"I've been working on it for over a year. You know how it is—you make songs, and as you make the new ones, the old ones get old and you throw them out. The album is called Revival. It’s a reflection of where I’m at right now, but also I feel like what I tried to do was diversify. I’ve tried to make a little something for everyone" - Eminem 1|Walk on Water Topically I see what Eminem is trying to do but the production just isn't interesting enough for repeated listens. His choppy flow that is featured on a number of tracks here doesn't help its case either. 2|Believe Believe begins the run of two trap-influenced songs and works, and look, no female sung hook. I like the contrast between the hooks and verses. 3|Chloraseptic Chloraseptic on the other hand sounds like Eminem trying to parody the generic trap sound by amping up his voice and incorporating trap adlibs. Generic trap adlibs are annoying as it is and just that, generic, and Eminem would be better off staying away from them. Parodying or not, it just sounds strange. 4|Untouchable Like Joyner Lucas' 'I'm Not Racist', this features Eminem rapping from different perspectives. The whole 'white boy, white boy' is a bit ehh, but I like this song. The production switches up, as does the rapping, which at times features the choppy flow referred to earlier but at other times it's great. I don't get why this song was so poorly received by some. 5|River I have no problem with Ed, but I don't like the hook here. 6|Remind Me (Intro) "You make me do things / I normally wouldn't do” 7|Remind Me I think the previous interlude may go some way to explaining the odd choice to rhyme over 'I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll'. 8|Revival (Interlude) 9|Like Home Eminem, and Alicia are patriotic here, and Em goes at Trump and says some potent things but again, I don't like the hook, or the production much either. A bit of a waste. I feel the content would've been better over a harder beat too. 10|Bad Husband Topically again, there is something here with Eminem talking about his marriage with Kim and his faults as a husband and feeling compunction for Kim, but the poppy production and hook do little for me. 11|Tragic Endings A touch better than the previous songs but follows a similar formula. 12|Framed Sounds like something from 'Relapse'. Catchy hook with Eminem telling a story about how he has been framed for murder. Again, it's just Eminem on the hook. One of my picks from the album. It is also less pop than most of what's here, and again, there is a bit more of a natural flow. 14|Heat Can tell this is one of Rubin's songs. 17|In Your Head Another interesting sample choice with The Cranberries' '[Album110943]' being the hook here. I don't mind this. Framed aside, the best song since 'Untouchable'. 18|Castle Eminem's rapping sounds more natural here. It's another song about Hayley, his daughter. I like the hook that switches up between Liz's singing and Eminem rapping. I wouldn't call myself a big Em fan. 'The Eminem Show' is my pick from his discography but as far as whole complete projects go I could almost leave the rest. As a rapper though I rate him highly but I find his beat choices in many cases a waste of his talent. If it's not his beat selection, too often it's been his voice or his unappealing choppy flow here and on his recent albums. I'm with some other reviews that state the producers as a large piece of the problem here. I understand an artist who goes pop for sales, but Eminem is Eminem, he doesn't need to. Why is there so much pop shit on here? Why 'The Eminem Show' is my favourite Eminem album is because while I think the beats are the best he had, more to the point is because it is a mature album. He is spitting more mature shit here but the production isn't up to scratch. I don't get it. For someone who is such a hip hop head, grew up on the classics, clowned pop and pop rap in the infancy of his career, and would sell regardless, I don't get it... This isn't one of the worst albums of all time like this site would have you believe but he really should be doing better. I went and listened to his older albums after this and if you do the same you may appreciate releases like 'Encore' more.

I really like Eminem as a rapper, you cannot doubt that he is one of the best, but with some of his albums I get the same feeling as I get about 40-50 minutes into it. With this album by '25 to Life'/'So Bad' I start feeling like I've heard this before and begin to lose interest. It kicks off well with the first three tracks just being great excuses to hear Eminem spit fire. 'Won't Back Down' at track four is the first blip on the radar and doesn't do much for me along with 'W.T.P.' But then through until 'Almost Famous' and when I start to get a touch bored with this it is all fairly solid-good tracks. Nothing on this really comes close to his best tracks and something about the production leaves a lil to be desired for me. Best Tracks: Going Through Changes, Not Afraid.

