My thoughts on the individual albums of Eminem.

by **forgot_about_matt** » Nov 16th, '10, 02:49

1) The Marshall Mathers LP - One of the most important albums of the 2000s; true zeitgeist art. At the time, Eminem had his finger planted firmly on the pulse of America. One of the most effective social commentaries in any medium. Every song sizzles and stings.

2) The Eminem Show - Essentially the same thing I said about The MMLP, except that it has a track that I believe to be considerably weaker than the others on the album ("Hailie's Song").

3) The Slim Shady LP - A couple tracks haven't aged as well as I'd like, and I never really fell for "My Name Is" to begin with, but the harsh lyrical wit Marshall unleashes in his original nasally Slim Shady voice provides a grand introduction for the twisted bleach-blonde asshole we grew to love.

4) Relapse - A few songs are skippable ("We Made You" is the most obvious example), and I find that "Underground" suffers from a severe case of lyrical ADD, but the reinvention of Shady from mischief-making punk to eloquent serial killer/rapist is fascinating and goddamn the haters, I'm rather fond of the much-maligned accent that dominates the album. Eliminating skits and substituting the iTunes bonus tracks and some of the Relapse: Refill songs into the tracklist would have made for another true classic.

5) Recovery - A good album, certainly, but too many tracks touch on similar topics and I don't believe that the sampled production style is necessarily the best route for Mathers to take. The album feels slightly overlong and just doesn't have enough bite to it. Also, Eminem seems to swear too much for no particular reason. In the past, he used obscenity with purpose. A good amount of this album's "fucks" seem lazy, most noticeably in "Cold Wind Blows" and "Won't Back Down". On the positive side, every track but one (the perhaps-aptly-named "So Bad") is good on its own. The individual tracks that compose the album are greater than the end result.

6) Infinite - Lyrically on-point, but too generic for my liking.

7) Encore - Turd. In. The. Punchbowl.