I have not attempted to review an album in quite some time and this is going to be different from all of the other ones because normally I review an album after 3-5 listens. Well, I have had this album for over a month, which means I have easily over 25-30 listens under my belt. Not sure if this will lend itself to a more comprehensive(read:longer) review, but here we go. I will be doing this track by track, just like always.
1. Cold Wind Blows- using wind as a metaphor for him is a nice image. The wind is unpredictable and Eminem himself is unpredictable. This opening track has a nice kick to it courtesy of a menacing beat that is a great contrast to Eminem's high pitched voice and his ridiculous delivery and rhyme patterns. Here he is still angry and dropping names and singing on the hook, so based on this song, it may be more of the same for the white rapper. he does sound a lot more hungry here than he has in a few albums, which is a really nice change of pace. If anyone was worried that being off the drugs would soften Eminem's tongue, this song puts you to rest pretty early on. There is nothing truly spectacular here, but there is something kind of nice about that. The beat, though, really holds this song together beautifully. I do love the last 2 bars of the final verse where he says, almost smiling "But I swear, you try to diss me, I'll slaughter you/I put that on everything, like everyone does with auto-tune/That last thing you wanna do is have me spit out a rhyme/And say I was writing this and I thought of you so." 4/5
2. Talkin' to myself- Eminem is finally talking about getting clean, about how much of a struggle his life has been with the drugs, the death surroudning him and everything else. Eminem has always been at his best when he puts his heart and pain into the music. Kobe sings a nice hook and the beat is a perfect Eminem beat because it is very off kilter, like the man rhyming. Eminem is rhyming about being jealous of Lil Wayne and Kanye because he felt he lost his touch. He says he cannot write a good punchline, his health is declining and all he had was those pills. The energy is raw, the lyrics are raw and the emotion is raw. I love when a musician is willing to be totally open and in rap music, you never doubt yourself. It is your job to always declare you are the best always, but in this song Eminem admits he lost touch with who he was as an artist. He is not afraid to admit his last two albums were lackluster and thanks his audience for being patient and begs for forgiveness for the bad albums. Damn, I wish I could bleed my soul like this! 5/5
3. On Fire- I do not have a proper tracklisting, but this beat is very Dr Dre. Eminem makes Dre better and Dre makes him better. I know people do not like this song much, but the verbal gymnastics are retarded good. His in and out rhyme patterns, his delivery, breath control, flow, tone of voice and the dark, yet hilarious imagery is fascinating. His ability to be morbid and hilarious is very evident here. The song may not really have a point, but when you rhyme this well, not every song needs to have a point. this song is just 2 32 bar verses of pure spitting. He just went into the booth and ripped apart a beat that lends itself to a ridiculous stream of verbal awesomeness. There is nothing subtle about it and in an album where Eminem will be spending a lot of time on his feeling and emotions, it is good to have a song where he is just ripping it up! 4.5/5
4. Won't back down- With a very rock style beat and Pink SOARING on the hook, Eminem finds a nice melding of commercial and edgy and he is not wasting anytime as he tears into the guitar and drum laced beat. He is rapping about that crazy Slim Shady stuff. The first verse is just nuts as he starts off rapping fast and hitting multi syllabic rhymes like crazy and then he slows down and kicks out this insane word play: I gave Bruce Wayne a Valium and said, "Settle your fuckin ass down, I'm ready for combat man!"/Get it? Calm Batman? Nah, ain't nobody who's as bomb and as
nuts/ lines are like mom's CAT scans cause they fuckin go ba-na-nas/Honey I applaud that ass, swear to God man these broads can't dance/ Ma, show 'em how it's done, spaz like a goddamn Taz, yeah" And the second verse is more of the same. He is right on with every guitar lick. The way his voice becomes one with this mid tempo beat is insane. The third verse is probably one of his most vile of the album and it really is a nice closer for this song. 4.5/5
5. W.T.P- Easily the worst song on the album. The beat is too poppy for my tastes on this album and the sing-songy hook just does not work for me. The song, about a White Trash Party, feels like the Eminem from the Encore album. There is nothing interesting here except rhyming "die Santa" with " bystander." It is a total throwaway track that the album could have done without and been better for it. But, I guess that is part of what makes Eminem, Eminem. He has to have these songs on his albums just because he can. 2/5
6. Goin Through Changes- I love this song. The sample is perfectly dropped into the hook and this slow tempo beat really complements Eminem's more personal songs. It is like he looked into the mirror while he was detoxing and just started writing. The first verse ends with this insane revelation:
I'm hating my reflection
