*Not off to a good start with Eminem's singing.
*First verse begins with him using every 4-letter vulgarity to craft simple rhymes, which he has made a habit of in the past few years. It's so tired.
*LOL @ the "Shorty dance to the beat, fuck the lines/you don't listen to 'em anyway" part.
*Chorus is kind of catchy despite the intentionally annoying delivery.
*Second verse, lame punchlines return.
*Second half of the second verse is pretty good, though he's basically in ReUp voice at that point. *Third verse is again better toward the end than the first half.
Rating: 5.5/10
Talkin' 2 Myself:
*Kobe's hook is actually really dope.
*This song grabbed my attention from the beginning, at least.
*Eminem's singing is more toned down and not overly high-pitched so it doesn't mar it too much...still could've done without it.
*Hilarious lyrics...Gangsta-Pillinem was going to diss Wayne and Kanye. Even on pills he realized he sucked and knew he couldn't even beat shitty rappers like them.
*I'll accept the inconsistent rhyming on this just for the entertainment factor he provided in the lyrics. First verse isn't bad, though...at least the mid-line splitting seems somewhat natural.
*Drug Ballad called; it wants the words in its third verse back from the second verse of this.
*God, he did the Baby-Shady-Crazy shit AGAIN? Ugh...this was going so well.
*Third verse...lumps in Relapse with Encore. Why? Because somehow, he learned what the internet was saying about him. Fucking idiots...and Eminem is a fucking idiot for taking that BS to heart.
*I'm so tired of him splitting sentences up because his lines are too long to fit each bar. It does NOT sound good. What the fuck was wrong with writing in LINEAR format, Eminem?
Rating: 7/10 (at least it's musically enjoyable and Eminem is interesting on it, even if his lyricism isn't as sharp as it could be)
On Fire:
*The intro and first few bars grabbed my attention.
*Finally, he switches up his flow and he's not spilling over.
*This is actually sick. Random rhyming, but at least it's delivered well.
*Beginning of the second verse is cool. I guess it's one of those songs where he has a framework concept that encapsulates a bunch of "random dope spitting" lines, a la Role Model. That's fine with me...it's a welcome change.
*Figures...one of the few songs on the album I'm actually enjoying ends after just 2 verses. Maybe he really was thinking of Role Model when he wrote this..."leave them wanting more."
*The only song on the album where I could put it on repeat and not feel like I'm lowering my standards for him.
Rating: 8/10
Won't Back Down:
*Rock beat...boring lyrics with Eminem shouting at me.
*Not liking Eminem's voice on this.
*Delivery is repetitive as all get-out.
*"Dick snots?" Minus 2.
*Third verse...he could've done a lot more with the "volume being turned down" idea. Instead he shouts at me to turn the volume back up and then gets back to shouting random shit in annoying fashion.
*Great...a "shit" line...fitting way to end the song, actually.
Rating: 3/10 (I'm leaving some room to go lower with the shitty songs on here because Encore puts a new perspective on just how shitty songs can be)
W.T.P.:
*Why the fuck did he abbreviate this? I mean, it worked as far as getting attention...but now I'm pissed off that it stands for fucking "White Trash Party."
*At least he's not shouting.
*I get what he's trying to do conceptually, but I don't give a shit.
*Generally, it's just embarrassing.
*Oh, here comes some borderline yelling in the 3rd verse.
*Tired of these types of damn choruses.
*Skip track.
Rating: 4.5/10
Going Through Changes:
*Voice/delivery is good.
*blah blah blah, I finally realized that I need/.....HELP. Again with the embarrassing awkward pauses because his lines spill over and don't rhyme in the right places.
*Ending of the first verse is powerful. Now I felt that.
*Sample is haunting. I can't decide whether I like it or find it too depressing and that it has too much of a tendency to get stuck in your head.
*This seems to work overall, though.
*Second verse is pretty dope all around. LOL @ him quoting the "yes men" telling him, "Yeah, Em, tight verse" when he sucked.
*Not liking the "zoo" series. Should've just rhymed "trapped in a zoo" with "animal too"...I really thought that was where he was going with it...maybe he broke it up because of the beat.
*Third verse isn't as good as the prior two, though it ends well.
*I like that he put a fourth verse on this...gives it a different feel.
*He apologizes to his mother...very unexpected.
*Song definitely has a lot of heart.
*Has elements of a couple older Jay-Z tracks.
*It's painfully close to being a great song...if the lyrics would've only been a little smoother in parts.
Rating: 8/10
Not Afraid:
*Incredibly cheesy chorus and bridge
*Fuck the world, feed it beans...even if this verse were awesome, that would diminish its awesomeness by 50%.
*Corny punchlines galore
*Highlight of the song was him doing the accent on "perhaps I ran them accents into the grrrround."
*Third verse, he basically renounces his right to even be himself. No more negativity...even though the world sucks now more than ever.
Rating: 3/10
Seduction:
*Monotonous delivery.
*Don't like his voice on this.
*Hate the first verse.
