Album Details

• Artist: Eminem
• Album: Recovery
• Label: Aftermath/Interscope
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: carlito on 2010-07-10

For an artist who needs no introduction, we'll just dive right in.  I think it's fair to say that Em is back with a vengeance, and very much wants to be on top again - Recovery might just put him there.  His last two albums, Relapse and Encore, took a lot of unnecessary flack.  Personally, I enjoyed both releases, but a lot of people viewed Eminem's career as something that was fleeting right before our eyes.  An understandable assumption with rising stars like Kanye West, T.I. and Lil Wayne.

Speaking of which, we find an apologetic Eminem on Recovery.  On "Talkin' 2 Myself", he explains his jealousy of Lil Wayne's stardom and tells how he almost wrote diss records about him and Kanye West.  He says how thankful he is that he didn't do it.  He also talks about his marriage with Hiphop, and how she mistreated him, despite his unwavering devotion to her.  And though he announces his divorce from Hiphop, I wouldn't take it too seriously, as he also says "I'm back" on more than one occasion.   

Not every song has such a self-reflective message, though.  An example of this would be "W.T.P.", an acronym for White Trash Party, which is my personal favorite by the way.  You can't go wrong with talking about white trash up to no good over a tougher-than-nails instrumental - at least Em can't go wrong.  Then you have "Cinderella Man", a simple but hard track with a chorus that sounds like he hired an all-male acapella singing group. 

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard "No Love" featuring Lil Wayne.  It has an excerpt from "What is love", the 1993 mega-hit from Haddaway that immediately became the biggest guido anthem of all time.  Somehow, Eminem, Lil Wayne, and producer Just Blaze managed to flip that track into a bonafied - no guidos allowed - Hiphop classic. Awesome.

The big change on this release would be on the production side of things.  Usually, you see only Eminem and Dr. Dre on the credits.  This time around, there is rare mention of them as he uses Just Blaze and D.J. Khalil for a good bulk of the tracks, along with Mr. Porter, Supa Dups, Emile, Boi 1da, Jim Jonsin, Havoc, and Alex the kid.  A wise decision that freed him up to concentrate on lyrics and performance.

The only drawback I found was that the record has a handful of songs with very similar sounding chord progressions and/or melodic structure.  This is good for consistency but not so much for variation.  If Eminem wasn't so damn good at what he does, it would be a major problem for me.  Fortunately, that isn't the case.

As far as I'm concerned, if he wanted to sign off and retire after this album, he can do so with a clear conscience.  He managed to put together a collection of songs that are sometimes fun, often funny, and other times inspirational.  And when I say inspirational, think "Lose Yourself" from the 8 mile soundtrack - revamped, remixed, and put on steroids.  You get the impression that he's letting all of us in just a little deeper than his previous releases allowed.  I sense genuine emotion on Recovery; reminding us Eminem is still human, even though he'll always be a beast on the mic. 

User Reviews and Comments

on 2011-03-18 Sinist3r Punk Said:

Richo, you obviously have no understanding of why Eminem started rapping in the first place. If you want to hear music about acting like a psychopath listen to ICP or Slipknot. Eminem became what he is today because he always rapped with emotion. He has transformed that emotion from hate and anger towards other people to remorse and anger towards himself. He's been clean from drugs and alcohol because he wants a clear conscience from everything that fucked his life up before. The fact that you want Eminem to be a manic depressive psycho again just so he can rap about killing women is appalling.
Not Rated

Review:

on 2011-03-18 Richo Said:

Ever since I was 12 years old i've always considered Eminem to be my favourite artist, i hit teenage years and went in the rock path but Eminem stayed with me. The Marshall Mathers LP was the best album i've ever listened to, there was genuine anger and hate in his voice as he told people he was going to kill their wives and rape his mother. Even Kim was fantastic the song where he killed his girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

How ever Recovery is just not Eminem. Not the Eminem I know and love, the songs are poor, the choruses are generic and meant only for radio standard and "Love the way you lie" is an awful song that makes me want to rip my ears off, clearly only duetted with Rihanna to get some headway with an audience that he had left for so long.

The "Paul Skit" from Marshall Mathers LP should be on this record Paul his manager states "This is less than nothing, i can't sell this shit" This album is less than nothing, he is a mere shadow of the bad ass rapper he used to be and quite frankly it's a crying shame that this has happened to him.

Bit of advice, go crazy, take drugs and drink up Eminem, you're dissapointing your fans. Go back to killing women and talking about your fucked up past, we miss you.
Rating: 1/10

Review:

on 2010-09-01 gutterseed Said:

One of my favorite Eminem quotes comes from 50 Cent's song patiently waiting in which he says "better evacuate all children, nuclear showers it's about to get spookier, you're now about to witness the patience of fuckin with me". That was somewhat true because Relapse, although disappointing, it was dissapointing because it was difficult to listen to.
I hope this guy never retires. I do wish he'd lose the puppet dog voice on his albums, every time he does a song like that, the fast forward button is hit. It sounds crazy to want an artist to remain pissed off the world, but with Eminem it's when he does it best work.
I believe he does his best work when he's raw and tells where he wants. If it's a fight to the top, Eminem is there. One of the more refreshing Eminem's album. Love the remixes. The album reminds me of the re-up. I'm really sorry that album never made it big or got much airplay.
I would give this album 10/10. I like his freestyle, I love the beats, I love the flow of his rhymes, I love the anger in the lyrics, and even though a handful of these songs are remixes, it's an outstanding album, and the song mockingbird song featuring 3 dead artists? That just pays tribute to this mans outstanding talent and Mad respect for those who no longer with. As I finish this album, I have on agenda, go buy a 40 ounce of Olde English beer and dump some out for those who couldn't be here.
The album is madness, and free from the annoying puppet dog voice!

Rating: 10/10