Music Review: Eminem, “Relapse” (Aftermath/Interscope)
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Rating: 47
Even before the five-year gap that separated “Relapse” from 2004′s “Encore,” Eminem was obviously spinning his wheels — dissing tabloid personalities and engaging in one-too-many murder fantasies about his ex-wife, Kim Mathers. But while the title of “Relapse” directly references Marshall Mathers’ recent battle with prescription drug addiction, it says more about his tendency to revisit the same old territory. No other musical artist of this stature possesses so little forward momentum.
The recent single and video “We Made You” only proved that Mathers can regurgitate “E! News Daily” in verse — does it take special skills to take down Kim Kardashian or Amy Winehouse? Elsewhere, Eminem ups the ante on his verbal killing sprees (blaming the drugs in “3 a.m.”), takes down a stepfather and a cousin, and admits to more fatherly guilt about he is raising Hailie. This is all familiar familial territory with the same boring ingredients ladled on, thick and bloody.
What makes Eminem so vexing is his extraordinary talent. Not just any rapper can craft a line like “Swallowin’ the Klonopin while I’m noddin’ in and out on the ottoman at the Ramada Inn” — that rhyme should be enshrined somewhere. It’s just that Mathers’ facility with the language is put to such tedious use on “Relapse,” and it’s a sad shame that, in a full decade of major-label work, evolution has not been part of the Eminem experience, and more often than not, he seems to actively avoid it. This is like watching a world-class architect design a strip mall.
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