I walk around the house trying to fight mirrors
I can't stand what I look like, yeah
I look fat, but what do I care
I give a fuck, only thing that I fear is Hailey
I'm afraid that if I close my eyes then I might see her...Shit
In this song he finally takes a bit about his feelings from when his best friend was shot and killed. He opens up about the drug problem and how much of a failure he felt like to his daughters. It is a heart on the table kind of song and while there are few of them on this album, it never gets old. Eminem has always talked about the trappings of fame, but this song goes beyond that, and talks about how fame allowed him to just do whatever he wanted. By the time he samples his daughter's voice as the driving force to helping him get sober, it is hard not to feel something for him. 5/5
7. Not Afraid- The anthem of the album. With the driving beat, the march like quality of the hook and Eminem's determined delivery, This is one of those songs that just gets me going. Much like "Lose Yourself" this song just fills one with hope, with determination and a drive to succeed. Eminem does not venture to this territory all that often, but he is always successful when he does. There is something to be said for the simplicity of it all. The repetitive drums, the chanting chorus and how Eminem is rhyming at a very normal tempo. He is not doing the gymnastics or playing with the speed or tone. He is just sitting in front of a mic and exercising his demons and telling everyone that if he can come back from his best friend dying, a drug addiction and all kinds of other nonsense, we can all take our lives back and be not afraid of our demons. I absolutely love the third verse and I rap along with it with the same determination. It will definitely be a song that makes it onto my opening night playlist. 5/5
8. Seduction- Oh man this is my song! Eminem takes a girl away from a guy because of his ability to be verbally seductive. Because of his rhyming ability he gets this girl away from some kind of loser. He gloats " There's a 7 disc CD changer in the car
And I'm in every single slot, and you're not." The beat is sexy, but in a dark kind of haunting way, like it was created in a smokey, dark strip club. Eminem follows suit with his delivery and the overall tone of the song. The singing on the hook is full of this erotic tension and with each verse he gets a bit more darkly playful, and more seductive. he is toying with his competition and by the time he gets to the third verse he is spouting stuff like:
Prick you really feel'n that bullshit, you think you kill'n them syllables
Quit play'n, these beats ain't nothing to fool with
They call me Fire Marshall, I shut the shit down
Your entire arsenal is not enough to fuck with one round (Woo!)
I am also the opposite of what you are like
You're a microcosm of what the fuck I am on the mic
I am awesome, and you are just awe-struck
It is no contest, Eminem cannot be defeated with words. 5/5
9. No Love- This might be the single most ridiculous sample for a rap song. The way it is chopped up and dropped in the hook and how the sample fits with this song, kind of work, but it is tough to get passed that. On top of that, you have to deal with a Lil Wayne verse. Granted, it might be one of his best verses ever, which is not saying much, but Eminem brings out the best in people. Wayne's voice fits the syrupy flavor of the beat and it is a stark contrast to Eminem's much more aggresive delivery, but somehow those contrasts all fit together pretty well. Eminem sings the hook and the song is kind of about brushing off the people who turned their backs whent he chips were low. I love the opening to Eminem's verse: "I'm alive again, more alive than I have been in my whole entire life" and from there he is goes into this whirlwind of in and out rhymes, where he dares you to follow where his words are going to go next. It is like an ABAABCBCC rhyme pattern or some crazy shit like that. His breath control is CRAZy considering just how many words he is spitting into each bar. It requires multiple listens just to catch where he is going with the verse. It might be his most unique verse on the album. 5/5
10. Space Bound- If I had done this review after 3 or 4 listens, this song would be rated much differently. it has grown on me so much. At first the space theme did nothing for me and I did not quite grasp what he was going for because it sounds like it wants to be a love song, but it is more a song about obsession, about how love can be an addiction and an unhealthy all consuming one. Eminem has a lot of experience in this. I love how the end of the first verse he says she takes his breath away right at the end of a line where he is clearly losing his breath. It is an insanely precise moment. The hook is still bothersome to me. I do not like the robotic feel of it because Eminem is all about feeling. There is not much to the beat that really stands out but it allows Eminem to just be very on edge throughout the song. And clearly every verse starts off normal but as the verse gets on, his lyrics gets more driven, his delivery more pointed and the whole thing sounds more desperate. It is another way Eminem goes beyond just writing insane lyrics. His performance elevates this song way beyond what I heard the first few times. 4/5
