 | Tracklist:
1. Cold Wind Blows
2. Talkin' 2 Myself (Featuring Kobe)
3. On Fire
4. Won't Back Down (Featuring Pink)
5. W.T.P.
6. Going Through Changes
7. Not Afraid
8. Seduction
9. No Love (Featuring Lil Wayne)
10. Space Bound
11. Cinderella Man
12. 25 To Life
13. So Bad
14. Almost Famous
15. Love The Way You Lie (Featuring Rihanna)
16. You're Never Over
17. Untitled (Hidden Track)
| Ranking: #142 for 2010 | |
| | other reviews | CasualListen (5)
Recovery feels like the next step in Eminem's career. It's breath of fresh air - considering what a... | Adam Knott STAFF (4)
You may be gone, but you're never over.... | Westley J. G. (3.5)
Unfurling to the core, Eminem throws the bullshit aside and tackles Recovery with mind and matter to... | John M. (3.5)
You can't say Shady is back when it is Eminem and not Shady record. As for Eminem he is ... for bett... | tonystark23 (3)
Slim Shady's back! (Again.)... | TheIllmatics (2.5)
Eminem delivers his most disappointing album yet, and still feels the need to bash his previous two ... | Thomas R. (2)
No Marshall, not that kind of recovery.... | Joseph Viney STAFF (1.5)
The man born Marshall Mathers III comes closer to being dubbed The Great White Dope.... |
On 112 Lists
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| Summary: Guess who's back? Back again? Shady's back! Do with that what you will. |
In 2002, Marshall Mathers boasted: “can’t leave rap alone, the game needs me!” It came with the same offhanded cadence he used to use to slam Britney and the FCC, but now it’s 2010, and suddenly… yeah. The game needs Eminem, and needs him in prime form. Think about it: Lil’ Wayne’s in jail. Kanye West, shit-hot “Power” notwithstanding, is still a disgraced punch line. 50 Cent has become a hitless beanpole. And who the fuck is Drake, anyway? Eminem once believed himself to be the most important figure in hip hop, which, for white people, was probably true. To a legion of angsty suburban kids otherwise unschooled in anything hip-hop, Eminem was it: the cultural antichrist just nonthreatening enough to be idolized. And we need Shady back. For a good six years, there’s been a Slim-shaped hole in our hearts, torn open when Eminem shat out Encore. For a good six years, the real Slim Shady’s been floundering in a pill-addicted stupor. And it’s no overstatement to say that, hell, we’ve missed him. We’ve missed the Shady who mocked pop culture from the pedestal he built for himself. We’ve missed the Shady who always seemed a hair away from going apeshit and missed even more the Shady who actually went apeshit. And with Recovery, we get him back.
Kind of.
See, as much as pop culture needs Marshall, Marshall needs pop culture. Recovery is easily Eminem’s most important album, not just for his career, but also for himself. This album is audible therapy, complete with several cuts of Eminem apologizing, taking responsibility for being a terrible rapper, and promising to get better. You know, rehab shit. It’s literally a recovery, with all the good and bad implications a recovery entails. First off, yes, Eminem doesn’t suck anymore, so rejoice! Eminem has relearned how to spit fire, and it’s easy to declare Recovery a fully successful comeback for Em when he leads with some of his most jaw-dropping verses since Eminem Show on “Cold Wind Blows.” For precious moments on Recovery, Eminem sounds like the mischievous little zit we remember from the Marshall Mathers LP, only with the supersized production that’s characterized his latest stuff. But Recovery also features Em working the demons out of his system, which means all of Em’s dirty laundry: not just the drug use, but the domestic strife, the well-tread conflict over being a ho-stabbing rapper and a father, the grief over Proof’s death. We’re not getting Marshall Mathers: The Character here, but Marshall Mathers: The Somewhat Normal, Post-Prime Middle-Aged Man whose myriad complexes are about as interesting as any other post-prime middle-aged man’s. Which is to say: not very.
I’m not trying to fault Eminem for apologizing, because shit, we needed an “I’m sorry” to take him seriously after Encore and Relapse. That’s why “Not Afraid,” though a pretty crappy single even by Em’s slipping standards, had to be the first single. It’s a track that gives us a reason to care about Eminem again. Actually, strike that: It’s a reason for us to give Eminem a chance again. It’s the verses on “Cold Wind Blows,” “Won’t Back Down,” and “On Fire” that are why you should care again. The soap opera that runs throughout the rest of the album lands as overkill, pleas for us to pay attention against insufficient reason to. It’s not that he’s being fake about it; Em’s conviction on the forgiveness and pity-grabbing tracks is fierce, like he’s desperately trying to make amends for Encore and Relapse, the latter of which he admits on “Not Afraid” to be a steaming pile of donkey shit (though I think he uses the term “ehh”). But self-deprecation is a horrible color on Eminem, and it certainly doesn’t suit him as well as, say, pissing on B-list celebrities and beating the shit out of Kim. Still, this is the new Em, post drugs, a hair more sane (though really, with “Warning” and “Despicable” released as pre-Recovery teasers, we know he’s still crazy as fuck) and ready to love.
