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

I gave this a number of spins after listening to Chino's first two projects, that I liked. There is nothing unlikeable about this but less stands out. The bars aren't quite as jaw-dropping and even the beats, that weren't brilliant prior to this album, drop off here as well. The most ear-catching song is the storytelling 'Skin', where Chino talks to a therapist about a number of topics. Solid but few true high moments. Beats: ★★☆ Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Skin, Our Time, B-Boy Intro

This has a different feel to his debut. While the rapping is still brilliant and he still holds nothing back telling us how he feels about everyone and anyone, there is some more variety in the beats and the song topics, and the songwriting in general. It feels less like relentless battle bars/punchlines compared to his debut. It's a slight touch more pop-friendly in parts as well with songs like 'Sorry' and 'Be Here' fitting best into that category. This version has a lot of skits that during the first listen are fine, but like with pretty much any album with skits, begins to wear thin. It's not a big deal in this digital age but it would've been annoying hitting skip every second song as you played through a CD. Beats: ★★★ Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Nunca, Last Laugh, Let 'Em Live, It's My World, Be Here