Review Summary: Marshall, please ban Rick Rubin from Shady group chat.
To say I grew up on Eminem's music would be an understatement. The first album, any genre, that I ever bought was The Eminem Show. From there, I went crazy over the rest of his catalog, including Infinite, The Slim Shady EP, the D12 albums, and of course, the classics (SSLP, MMLP) and his other studio efforts. I really became a religious fan in 2008, when I could at least be sort of conscious of what the music actually meant, so I've been a religious fan during the releases of Relapse, Recovery, MMLP2, ShadyXV (if you want to call that an album) and Southpaw (same thing). I haven't been conscious or old enough to really understand the hype around a well-sold, well-received Eminem album, because I was 7 when MMLP dropped, 6 when SSLP dropped, and 9 when TES dropped. However, I still appreciated his less appreciated work. I thought Relapse was incredible. I thought Recovery was just okay, but had a lot of good moments. I thought MMLP2 was great, along the lines of what I want to hear from him minus a couple filler tracks, but no real complaints.
To call me a Stan wouldn't be an insult, it's partially true. However, I consider myself quite an objective Stan. I bashed some songs from Recovery and MMLP2, and some of the needless features he's done over the years. I have yet to truly bash a full body of work from him, as I always feel he gives me enough incredible moments to sort of reconcile the occasional bad song. That brings me to Revival.
After MMLP2, I would have been a happy Stan if Eminem never released another studio album again, as it felt like a very fitting end. He addressed some of the earlier topics of his career, like his mother, Kim, Stan himself, his dad, and just his come up in the rap industry. It felt very nostalgic and was long overdue for any Eminem fan. If he decided, "no, I'm not retiring, but this might be last full length LP," I don't think anyone would have complained. I certainly wouldn't. However, if Eminem announces a new studio effort, I'm going to listen, as are millions of other people, fans or not. He started with the BET Cypher, which, while painfully SJW-ish, we all knew what that was. What better way to get your buzz up than releasing a seven minute freestyle bashing the president? Then, he released the single "Walk on Water" featuring Beyonce. Most people, I felt, were lukewarm on it, as was I. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, it was just kind of... there. It's got a decent instrumental, Beyonce has a pretty good performance, and Eminem has three verses acknowledging that he's insecure about his place in the game, his skills, and just where he stands going forward. It's honest, but it's not a very compelling track.
It didn't leave me more excited, or less, than I was before. If anything, maybe just a little bit more because I like honest tracks like that. He then released Untouchable, a six minute track, the longest on the album, about the perspective of white cops vs. black people, which was sort of tackled days before by Joyner Lucas' viral track "I'm Not Racist." While Joyner's song was the perspective of a Trump supporter vs. a black guy, and coming together, Eminem's take was specifically on the side of cops. It starts with a god-awful rock beat, where he's rapping from the perspective of a sort of corrupt white cop, and then the beat switches to a sort of minimalist rap production, where Eminem really goes in from the perspective of a black person addressing how cops treat them. That part very much excited me for the album, but it's bitter sweet. The whole first three minutes of the song were virtually unlistenable. It makes it a chore; personally, in my experience, when I have a song that I enjoy about half of, I'd rather listen to a song that I enjoy all of, maybe even a little less, if I don't have to suffer through three minutes of cringe, or skip half of it. It's not worth listening to. That put a damper my excitement, but I was still optimistic given the fact that the second half was very good. Since it's release, I think I've listened to half of it once.
Then, he released the tracklist, and let me tell you, it read like Recovery: The Sequel. Pop, pop, pop, and more pop. Pink, Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Kehlani, Alicia Keys, and X Ambassadors. I'm not one to review a tracklist and base that on what I expect, but it was somewhat concerning, and the optics aren't great. No Kendrick Lamar, or Dr. Dre? Or why not just have limited features? There were EIGHT features, and two skits, so really nine solo Eminem songs, and we've already heard one, and it was about a half dud... legitimate red flag.
