After many years of not releasing any music, Eminem struck back with this Relapse piece, and then the Refill side a few months later. Being a pretty big Em guy, I was expecting big things from this. My stance is, as an artist if you're going to take years off and not keep your fans happy, then you do release an album finally, it better be really good. And this showed a ton of promise, since everyone knew it would be a double album and that he'd been writing and working in it for quite some time. At first listen of just Relapse, I was disappointed. It didn't seem to have that flashy Em style that we've all grown fond of. It grew on me as I kept going with it, and I find it okay if I toss it on today. The Refill side though - for the most part was just trash. 'Forever' is an outstanding song, but it was already released on Drake's record and was on some sports soundtrack. Putting it on Refill was pretty lame. 'Elevator' was the next biggest single, and it was simply one of those get his name out on the pop charts type songs. You know, similar to "Real Slim Shady' and those types of tracks. Not a big fan of those. I'm also done with him using that stupid voice. Fans will know what I'm talking about, and I'm not really sure how to explain it for those that aren't fans. He just gets this alternate ego type voice and it's annoying. He's due to drop another record this summer, and I'm hoping the voice is gone, and he goes back to murdering tracks like he did back in the day. Gosh, even like he did on 'Forever'. Even like he's been killing singles like Weezy's 'Drop The World' and BOB's 'Airplanes 2'. We still love ya Em, just bring back the real Slim Shady. Happy Friday!
RELAPSE TRACK LISTING:
1. Dr. West [Skit]
2. 3 A.M.
3. My Mom
4. Insane
5. Bagpipes From Baghdad
6. Hello
7. Tonya [Skit]
8. Same Song & Dance
9. We Made You
10. Medicine Ball
11. Paul [Skit]
12. Stay Wide Awake
13. Old Time's Sake
14. Must Be the Ganja
15. Mr. Mathers
16. Deja Vu
17. Beautiful
18. Crack a Bottle
19. Steve Berman [Skit]
20. Underground
REFILL TRACK LISTING:
1. Forever
2. Hell Breaks Loose
3. Buffalo Bill
4. Elevator
5. Taking My Ball
6. Music Box
7. Drop The Bomb On 'Em
Listen To Samples
Top 5 Tracks: (since it's a double album)
1. Forever
2. Beautiful
3. Underground
4. Stay Wide Awake
5. Old Time's Sake
FINAL RATING:
3.5 out of 5 stars
As Eminem says on "Not Afraid"
ReplyDelete"And to the fans, I'll never let you down again, I'm back
I promise to never go back on that promise, in fact
Let's be honest, that last Relapse CD was "ehhhh"
Perhaps I ran them accents into the ground"
So, he gets it. I give him a pass.
Completely agree. If he brings the house down on his next one, this record is completely forgotten.
ReplyDeleteWith all the callabo work he's been hitting, I have to imagine he's going to back to that freestyle type flow that made him famous.