4.5)
Accent, schmaccent, this was Em at his straight up sickest in years, if not ever.... | Smevin Bravis (4)
Relapse shows Eminem at the top of his game once again. Brilliant rhymes, great beats, and he flat o... | HollywoodConstantine (3)
Relapse is a mature Slim Shady LP. It is not quite as entertaining as The Marshal Mathers LP and it... | Nihilum (3)
Relapse features an Eminem who can't decide with he's 36 or 26, can't decide if he wants to give a m... | Jayy (3)
Am I the ONLY one who likes this album?... | themindtrick (2.5)
Relapse - (n.) To regress after partial recovery from illness.... | BenjLaud (2.5)
An album that, for the most part, is not worthy to carry the 'Eminem' name... | Sam A. (1.5)
... | Meatplow (1.5)
... | John Hyperbole Hanson STAFF (1)
It's about 10% as good as The Marshall Mathers LP, so how much did you enjoy that?... |
On 28 Lists
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| Summary: Eminem is the most bipolar motherfucker of all time. |
1 of 1 thought this review was well written
Eminem is no longer who he used to be. His sense of humor, ear for beats, the way he talks, he is no longer the same rapper. At the same time, if you just read the lyrics word for word, he’s very much the same, he’s angry at his mom, Kim, and anyone seeing more success than he is, which means only the most successful of pop stars. His humor no longer centers itself around the horrible, sometimes incredibly imaginative tales that were completely relatable to his situation. Instead, this sort of realistic, dark humor, Eminem had replaced it with the certain silly, exaggerated persona on Encore. But after realizing that Dre brought some of his blandest beats ever created and Em’s silly rhymes were some of the worst he ever wrote, Em soon spent five years stuck in a valium coma, and came back with a completely bipolar effort that switches from all of Em’s moods has had over his entire career. Relapse shows potential for Eminem’s new blazing array of flows and occasionally some hilarious lyricism, but also shows that Eminem isn’t exactly consistent when it comes to writing songs anymore, and a certain accent almost derails the entire project.
Relapse benefits from two things, but other than Em’s revitalized self, there’s only one thing that consistently stays quality: Doc Dre’s beats. Dr. Dre, instead of putting the fuk back in funk like he did with G-Funk or just giving Em the regular recycled inconsistent productions that he has been making for Eminem since Marshall Mathers LP, has chosen to go through his stash of quality beats and picked out some his truly quality material. The usually trendy middle eastern-styled synths of “Bagpipes from Bagdad” would usually fail in the hands of many other producers, but Dre’s bouncy and lively style of production manages to make it listenable and entertaining enough. Even some admittedly bad songs on the record, like “We Made You” and “Medicine Ball”, which contain some of Eminem’s worst lyricism since ever, are examples of excellent productions, with the former containing a sort of cartoonish, humorous aura that Em has been trying to portray in his productions for years, but consistently failed, and the later just bangs like any other of Dre’s productions for other artists, and it comes as a surprise if only because it seems as if Dre has been giving Em all of his filler tracks until just now.
In spite of Dre’s and Em’s effort, Relapse is far from Eminem’s best effort, and rather shows itself as Em’s most inconsistent effort. His flow is rejuvenated and his lyrics are occasionally are just as vivid as they were before, his lyrics seem to lean on cheesy horror flick, and his annoying ‘foreign’ accent grates the mind of the listener further. Awful fillers like “Hello” and “Same Song and Dance” take their place as some of Em’s worst. At the same time, Relapse doesn’t work much as an album, with some tracks that are completely new for Em (“Stay Wide Awake”), others take an Encore level of ridiculousness to the next level (“We Made You”), and still others sound ripped from earlier albums (“Beautiful”, “Underground”). Ultimately the tracks that show a new Em or an older Em are the ones that stand as highlights, but when Em indulges too much on horror flicks or Encore filler rhymes, he makes his worst songs as of yet. But for the moment, we get one of Eminem’s better moments of his career, and certainly one of his best moments involving beats. But be forewarned; the accent plagues Relapse a good amount of time.
3.26 of 5
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 2.5
i didn't really know if i wanted to give this a 3 or a 3.5, it's a hard album to be exact about when the artist wasn't too much either.
| | | Album Rating: 3
I know what you mean; I still think this is severely underrated, though
Digging: Kate Miller-Heidke - Nightflight | | | Album Rating: 2.5
people class this under the same category as Encore, and it's far out of that league.
| | |
For once the Sputnik rating system didn't infuriate me, this is definitely a 3. It's a good album, couldn't say it was great
Pos'd
Digging: Amon Tobin - Amon Tobin
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
hmmm i actually like this more than The Eminem Show, if only a little bit.
| | |
I couldn't go that far personally, but I do genuinely like all of this album.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
hmm I've always dig'd Same Song & Dance
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I couldn't go that far personally, but I do genuinely like all of this album.
well as much as i like lyricism, beats are just as big a factor to me in rap, and The Eminem Show features a lot of Em solo beats, and they're usually just too thin and unbearably weak for me. Relapse has much stronger production, and only slightly weaker lyricism.
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See i'm the opposite with this album. I think the beats are great on this album but the lyrics are too weak. One of the worst things you could do is put out bad flow over a great beat. I'd rather the opposite, well to a degree anyway
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
trust me, if you listened to early Canibus, NO YOU DON'T it sounds just as bad. Em's flow is good on this album, the lyrics are half-way good, half-way just terrible.
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I prefer his lyrics/flow on The Eminem Show myself
| | | Album Rating: 2
underground is such a good song
awesome review dude, glad it got a realistic positive review
Digging: - | | |
Your review makes it sound more like a 2.5 than a 3.5.
also:
"In spite of Dre’s and Em’s effort, Relapse is far from Eminem’s best effort, and rather shows itself as Em’s most inconsistent effort."
This sentence is really awkward, and needs rewriting.
| | | Album Rating: 3
good review. i agree the album isn't as bad as it's often made out.
Digging: The Walkmen - Heaven | | | Album Rating: 3.5
It's not what everybody would expect from a comeback Eminem album, I mean, it's Eminem, the most gifted emcee that has ever lived... but its not trash by any means. I think this is just a set up for Relapse 2. I enjoyed it and it has me eager for the second installment.
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