And... it's a dud, ladies and gentleman. This thing feels very rushed and forced. I think you have some legitimate highlights on this album, with songs like Believe, Framed, Offended, Castle, Arose, In My Head, and I think songs like Bad Husband, Tragic Endings, and Nowhere Fast were... decent. But even those have flaws. Tragic Endings sounds like a Recovery outtake, and so does Nowhere Fast to a degree, with an incredibly sugary hook that just drags the song down. The production on the song actually outdoes a lot of the other songs on this album.
With an Eminem album, you know you're going to get bars and substance. However, what you don't know about is the production and the hooks. And on this album, both of those things are a total mess.
Chloraseptic is a modern take on trap music, and the beat is just so incredibly hollow that there have been times in the six or seven times I've listened to this album that while playing it, I almost forgot I was listening to anything. And Eminem's flow for about the first 3:45 is so incredibly awkward that it's barely recognizable. He snaps for about 40 seconds in his last verse, and that part leaves me with a decent taste, but I can't see anyone enjoying this song. Phresher's collaboration here - absolutely pointless.
River is just a decent song, but I want to know who told Eminem doing an indie rap acoustic ballad with Ed Sheeran would go over well. The hook and the verses just don't mix very well.
Remind Me and Heat are both mindless ballads about girls that are kind of funny in the first couple listens, but get stale within a few listens. Production on both is very forgettable, as are the hooks, and some of the lines are just unforgivably corny.
Like Home is a decent song objectively. The verses are good, as almost all are on this album, but the production is so arena-friendly, it doesn't seem to match the edge and grit that it seems to be going for. I can certainly appreciate the message that he loves his country, even though he sees things he's not proud of. But the execution is so shoddy. It leads off sounding like a really bad R&B song, and it develops into just an arena-rap faux edgy tirade against Trump, and these are all things we've heard.
Need Me is a song I don't get - it's similar to Stronger Than I Was from MMLP2 in that I don't really see where it fits, but at least Stronger Than I Was was a solo effort, with a very impressive verse at the end of the song. Need Me is basically a Pink song with a mediocre Eminem verse. Why include this on your album?
Overall, after one listen, I came away impressed, but when you listen 5-6 times, it gets stale. The production is bad, the hooks are mostly bad, and while the verses are good, I think Eminem is working with too many people that don't know how to bring the best out of him. Rick Rubin, Alex da Kid, Skylar Grey head my list of people he should stop working with. Rubin clearly wants Eminem to go in an arena rock-rap direction, and while he's not terrible over songs like So Far, Heat, and Remind Me, these are not songs that should make albums or maybe even see the light of day. They should be nothing more than outtakes. Skylar Grey makes incredibly sugary pop music, and I come away actually liking her hook in Tragic Endings, but nothing else she has done with Eminem. They are completely different artists, and it doesn't work. Eminem is a midwestern horrorcore rapper, with vivid, disgusting imagery, and incredible lyrical and songwriting ability. Skylar is a pop artist, and the two don't mesh at all sonically. Alex da Kid was all over this album, and makes arena pop rap. He's better off making beats for Tyga and Chris Brown than Eminem. Eminem fans want to hear beats like Brainless, Groundhog Day, Castle, Framed, and Offended.
What attracted me to Eminem's music is his total '*** you' attitude. He wasn't making pop music, he was making FUN of pop music. He was the biggest star in the world, but was doing it by making music that he liked. I can't imagine that guy liking this music. I can see him liking HIS music, his verses, his production, but not the stuff Rick Rubin is producing. This is probably the first time I agree with the media on an Em album, but this album is weak. It has about seven good songs, two skits, two or three decent songs, and six or seven that should have never seen the light of day. As an Eminem fan, we can only hope this isn't his last album, as this is the worst possible way he could go out. We can only hope MMLP3 drops in 2019 and he calls it a day then, because for a legendary artist, or even a good artist, this is far from those titles. I still commend Eminem's skill, and because of that, I know he can still make compelling music, but this didn't do much for me beyond the first listen.