11. Cinderella Man- This is another kind of anthem type song. The kick drum and clap create the foundation of the beat and the chorus has a gospel feel to it and Eminem sounds like a man given second life, which is kind of true. The song about a guy who is still around when he maybe does not deserve to be rings very true to Eminem's life. The song takes a lot of boxing metaphors, which fit with the movie called Cinerella Man. His words are very crisp and he is hitting every single beat perfectly. He is not playing with his voice at all, because it is the clarity of message is what is important here. Even the guitars in the beat are muffled to not pull focus from the marching effect. It is also catchy as hell when the hook comes in "Wish I had a time machine." The second verse he plays with his words a bit more because he knows he has our attention and now he can show off why we are glad he is still around. I love how the beats drops out when he raps "How fuckin irritated are you? How much in your face am I?" His confidence/swagger are back! 4/5
12. 25 to Life- Hip-Hop as a woman is nothing new. Rappers have been using that analogy for a long time. However, Eminem's take on women is very different from most, when Eminem compares hip-hop to a woman, you know you are in for something different. He does not disappoint. The song, if you can guess from the title, is how he has felt imprisoned by hip-hop. He feels he has not been given the respect he deserves and that hip-hop is using him. It is a surprising revelation to me because so often Eminem has rapped about how rap music saved him, and of course it has saved him, but hip-hop is fickle and there really is a "What have you done for me lately?" feeling in the rap world. It is a young man's game. The beat is nice, but not overwhelmingly so and it lets Eminem play a lot with his flow. The chorus is probably a sample, but I do not know. This is another song where he breaks from the traditional 3 verse format for two longer verses and in the second verse it gets complicated to follow the rhymes because he is not putting them in traditional places and I love that about him. He may rhyme the first syllable in one word with the third in another and you have to pay attention to catch them sometimes. 4.5/5
13. So Bad- In my opinion, this is another filler track. It is a song the album could have done without and been better for it. However, the beat is sick. It sounds like Dre, but Dre with a lighter touch. The song is about how he gets a girl interested and how he is totally wrong for her, kind of. To be honest, With as much as I like this beat, I wish Eminem had just ripped the track. The hook is boring and Eminem sounds his least inspired on this song. 2.5/5
14. Almost Famous- This song begins the perfect storm of awesome that closes the album. The beat is NUTS, the chorus is spot on and Eminem just RIPS it up all over this track. The song is about his struggle to get a major label deal, but it is more about how he spits this song that makes it amazing. The third verse is ridiculous and it sounds like the hungry Eminem who was rapping his ass off to get on. To be able to put himself back in the frame of mind of a young rapper starving, unable to buy diapers for his daughter and just rapping out of desperation, is amazing. The lyrics are incredible, but printing them would do them a disservice. It is about how his vocals just rip through the beat, the hook, the lyrics, the album all of it. He is truly a rapping animal all over this song. He mentions screaming the wood panel off of the studio because he is just rapping to eat, to survive. Oh man, the kind of passion found in the final verse is INSANE! 5/5
15. Love the way you Lie- It is hard to believe this is an Eminem song because it is so "pop" but not in the way Eminem songs are usually "pop." It might be his catchiest song, which is saying something. Rhianna and Eminem make a wonderfully vulnerable song pairing and the song allows them both to be vulnerable all over the song. Both have been through incredibly tough public relationships and so the song suits them. The beat is pretty special and lends itself to a song about getting your heart ripped out by the person you love. Eminem has never had a filter and even though this is a massive crossover hit with the big chorus, Eminem keeps up the kind of wounded, angry, slightly misogynistic persona he has milked for so long. It is kind of a bold move on a song where one of the most visible victims of domestic abuse is singing on your hook, but that is what gives the song the depth. Eminem's desperate pleas border on too crazy and by the end of the third verse you realize he is his own worst enemy when it comes to love. His temper is what has him alone. 5/5
16. You're never Over- The only rap song to ever bring me to tears, is this one. It does not still get me there but the first 5 or 6 listens I was on the verge. 3-4 years later, Eminem is finally able to write a song about his murdered best friend and what a fitting tribute it is. It is inspiring, angry, confused, winning, and features the amazing vocal dynamics Eminem is famous for. You really get the idea that Eminem's soul was attached to Proof, his best friend. Eminem paints a picture of a man who meant everything to him and was the reason he was able to hold onto his sanity. The second verse is one of the most heartfelt, open and warm verses I have ever heard EMinem spit and it begins with this: For you, I wanna write the sickest rhyme of my life/So sick it'll blow up the mic, it'll put the "dyna" in "mite"/Yeah, it'll make the dopest MC, wanna jump off a bridge and shit himself/Tap dancin all over the beat, it'll jump off the page and spit itself
