Review Summary: More accents, more serial killer imagery, more killer Dre beats. If you hated Relapse, you'll hate this.
When Relapse dropped in 2009, Eminem was already talking about his next album (to be titled Relapse 2). However, that fell through and we got the disappointing, cater-to-the-masses Recovery, but in December of 2009, Em released something of a go-between, to tide the fans over until Relapse 2 was released. Even though Relapse 2 never happened, we still got Refill, which for someone like me who disliked Em's direction post-Relapse, was a nice supplement to the already excellent Relapse.
Unfortunately, it was decided that the god-awful Drake track "Forever", featuring Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and of course Eminem, was to be the first track on Refill. Boi-1da's production is especially awful, just amazingly generic and the hook unbearably formulaic. Kanye West's verse isn't bad, and Em's is good, but everything else about the song doesn't deserve to exist. I don't know why Eminem chose to do more work with both Boi-1da and Lil Wayne after this travesty.
I feel as though the album really starts here, with "Hell Breaks Loose", featuring Dr. Dre. This is probably the most average song here, because to be honest the beat isn't one of the better ones, and Dre's verse sounds really forced. Although people criticise Refill for continuing Relapse's serial killer theme, only "Buffalo Bill" and "Music Box" focus on this subject. The songs are more 'Relapse' in their production and Em's flow, rather than the theme of the lyrics; "Elevator" is a less serious song, about fame and such, whereas "Taking My Ball" is a bit more like "Insane", and is about kinda disgusting *** (like shoving a Tonka truck up a little kid's butthole...). Finally there's "Drop the Bomb On 'Em". This is absolutely the sickest song to come out of the Relapse sessions (unless you're a little bitch who whines about the accents), featuring probably my favourite Dre beat ever, and an Eminem flow that is pretty much impeccable. This is more of a bragging song, but the lack of lyrical content is more than made up for by the beat and the excellent flow and rhyme scheme.
The rest of the songs vary in quality, with "Music Box" having a great beat, but slightly subpar lyrics; "Buffalo Bill" has a great flow, with not such a great chorus. "Elevator"'s lyrics aren't amazing or anything, but it's fun and upbeat (even though Dre didn't produce it, so the beat isn't as good as it could have been). Finally, "Taking My Ball" has an excellent beat, a pretty awful chorus, and one of the better flows on Refill.
Recommended tracks: "Drop the Bomb on 'Em", "Music Box", "Buffalo Bill"
Avoid: "Forever"
