by katha » Dec 2nd, '10, 15:55
I couldn't decide. MMLP is outstanding alone for the sheer bravado of it. "So you were offended by my last album and want to censor me? You ain't seen offensive yet. Now go ahead and try to stop me." It's dealing with the controversy around him in a smart, witty and creative way and throwing it back at the hypocritical "OMG think of the childrenz!?!" brigade. The quality of songs like Kim, Stan and Criminal is insane. But yes, some of the features drag it down a bit.
TES has one or two clunkers as well. White America, Sing for the Moment and Till I Collapse are again out of this world brilliant though. IMO it has a bit more variety musically, but loses some of MMLP's coherence for it. The gloating that they couldn't stop his first two albums and the attacks on the government (shortly after 9/11 when everyone daring to say anything vaguely critical about Bush was deemed "unpatriotic") are awesome. As is the more thoughtful and self-critical approach to some of the songwriting.
Yeah, I would say it's about even. Both are mindblowingly great.