As someone who once lost a best friend, I can really relate to how he is feeling and as I go through some of the hardest moment of my life the last 6 months, I realize how much I wish I had my friend back and I can only imagine how hard it is for Eminem to go through the drugs, the second divorce and everything else without his best friend. I can listen to this song over and over and never tire of it. 5/5
17. Untitled- Havoc produced this song and Eminem heard it once, loved it so much he had to have it no matter what. It is exactly the way Eminem closes all of his albums, a song where he just spits ridiculous stream of consciousness rhymes that essentially nonsense, but sound so fucking good because of how he manages to rhyme. He is also very dark, morbid and hilarious again. My favorite little section is probably:
Cause it will turn into a +Gremlin+ and run over kids, women and men
Vrinn-vrinn, motor so big you fit a midgit in his engine
Bitch give me them digits, why you cringin? Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin
will I spend-spend even ten cents on you, since when
do you think it's gonna cost me a pretty penny? Shit, if I think a penny's pretty
Just imagine how, beautiful a quarter is to me
Eeny-meeny-miney-mo, catch an Eskimo by his toe while he's tryin to roll a snowball
But don't make him lose his cool, if he hollers better let him go y'all!
It is complete and utter nonsense, but I cannot help but giggle and sit in awe of it all. The song is nothing but sections like this set this amazing beat. It is the perfect way for Eminem to finish off this reintroduction to who he is. 5/5
Bonus Coverage!
18. Session one (Featuring Slaughterhouse)- I could get used to hearing Eminem killing tracks with this group for years to come. Eminem is the lead off batter here, setting up this track with word play like "So suck my dick on the couch if you wanna cushion the blow." The beat is vintage Just Blaze sounding, which means it is breezy, it hits hard and is perfect for a group of emcees to rip up. Royce, Eminem's one time rhyming partner feeds off of Eminem's energy and rips his verse, even if it is a little more straight forward, but his growl compliments Eminem's voice nicely. Joell Ortiz continues his insanity on the mic. The kid is rapping along side veterans, but he does not show any signs of feeling overwhelmed, instead he sounds just as confident on the as everyone else. He destroys the voice and his breath control is INSANE! Crooked I, the surprise of the group to me, closes the song off and he brings it home wonderfully with this insane group of rhymes, all set to a spot in the beat where it changes, just slightly:
Bilinguist don, I kill with the tongue, I'm Atilla the Hun
I'm Genghis Khan, I'm a genius spawn
I pillage your village for fun, an egregious con
A syllable gun, real as they come, Long Beach Saddam!
Oh man, I wonder what Joe Buddens verse would have sounded like if his label did not stop him from jumping on it! 5/5
19. Ridaz- This is not an Eminem sounding song. In fact, Dr. Dre drops his most West Coast/Gangsta rap beat in years. I felt like The Game should have been rapping voer this menacing track. Granted, it is a dark sounding beat which is where Eminem excells, but it just hits so HARD, I expected a gangsta rap song, not an Eminem. This is not a problem, it just takes some getting used to. Em goes into the song nicely, but it sounds a bit like a left over from the last album. It is a drug infused story of violence, which is more in line with Relapse than Recovery, but it does not stop Eminem from dropping his brand of odd rhyme schemes all over the place and because I am who I am, I still love it all because of how he rhymes, or how he delivers his rhymes. However, I feel like this beat could be better served. Rarely do I feel that in an Eminem song. 3.5/5
20 Despicable Freestyle-
I wanted to post the whole thing because it really gives you an opportunity to hear what I have been talking about this whole review because this verse embodies all of who he is. His rhymes patterns, his breath control, his flow, his delivery, the wordplay and his just pure rhyming insanity are all on display in this 2 minute verse. I cannot even listen to the original versions of the two songs he uses because he just murders both beats too well. He takes possesion of it all. It may take a few listens to catch it all, but give it time. You will probably love it the way I do. 5/5
I may overrate Eminem a bit, as I am admittedly a massive fan of how this guy operates. I understand that my opinion might be a bit biased, but I am entranced by interesting and complex rhymes, so even if I am not sure I like the theme of a song, or even the tone of a song, his ability to make words do what he wants them to do, always impresses me. He is an inspiring artist to people who love to create and as I wish I could be a writer, I am floored by how his mind puts words together.
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