Despite his own admissions that people will be wondering 'where the f**k' he's been in the last four years, it is hard to believe that it's been a full ten years since Eminem first graced us with the opiate-fuelled, profanity-laden Slim Shady LP. Now though, four years after his last record, 2005's Encore, he's back.
Eminem's Latest Album.
In the last four years, Marshall Mathers has endured drug addiction, rehab, more drug addiction and more rehab, on top of losing his best friend DeShaun 'Proof' Holton to a nightclub gun fight. Slim Shady has a whole world full of new issues, and he's determined to share every last dark corner of his mind with his millions of fans around the globe.
'I was born with a d**k in my brain/yeah, f**ked in the head/my stepfather said that I sucked in bed' from the aptly titled 'Insane' is a good example of what the listener can expect from Eminem on this record. Whether he's sticking a flashlight up the derriere of Kim Kardashian in '3 am', or car-stalking Lindsay Lohan in 'Same old song and dance', in various places Eminem sounds like he's complete lost the plot.
Is Relapse Eminem's best?
This is not Eminem's best album. It's humour doesn't carry the same edge as the Slim Shady LP, nor does it have the same demented fury of the Marshall Mathers LP. In fact, as an artist whose success has always been at least partially reliant on shock value, Slim Shady sounds alarmingly impotent in places.
Songs such as 'Kim' (from the MM LP) presented a genuine sense of unease: they were uncomfortable to listen to in places: genius, yes, but still disturbing. It is hard to imagine Relapse suffering if Eminem had dropped 'Hello', a track that does nothing to show Eminem's undoubted talent, and does nothing to shower glory on Dre's production skills.
One of the saddest things about the record is that you almost sense that Eminem is aware of the monotony himself, wearily stating on 'Medicine Ball' that 'It's time for you to hate me again/let's begin/now hand me the pen/how shall I begin it/where does it all end?'
Ten years ago, when Eminem was screaming 'I just don't give a f**k!' down the microphone, his fans believed every word. That sort of passion seems long gone on Relapse.
Still Slim Shady?
What makes the weaker, more monotonous cuts on the record so frustrating is that Relapse actually contains two or three tracks that are as good as anything Eminem has ever penned. 'Deja Vu' sees him cutting the semi Arabian accent that he first adopted for 'Ass Like That' (that he chooses to use on most of the songs on Relapse) and take on a more serious tone. Dropping the clown act does wonders for the track, allowing the demons of Eminem's last four years to really be laid bare.
'Beautiful' follows a similar pattern. Sampling Queen and Paul Rodgers, it is another lamenting ballad replete with please for Mathers to be able to revert to a normal life, and to trade places with anyone else, so 'they could see how it feels to be me''. Following 'Deja Vu', 'Beautiful' pull off the same remarkable trick: making us see the world not through the eyes of Slim Shady, but the harrowing view of Mathers himself.
The best on this record, though, is undoubtedly saved until last. 'Underground' is simply huge. Dre's production sounds massive: sweeping strings, harmonious backing vocals and possibly the most thumping beat the Doc has ever composed. Every demon Shady can summon, he forces into this song: addiction, regret, depression, death, alcohol, relapsing and rage are all here, jostling for space. On 'Underground' though, they don't sound forced or fake. Instead, they ring with the same fury Eminem first spat on the Slim Shady LP all those years ago. It is six minutes of demented magic, and reminds you just how monumentally talented the man is.
The unfortunate question that will be on everyone's mind after hearing this record, though, is just how many more of those demented moments Eminem has left.
