Decaptain
"Eminem Strikes Back With 'Recovery' [REVIEW]"
A Community for all things hip-hop!
Join | Log In
Rating:
If you have been let down or disappointed by the last few efforts by Eminem, don't count him out just yet. 'Recovery' is, in my opinion, probably one of the best albums since his debut, if not the best of his entire career. Gone are the immature pop hits that have occupied his albums since Encore (Deluxe Edition). In their place are really deep songs that aren't really hardcore rap or hip-hop but certainly aren't weak, forgettable pop songs that made it onto his album in the past. On a few tracks of 'Recovery' he acknowledges that his past efforts, especially 'Relapse', weren't that great. He also states that with 'Recovery' he wanted to raise the bar and return with something that would silence his critics and reassure his fans that he was back to true form and better than ever. In my opinion, 'Recovery' does just that. It's a deep and personal album but better produced than Relapse and features some of his best lyrics and raps. If you thought Eminem had lost his edge, give this album a listen because I think it's clear that he found it again.
+3
The Good: For me, what makes 'Recovery' such a great album is how personal it is. There are a lot of tracks that deal with his personal demons such as his toxic relationship with his ex wife, the death of his close friend, his inability to deal with fame, his addictions. Unlike with 'Relapse' that seemed to lack any real feeling or personality, this time around he holds nothing back and combines revealing lyrics with some great beats that gave the album a real epic feel, starting with "Cold Wind Blows" where he starts off the album proclaiming his return and striking out at some of his adversaries and critics (including, of course, Mariah Carey) and the album ventures into personal territory from there. "Talkin' To Myself" shows off a different side of Eminem as he reveals his insecurities and admits that he envied the rise of rappers like Lil Wayne and Kanye West and wanted to tear them down just because he was starting to fall off his pedestal. He goes so far as to apologize to them for wanting to rip them, which seems very mature and new for an artist who used to go after everyone and anything in the past that irked him even in the slightest. "Going Through Changes" is a track where he admits he needed help and that he had issues with addictions; "Space Bound" deals with his fears of being alone and isolated and how those fears impact his relationships with others; "25 to Life" uses the metaphor of a relationship gone sour with a woman to describe his relationship with hip-hop. There are also some upbeat/triumphant tracks such as "You're Never Over" where he eulogizes and celebrates the life of his friend Proof and is able to turn a dark situation into motivation to go on and accomplish big things; "Cinderella Man" features a boastful, proud Eminem who proclaims that mediocrity isn't acceptable in his career anymore; "No Love" deals with him getting over being dissed and ignored by a woman he loves and how he won't let her actions bring him down. There are definitely a wide variety of emotions at play on 'Recovery' that shows off Eminem's insecurities, issues and his strengths and makes for a great listen overall.
The Bad: A few tracks didn't work as well for me and disturbed the flow of the album. "Won't Back Down" featuring P!nk sounds like an attempt at rock and a freestyle session - it was okay but I had no desire to listen to it again after hearing it for the first time. "Seduction" and "On Fire" felt like filler tracks. There are a few tracks, such as "W.T.P." (white trash party) and "Seduction" where Eminem tries to be flirtatious and attractive through lyrics and it just felt awkward and out of place.
In all, the number of good tracks with depth, feeling and good production definitely outweighs the weaker tracks. I was really impressed by this effort from Eminem and have had over half of the album on repeat. This is definitely worth checking out and worth purchasing.
Listen To These: "25 to Life", "Going Through Changes", "You're Never Over", "Space Boud", "No Love"
What did you think of this review?
Helpful
0
Thought-Provoking
0
Fun to Read
0
Well-Organized
0
Post a Comment
About the reviewer
Antoine D. Reid (Decaptain)
Antoine Reid is an innovative graphic designer with over five years experience in print design specializing in promotion and publication design, illustration, and creating dynamic content for the Web. … more
Consider the Source
Use Trust Points to see how much you can rely on this review.
You
Decaptain
Your ratings:
Recent reviews by Decaptain
About this album
The much-anticipated new album -EMINEM RECOVERY
view wiki
On Recovery, his seventh major label studio album, EMINEM has reached out to an exciting list of first-time collaborators, including DJ Khalil, Just Blaze, Jim Jonsin and Boi-1da, among others.
EMINEM releases Recovery just over a year after his last album, 2009's Relapse. Relapse put the cap on an impressive ten years of recorded output, and contributed to EMINEM being the biggest selling artist of 2000-2009. In recognition of this, Neilsen SoundScan named him their Artist of the Decade. Relapse entered the charts at #1 and, at nearly double platinum, was the best selling rap album of last year. It also earned EMINEM his 11th Grammy award, winning in the Best Rap Album category. Relapse's first single, "Crack A Bottle" from EMINEM, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Eminem's second #1 after 2002's "Lose Yourself") and set a SoundScan record at the time of its release for opening week download sales (418,000). The album also spun off two other hits; the Top 10 "We Made You" and Top 20 "Beautiful."
"I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year," remarked EMINEM. "But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it ...
First to Review
- About Lunch
- Press
- FAQs
- Contact Us
- Terms of Service
- Privacy Policy
- Sitemap
- Report Abuse
© 2013 Lunch.com, LLC All Rights Reserved
Lunch.com - Relevant reviews by real people.