First off, I've gotta say it's great to hear some new Eminem again whether the material is brilliant or not. In the past while I've loved his best songs like 'Sing for the Moment,' 'Lose Yourself, etc, The Eminem Show (4/5) aside I've never dug a whole album from him. Nevertheless, he is one of the best rappers from a skill and flow point of view and lyrically he offers something unique to all of the other artists out there. As one would expect, lyrically Relapse is different than most and features great flow and wordplay most of the time from Eminem, and apart from 'Ken Kaniff' the skits work well which is unique for a hip hop album these days. Normally they just get in the way - See College Dropout. Track for track there probably ain't any I love and would group near the songs I mentioned at the beginning of this review but quite a few I like and not many I hate. 'Bagpies From Baghdad' is probably my favourite due to the production and Eminem's flow throughout the song even if it's not as lyrically deep as some of the other tunes. The track just has lots of energy to it. The track proceeding that, 'Insane', is also a highlight and 'Medicine Ball' is another with again great flow and a good hard beat being a feature. Other picks are '3 a.m.', 'Old Time's Sake' & 'Stay Wide Awake'. However, as I mentioned earlier though, nothing is mind-blowing. As he has often had, what also lets the album down are some of the stupid lyrics at times. The Christopher Reeve stuff isn't necessary and I don't see the point of it. I guess to a point Eminem is going for that shock value but still...and musically it fits everything well but isn't groundbreaking by any means. Overall Relapse is a good album that feels like an album, like back in the day when one producer produced almost all the album. 3-3.5. Best Tracks: Bagpipes From Baghdad, Medicine Ball, 3 a.m., Same Song & Dance

I don't hate this album or think it's as much of a fall off as lots of people claim it to be. I love some of the beats, that follow on from what we heard on 'The Eminem Show'. 'Evil Deeds' is dope, largely thanks to the hard beat. It's simple, but bangs. 'Never Enough' would be more appreciated if it wasn't on this album. Eminem's verse is great. It's largely thanks to firstly hearing it on 'Like Toy Soldiers' but I love the chorus from Martika's Toy Soldiers'. The theme of the song feels similar to what we got with ''Till I Collapse' on the previous album, as 'Mosh' does thematically to 'White America'. So far it's a good album but begins to fall away. 'Puke' is another shot at Kim but isn't as cleverly done or interesting, or just as good of a song as what we've heard before. 'My 1st Single' features some experimental type of beat and while I like some of the spittin', who wants to hear burping on a record? Lyrically, I don't know what some of 'Rain Man' is... "And I ain't even gotta make no goddamn sense / I just did a whole song and I didn't say shit." At least he's honest. Like 'Evil Deeds' though, I've always loved the beat. 'Big Weenie' is my least favourite song here. The beat isn't as strong, gets repetitive and Em isn't interesting. It's well known that Em was losing it during the making of this album due to drugs and much of the lyrics on 'Just Lose It' is evidence of that, as they are on 'Ass Like That'. We had puking and burping before and now flatulence... A much better ass appreciation song from Eminem is 'Shake That', with a fire beat that Nate Dogg kills. From the stupidity of the middle of the album, it gets back to some seriousness with the strong 'Spend Some Time' and the better 'Mockingbird', being about his daughters. 'Crazy in Love' is all Em just singing. He can handle a hook but a whole song...Not so much. The change-up with the hook is nice but it's a weak song. I don't like the beat or hook on 'One Shot 2 Shot' and then 'Encore' finishes the album off strongly. Overall, Eminem has less to say here and the middle of the album is stupid but I feel like it has a reputation of being a complete mess and it isn't that. I like a lot of the beats. If you put a sober Em on some of the beats on the stupider songs, you'd have strong songs because the beats aren't bad at all. A sizeable fall from his best album, 'The Eminem Show', but if you delete a few songs you've still got some good Eminem on offer. Beats: ★★★★ Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Evil Deeds, Never Enough, Like Toy Soldiers, Mosh, Spend Some Time, Mockingbird.

AZ imitation or not, this is a very good album from a pre-superstar Eminem. The title track is one of his best songs of all time. The jazzy production is overall solid with some highlights and there is no yelling or accents from Eminem, making it one of his most vocally pleasurable albums. We need this whole thing remastered like the title track was. Best Tracks: Infinite, It's O.K., Tonite, Never 2 Far