Eminem - Recovery (2010)
Sometime after 2009, Eminem apparently decided "fuck "Relapse", that album sucks" and (much to my dismay) disses it in the lead single off of this album, "Not Afraid", because the majority of the public didn't fuck with it due to the accents, but dammit, that doesn't give you permission to just go and make this album instead!! This is a MUCH more serious album than anything else he's ever done, to try to contrast with the previous album, but dammit, this is your younger sibling's favorite hip-hop album, no fucking doubt. This is the album that took Eminem from being this badass edgy dude who could eat MCs alive, to some guy that teenagers praise on Facebook as "rapping about real life" and sharing all of these bullshit inspirational quotes (that he never said) as a way of saying "not all rappers rap about drugs, sex and violence!!" despite all three being CONSTANT lyrical themes not only in his older albums, but also appearing on this album in spurts. I guess I just don't understand those teenagers, but then again, I don't understand -any- teenagers about anything anymore. Gerard Way sure was fuckin' right about them.
For an album titled as it is, not much of the lyrical content actually has to do with his recovery from his drug addiction and relapsing. The majority of the lyrical content is still stuff about how he's the best MC alive, bad relationships, and repeat. I'm sure someone could point out "Oh really? That's all he raps about on this album? What about [insert song]? Ha, guess you didn't listen to what he was saying" or some stupid Stan shit like I haven't heard all of his songs a thousand times, but the majority of the album is so incredibly formulaic lyrically and just frankly fucking boring or cringeworthy. A friend of mine wanted to remix this album as "Recovery: The 90s Sitcom Edition" where it would have a laugh-track inserted into it after every corny punchline (i.e. "Now you get to watch her leave out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane (pain)") but he just couldn't fucking do it. He even collaborates with Pink and Rihanna on two of the tracks featured on this album, and holy shit: HE WOULD'VE FUCKING DISSED THEM SO HARD BACK IN 2000!! What the actual fuck?! For what reason why?! Fucking hell!! If that makes you angry, just know that you aren't as angry as Eminem: His flow on this album is so different than any of his other albums up to this point, where he sounds like he's YELLING nearly every single verse!! No more silk, smooth, complicated flows, just Eminem fuckin' screaming his ass off while reciting technical lyrics about being the best out there. He sounds like your dad when he gets drunk and starts talking about all of the ways that your older brother fucked up in life.
That's not to say this album is shit.. There's just a lot of shitty material on here. If we wanna get into the good/great material for a minute, "Cinderella Man" is a GREAT tune on here that'll make you want to have it play as you walk out of your dressing room to beat the living shit out of someone in a boxing match. My God, those drums get me ready to tackle a fuckin' bear.. "Going Through Changes" features an excellently done sample of Black Sabbath's "Changes" and is the best serious song on the entire album, if anything, due to him talking about his ex-wife Kim in a positive manner, saying that he'd still do anything for her on any given day. It's a really surprisingly mature moment in a surprisingly immature discography, and really hits hard when you hear it for the first time, because he finally matured enough to move past his pain and shows off the real Marshall Mathers, as opposed to "hurdur I kill women" and shit. I also wanna say "Space Bound" is a really admirable attempt at a sincere "I still love you" break-up song, and is pretty good overall, although it's definitely not one to bump in the whip or to hear in the car with friends, unless you want to never, ever be handed the AUX port again, unless you can quickly switch it to the excellent bonus track of "Ridaz" to redeem yourself.
The album isn't even that bad, it's just generally mediocre, cringeworthy, or even just really weird for him. I mean, listen to "No Love (feat. Lil Wayne)" and try to tell me that the sample of Haddaway's "What is Love" isn't the cheesiest shit that you've ever heard, or that "You're Never Over", a tribute to his dead best friend Deshaun 'Proof' Holton isn't cringeworthy in its execution. A shitty hook, terrible lyrics filled with puns until the final verse.. Ugh. The track he released before about his death, "Difficult", is so much better it hurts. This all being said, the album does have its good moments, like the ones I mentioned before, and generally just the fact that Eminem is still an entertaining guy, if anything, to try to catch his metaphors, references, etc, and the fact that he sounds like he's pissed off as shit this entire album, but really.. This isn't the Eminem that you're looking for. The beats are polished and clean as hell but almost always in a disappointing "Is this a pop instrumental?!" way. I need to recover from this album with a nice pair of headphones and a listen of one of his older albums, because despite all of the occasional good things that this album has going for it, it's fucking embarrassing to listen to.
6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
