Rating: 7 / 10
Four years after his retirement, album number five is finally here. Cutting through what is likely to be the biggest major-label marketing hype-blitz of the year, it's time to simply check out the music - and see if Eminem's return was really worth the wait.
Let's start by getting our check-list out. Copious alcohol and drug taking... Uber-violence... Sex rhymes... Homophobia... Comedic punchlines... Strained-vocal sung hooks... Personal and business life laid bare... Dr. Dre beats...? Yes, all present and correct. But, most importantly, do we still get some of that awesome quickfire lyricism that had the Detroit firestarter's name suddenly uttered in the same sentence as some of the culture's greatest a decade ago? Yep, we sure do.
What we have here, as you'd expect from the above - and as predicted in previous HIPHOP.COM single reviews - is everything that you'd expect from another Em album. The only oddity is the slightly different vocal cadence we hear on a few tracks, including his verses on singles 3am and Crack a Bottle. 3am is, in fact, perhaps the tightest set of lyrics we get from Marshall on this new set - his horrorcore verses really do have you reaching for the rewind button to analyse exactly how much he's packed into each line, let alone each sentence. To say he's painting a picture with his rhymes is only highlighted further by the accompanying noir slasher/psycho video; this is storytelling on a level we just don't hear very often any more.
Of a similar high quality is Same Song and Dance, a dark serial-killer tale of various lapdancers, celebrities and other rehab-frequenting "victims" that fall into Em's trap. Other high points on the album include Bagpipes from Baghdad, with a middle eastern vibe underpinning a neck-snapping beat and some solid lyricism (ignoring the Nick Cannon-baiting references to Mariah); and another horror-fest, Stay Wide Awake, with the slick opening line (and perhaps nod to EPMD's classic Headbanger), "Soon as my flow starts/I compose art like the ghost of Mozart."
However: if, like this reviewer, you'd been underwhelmed by the two official lead singles - Crack a Bottle with Dre and Fiddy (which admittedly grew after a few listens, but ultimately doesn't live up to the sum of its superstar parts), and the utterly wack We Made You - this album still does have a handful of lows. There's the alternative-leaning Beautiful, with its mournful rock guitar backdrop and supposedly heart-wrenching sung chorus, and the part on My Mum where we hear Slim screeching: "My mum is on valium and lots of drugs/That's why I'm on what I'm on." And during Insane we're subjected to more skeletons in his closet and get to listen to explicit descriptions of how he was treated by his stepfather (we're talking gay rape attempts). Similar ground has been trodden before, and as a result it barely raises eyebrows. Whether this makes him consistent or just a one-trick pony is certainly debateable, but his millions of global fans love the maniac caricature with the chainsaw, so they'll be sure to love this too - and they'll lap up all the more eagerly those Christopher Reeve jokes on Medicine Ball once they hear they're so below-the-belt that even his manager, Paul Rosenberg, is on record as questioning if he's gone too far. Another disappointing cut is Old Time's Sake, where Dre's formulaic beat and pedestrian flow slightly - but only slightly(!) - dampens expectations for Detox.
All in all, you get the feeling that coming out of his temporary rap retirement was as much therapy for Shady (he clearly still had some things to get off his rehabilitated chest) as it was to appease his fans or the paymasters at his powerhouse label. Thankfully for us, Em hasn't let himself or them down. Relapse is another worthy addition to his catalogue, but it's an album that seems devoid of any standout classics or attempts at breaking new ground.
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