Eminem - Recovery Releases Releases Drowned In Sound

Eminem's career ended the last several years is a textbook example of the perils of early sucess. He one of the all time canonical rap albums (the Marshall Mathers LP, easily in the top 20 of the genre), starred in this generation's answer to Saturday Night Fever, and been voted 'best rapper alive' by Vibe

(essentially the rap Pulitzer). As a career highlights reel, this is not half bad, and I don't believe it's a load to say that for most people, a number of accomplishments like this would furnish a complimentary hand to retreat to San Tropez, play golf all day, eat lots of foie gras and sink into a prosperous state of perpetual self-satisfaction.

Our old friend Marshall, however, is not about people. Both artistically and personally, Eminem has been unable to run his past for the final decade. Encore and Relapse, his two most recent albums, were particularly grating for fans of his other work. Rather than building on his previous triumphs, these albums descended into shoddy self-parody, with Eminem flogging his familiar template of shock value and sophmoric humour to increasingly diminishing returns.

Not merely that, it was clearly that the too familiar personal issues at the sum of his other work (his fucked up mom, his fucked up wife, his fucked up daughter and how fucked up it had made him) were becoming intractable; despite airing them out in lots of songs, he didn't seem to be moving past them. Booze, pills, domestic assault, the end of his best ally in disturbing circumstances, creative failure, self-parody, pastiche and despair; this is not a career arc you'd like on anyone.

Recovery, then, is Eminem's attempt to check this slide. This is the voice of the man getting off the pills, trying to hold his personal shit, atoning for past misdeeds, and attempting to retake his crown. For a fan, it's seetening to hear him drawing attention to his past failures and attempting to set these wrongs. And in this sense it's a remarkable work. While a lot of once-great artists put out horrible albums, very few of them give their following album to apologising (literally) for their past misdeeds and stressful to compensate for them. In an occupation as vain as the music business, it's not surprising that the apology album is a rare occurrence.

Nonetheless, that's just what we get here. This a deep personal work by a man acknowledging his career has gone in the faulty way and attempting to get it all support and fetch the heat again.

So does it go? Well no; on the surface it's a complete train wreck. First of all, this is a remarkably self-indulgent record; 17 tracks, each of which is crammed with an almost indecipherable amount of content. Recovery is bursting with hyper-complicated, bafflingly technical, difficult-to-digest lyricism. From a technical standpoint the rhymes are incredible; the 17 year old rap nerd in me is slack-jawed in awe. Nonetheless, technical skill is not the sole factor to good rap music, and in a 10 of increasingly simple lyricism it may actually come across as rather anachronistic. The beats are plodding 4/4 numbers with very little part or bounce; as a result, very few songs stand alone as engaging pieces of music, particularly distressing for a man who used to let a deft way with a single. The album is dabbled with embarrassing hooks, an Ozzy Osborne guest appearance, rap-rock beats, and 'What is Love' samples.

So, essentially we're dealing with a total composition of crap here. Well, yeah; except for the fact that, for only a few tracks ("Talkin to Myself", "Going Through Changes", "Not Afraid", "25 to life") it appears that Eminem may really be making music up thither with the best moments of his career. These songs are noteworthy for their want of pretense; rather than resorting to hyperbole to hide the true extent of his issues or falling back on simple shock tactics, he simply discusses the stuff he's been passing through for the final few years. Touching on his frustration at his creative slump ('Talking to Myself'), sharing insight into his battles with depression on ('Going Through Changes'), begging atonement and vowing to retake his crown ('Not Afraid'), these tracks actually do represent a new way in Eminem's work.

This kind of Updike-esque honesty and want of adornment, for a guy this deeply fucked-up, is really pretty engaging. It's these moments, where Emimen drops the shock tactics and lets down his guard, that the album works the best, and where you get the sensation that despite the dramatic lows his career has hit, he may really be developing creatively.

So, then, Recovery is not the album you hoped for if you're looking for an Eminem return to form. The songs where he attempts to repeat his past glories are arguably the biggest failures of all. The album is a sprawling, confusing, self-indulgent mess. Nonetheless, there are real glimmers of brilliance here, and a sensation that if Marshall Mathers is capable to screen out some of his personal shit and be a little more honest he may yet make some great music in him. As a recovery it's a shaky first step, but it's progress nonetheless.