Not that Recovery truly masks the Shady half of Slim; the old, vitally mad Eminem still pops out, eyes bulging, ready to bring down the world. Even if his targets are a little stale (Elton John? Michael Vick? Michael J. Fox (twice)? Really???), the songs where he’s in attack mode land better because they’re reminiscent of an Em who used to shit on chart topping pop stars instead of collaborate with them. (Which reminds me: how are all the guest spots on Recovery this awful? I mean Pink’s always been terrible but Marshall somehow gets Rihanna and Lil Wayne to suck themselves into an endless vortex of awful Eminem hooks.) Eminem may not be as tuned into the zeitgeist as he once was, but we can forgive him because at least on these tracks he’s spitting lightning instead of getting caught up in some other bullshit like battle-rapping about something as inane as stealing an anonymous rapper’s girlfriend with his skillz (“Seduction”). Or using prolonged adolescent Facebook messages to Kim as a metaphor for his feelings on the game (“25 to Life”). Or actually unironically comparing himself to Superman when he has a whole fucking song in his well-known catalogue where he uses the Superman reference to try to fuck bitches. But no, the fiery Eminem is not the Em we’re meant to see on Recovery. Instead we get a vulnerable, wounded man who just wants one more chance to make amends.
And yeah, he earns the forgiveness and respect he craves with some occasionally killer verses and actually funny jokes, but make no mistake, Recovery is an exorcism of the demons that made Encore and Relapse suck, and so we are treated to verses about hope and beats whose minor-major chord changes are supposed to offer inspiration. We are treated to Important Topic Eminem and here, Important Topic Eminem is the worst Eminem. I guess, though, he couldn’t have really done Recovery any other way. I mean, after a career nosedive as sharp as the one he took, Recovery had to be this wrought. And with the demons gone, maybe Eminem actually will release a real return to form in full instead this flashes-of-former-brilliance mixed bag. Recovery still lacks many things that once made Eminem amazing, like crisp beats and sufferable hooks (seriously, they’re that bad). Perhaps he could’ve used some more assistance from a Doctor too busy going through his own Detox to help Eminem through his. But for now, we’ll take Recovery for what it is. This is Eminem getting over Eminem, and we’re going to be excited about it because, let’s face it: Shady’s back. Tell a friend.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 1.5
hopefully this is clean don't have the time to proofread it goodnight
Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon | | | Album Rating: 3
omg a review. but a 3? ewwy.
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Predicts 10 pages before logging on tomorrow morning
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is this actually good guys?
Digging: Sidi Tour - Koima Digging: Sidi Tour - Koima
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Yes, very
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mmkay i guess ill spin it. i didn't have great expectations
| | | Album Rating: 3
About 25 to Life, I honestly think that is about hip-hop, and not Kim. It sounds like it is but in the second verse it really switches to hip-hop and just seems like it's using Kim as a metaphor for it.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Love this review.
Digging: The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends | | | Album Rating: 1.5
Sonicspeed will be bummed. Review is entertaining.
Digging: Bjork - Vespertine | | |
Good review. It honestly doesn't read like a 3, though.
Digging: The Dopamines - Vices Digging: The Dopamines - Vices
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
meh could go for a 2.5 at lowest. i think my general point in this review is "yeah it's good, but..." which translates to a 2.5 or a 3
| | | Album Rating: 3
Yeah pitchfork is stoopid
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Actually I was thinking that the review comes off as more positive than your ranking indicates. I guess it's really moot, though.
| | | Album Rating: 3
agree, like, mega hard
| | | Album Rating: 5
lol all those shitty indie choruses and the hooks bug you here [2]
rofl
Digging: Marina and The Diamonds - Electra Heart | | | Album Rating: 1.5
lol oh okay that i don't see
@satellite
| | | Album Rating: 3
Quoting myself
"About 25 to Life, I honestly think that is about hip-hop, and not Kim. It sounds like it is but in
the second verse it really switches to hip-hop and just seems like it's using Kim as a metaphor for
it."
Anyone else agree, or should I just sit silently in the corner?
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
first eminem album i can get into
Digging: Pulp - Different Class Digging: Pulp - Different Class | | | Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off
not on target with my rating and i wouldve liked you to expound on the beats more but great review nonetheless
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No, you're definitely right feit. It's not really that subtle of a metaphor.
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