*All right, well...it's a metaphorical track...
*I don't really fully get it.
*It gets kind of interesting, at least. I'm curious enough to re-listen.
Rating: 5.5/10
No Love:
*Great, I have to sit through fucking Lil Wayne.
*Just Blaze sampling Haddaway? Eh...he goes way overboard on the samples, borderline robbing the original artists of their songs
*There's Corninem's biggest influence...Lil Wayne
*LOL, Wayne actually speeds up his flow...he's actually almost tolerable on this. Key word being, ALMOST.
*Here comes some more speed rap. Getting old. We know you can rap fast, Eminem.
*Eminem's lyrics aren't that good.
*I admit, his flow is impressive, though.
*Goes on too long...made me kinda light-headed listening to it.
Rating: 4.5/10
Space Bound
*Starts off well
*Now everything's running together. Can't follow what he's saying
*At this point in the album, the singing choruses have become overdone. It becomes, "All right, I've had enough singing...this is too much."
*Is he talking about someone or is it another metaphor? Really don't know.
*Great, now HE'S singing at the end. It was already overdone...now it's just a joke.
*This track overall felt pretty experimental. Outside-the-box, sure...but that alone doesn't make it good.
Rating: 5.5/10
Cinderella Man:
*There's the voice/delivery I don't like again.
*Great, Relapse is in his trash. Encore had better be in a vat of acid.
*Switched it up a little...this is a song you'll either like or find annoying. I'm still deciding.
*Right now, I don't think he pulled it off. It had the potential to work, but Eminem's ReUp voice ruined it.
*Third verse was pretty dope for a little while in the middle.
Rating: 4/10
25 to Life:
*What a shock, more singing. I'm dizzy.
*His angry voice sounds a little bit better on this. Wait, spoke too soon...now it's gotten monotonous again.
*Another metaphorical track. That's 3 of these...and I get the sense they're all basically about the same thing.
*Second verse...don't know how anyone can enjoy this voice. I don't.
*At this point, I think everyone who is human is overwhelmed by all the singing crammed into this album.
Rating: 4/10 (I'm not even sure I can score these accurately anymore as I'm too light-headed from all the overdone choruses)
So Bad:
*Dope beat
*Here comes some Relapse accent.
*More monotonous-voiced rapping.
*Catchy chorus
*I have a feeling this was from the original Relapse 2 batch. It was even produced by Dre.
*More singing
*Ehhh...it's a filler track with a catchy beat/chorus. That's all.
Rating: 4.5/10
Almost Famous:
*Eminem singing...sampling some chick too...yessssss
*Like the beginning bars. Fuck Mike Florio. ("I guess he couldn't think of anything to rhyme with Roethlisberger").
*More shouting monotonous delivery.
*At least his flow is on point.
*LOL, he said "antidisestablishmentarianism" in a song. Wonder if that's been done before. Probably Canibus...using it incorrectly, I'm sure.
*Ending seemed dope.
*This is good enough to where I can actually tolerate that shitty voice.
Rating: 7.5/10
Love the Way You Lie:
*LOL, we had like 13 tracks with singing on them, and we hadn't even gotten to the Rihanna feature yet.
*Is there really any angle left he can take with Kim? Come the fuck on...we have heard it all. It ALL.
*Rihanna actually isn't so bad on here...and I HATE her.
*Third verse ends awkwardly...carries on too long.
*Bleh...another Kim song, and he did absolutely NOTHING new. He didn't even TRY to do something new with it. Well, other than have Rihanna on the hook...possibly for the irony of admitting that he'd "laid hands on her" on the song...I'm guessing he did that when he was on pills.
Rating: 3/10
You're Never Over:
*Singing is more humorous than anything else.
*Think he had it right by NOT doing a tribute song.
*Horrible beat, but at least with his flow he can do something with it. Sort of.
*I guess he wanted to avoid the "sad" type of song...which I can appreciate, as that's cliched...but he could've picked a non-shitty beat to do this on.
*LOL, "excuse the corny metaphor"...you should've used this disclaimer before half of the songs on this album.
*Eh...I can't really hate on this. At least it's different. Lyrics are pretty good. Kind of funny...maybe the shitty beat was an inside joke between Eminem and Ghost-Proof.
Rating: 8/10
Untitled (or whatever it's titled):
*Could've just put this out as a "freestyle"
*OH...shit...it just hit me--it's in 3/4 time, a la Jay-Z's "My First Song"...heh...that gives him some major bonus points.
*Beat sounds kind of like a ripoff of MFS, though.
*Jay-Z deserves this for his biting, LOL.
*Pretty fun track, actually.
Rating: 8/10
To summarize the album: The word "indulgent" comes to mind. There is such a thing as "too much"...and this album is it. There are a few pretty good songs, but not one of them is a complete work of art like Deja Vu. There's too much repetition on this album--the singing samples, Eminem's singing, the angry voice. Plenty of skip material/filler...and his lyricism was never as poetic and sound as he's capable of.
you suck
