Eminem – “Recovery” Review

Eminem seems pretty hellbent on making sure people know that he is sorry for his previous work, Relapse.  While Relapse was a long-awaited comeback full of nostalgic vulgarity, it ultimately left the listener unsatisfied and disappointed.  The songs were ok, but for them to be coming from Eminem, they didn’t seem to meet the bar set by his previous works.  Not only does he feel bad about Relapse, but he also mentions how he wasn’t happy about Encore either.  He mentions how he was on too many drugs when making Encore, and flushing everything out with Relapse.  Now, after giving himself time to sober up, he’s released his latest work, Recovery.  It was originally titled “Relapse 2,” but since he was so unhappy with the first, he wrote entirely new songs and slapped on a new titile, completely differentiating it from what he is straying so far from.  The verdict? It’s actually pretty awesome.

If you read my review of Relapse, you’ll know that I had a lot of complaints.  His voice was nasally, his lyrics were tried, and his beats were poor.  With this album, it was almost as if he read my review and took notes.  There are no nasal-pushed vocals or forgettable beats, and his lyrics have drastically improved.  His desire to gain forgiveness inspired him to show us that there’s a reason why he was named one of the greatest rappers of all time.  Given, you hear a lot of the same “suck my dick” lyrics, which I can honestly do without (he’s been saying it for years, it’s pretty damn annoying by now), but there are also fantastic eyebrow-raising hotspots. Though it seems there really isn’t anything new that Eminem could show us, as he is well past the point of shocking the audience with his lyrics, he is still able to give you that “wow” factor.

• The cons:

1. as much as his lyrical patterns are both nostalgic and refreshing in a market saturated by Wayne, Kanye, and Drake, there are many times where it’s a fault.  There are times when I’m listening and I feel like the flow of the music is being mudded up by the flow of the lyrics.
2. Eminem really must stop trying to sing.  A melodic chant here and there is ok, but when he’s straining his vocal chords trying to hit a high note, it takes the audience member out of the moment (“Not Afraid”).
3. If he wants to come off as vulgar, he’s going to have to talk about something else than his dick getting sucked or about gay guys.  It’s played out, annoying, overdone, over-saturated, etc.
4. The album artwork looks like it was designed by a high-schooler who pirated his first copy of CS4.

• The Pros

1. Much better than Relapse – both lyrically and musically.
2. The samples of Ozzy and “What Is Love (Baby Don’t Hurt Me)” come off perfectly.
3. Listen to the track “25 To Life,” and pay close attention to the lyrics.  The ending is phenomenal.
4. Lil’ Wayne makes a strong appearance on “No Love,” and as impressive as his verse is, Eminem slaughters him with some of the best lyrics on the entire album

The album isn’t anything shockingly different than what we’re use to, it does give us the reminder that his writing skills are some of the best in hip-hop.  He may have the stigma of the early 2000′s attached, but this won’t stop you from turning up the music and reliving the early decade.  Simply put, its a great album.  It’s certainly not his best, but its far from his worst.This album takes Eminem out of the early decade’s angry white rapper caricature and puts him right back where he needs to be.  It leaves you begging for more, with a strong desire to see how much further he will carry his career. I give it four out of five stars. ****

UPDATE:

So I guess some kid made a horrible rendition of the album cover and it flooded the interwebs.  The actual album cover looks amazing, here is a shitty pixelated version: