Released May 18th, Interscope Records

As a massive Eminem fan I was hugely disappointed with ‘Crack - A Bottle’. his comeback single after a four year absence. It did not have the kind of impact that a track marking the return of an artist of Eminem’s calibre should have. However since then its come to light that it was actually a stroke of genius as it did what only Eminem does best  and proved everybody wrong again, because the single is in no way reflective of his album which can be comfortably described as a fantastic journey of art.

Marshall Mathers III is back on top form spitting verses of witty humour in the highly infectious tracks ‘My Mom’, which tells how he has followed his mothers footsteps down the addiction path, the celebrity mocking ‘We Made You’ and the playful ’Bagpipes from Baghdad’, a track demonstrative of the wordsmith at his best and ridden with references to Mr & Mrs Mariah Carey.  As well as the jokers, there are also some brutally honest, self reflective tracks to listen out for like the stunning lyrical account in ‘Beautiful’ revealing how he didn’t want to rap anymore because he’ just hid behind the tears of a clown’ and the candid ‘Deja Vu’ where everything from his best friend dying, his overconsumption of Doritos and the ambulance finding him on the bathroom floor due to Methadone is relayed to his fans.

However it is the dark, sinister serial killer theme which is the backbone of this album, creating one of his best pieces of work to date. His personal fascination with the psychology of serial killers during the making of ‘Relapse’ leaves a massive imprint on his work and his album plays out like an artistic performance; like a play or a movie where each scene tells a different story but flows perfectly to create a masterpiece. Eminem is able to put into words his perception of a murderous psychological mindset and next to Dre’s climatic and incredibly precise production, has some outstanding results including the fantastic anthem reminiscent of a modern Hitchcock movie ‘3 am’, ‘Insane’, ‘Stay Wide Awake’ and my favourite of the moment, ‘Underground’; a twisted fantasy track where he compares himself to ‘Hannibal Lecter, Freddy Kruger, Edward Scissorhands and Jason. The whole climatic scope of this track enables the listener to picture a dark comic book version of a giant Slim Shady as an ultimate power of evil, bursting from the ground stronger than ever thanks to his new found sobriety.

He is only evil in rhyme, but 'Relapse' proves he may just be an ultimate unstoppable power after all.

Underground – Live in Detroit

3am Music Video

Posted In Album Reviews, Jun 09 2009. Words - Lori