Eminem – Recovery [2010]
Written by Big D
In 2005, heavily disappointed with Encore, I wrote a very detailed account of the career of Eminem’s creative rise and fall (which can be read here) and since then, I’ve often wondered just what the hell happened there, but came up with a conclusion that I felt made sense. Every album that Eminem dropped prior to that one was a classic, but something happened after The Eminem Show. I often compare it to Rocky III. Eminem became civilized. Soon after Encore, Eminem phased himself out of music for a long time and essentially retired. His return album, 2009′s Relapse was one of the most polarizing albums ever, some hated it, some loved it, and I saw it as a clever concept album which wasn’t that great, but definitely was several steps above Encore. Fact is, Encore killed Eminem for me and a lot of his fans.
Since The Eminem Show, the entire hip hop populous has seemingly wanted one thing; a deep Eminem album. Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show both had moments of introspection, at times a little bit off the wall, but with Encore, it was all immature humor and retarded songs. Eminem planned to release a sequel to Relapse in 2010, but in the spring stated on his twitter “There’s no such thing as Relapse 2“. I didn’t know what that meant, but boy do I do now. Recovery is the album Eminem should’ve released in 2004.
This is a very difficult review to write because there are so many things that I want to say and I’m past the stage where my reviews need to resemble War & Peace. Recovery is heavy – very heavy. Recovery is probably the definition of a comeback album, at least creatively. It’s almost as if Em took the proverbial checklist that everybody comprised and worked his album around it. Experimentation? Check. Introspection? Check. Unparallelled Lyricism? Check. Depth? Check. Stories? Check. Less wacky voices? Check. Varied Musical Landscapes? Check. It’s all here, and while some moments are certainly better than others, there are NO BAD SONGS on Recovery, an accolade that not even the legendary Marshall Mathers LP was able to achieve. That might be the most shocking thing about Recovery.
I knew something was up when the lead single, “Not Afraid”, leaked a couple of months prior to the release of the record. This was the first lead single in Eminem’s career history that wasn’t celebrity-insulting comedy pop, but rather finds the artist essentially proclaiming himself a changed man and expressing the new road he is travelling on, all over colossal production from Boi-1da. The follow-up single (which hasn’t been fully released, but is heavily rumored) finds Em finally collaborating with Pink on the semi-alternative, semi-punk “Won’t Back Down”, which is slightly off-kilter lyrically but is musically a smoothie of sound. Unless this is some kind of bizarre extended metaphor, the somewhat-cryptic lyrics are basically about nothing, and is really reminiscent of “Come Together” by the Beatles. The fact that I compared an Eminem song to a Beatles song should tell you all you need to know about the quality of Recovery.
Recovery is an unstructured, monumental mess of emotion, power, and top-notch rhyming. There are a lot of moments on the album of pure randomness here, sprinkled with what appears to be pure creative freedom. The banger “W.T.P”, which stands for White Trash Party, is an amazing song because its a club song that makes fun of other club songs. It’s funny because a lot of people will say that Eminem is back, but, as far as I’m concerned, THIS Eminem never existed! And yeah – that’s a good thing! Eminem does a lot more singing on the record, and make no mistake, he is NO Luther Vandross, but manages to hold a note quite well here.
Eminem doesn’t leave us hanging too much, spending a portion of the album talking about his artistic metamorphosis, but we really don’t get an answer as to WHY Eminem decided to make a record like this other than he just realized that he sucked, which is interesting considering most artists, specially ones with the ginormous success that Eminem has had, wouldn’t care and keep doing what they wanted. “Talkin 2 Myself” stands out in particular because he explains his mindstate during the creation of his last two albums and basically buries them, also somewhat admitting that he had a real depression issue and was starving for attention, to the point where he planned to write diss tracks to Lil Wayne and Kanye West just to garner attention. The Black Sabbath sampling “Going Through Changes” is a masterpiece, examining the changes Marshall went through both in his personal life as well as musically. Much like the material on Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem is emotionally out of control, with his short-fuse intact, tackling issues like the loss of Proof, his drug addiction, and the fact that he became a joke of a rapper.
Even though the record is musically far and above what a traditional hip hop record would sound like, there are moments where the album is still etched in the foundation of hip hop. There are some songs that are here simply to showcase lyricism, clever rhymes, punchlines, and braggadocio, in his own twisted way. Eminem is still a rapper. Tracks like the punchline powerhouse “On Fire”, The Lil Wayne duet “No Love”, the clap-hop flow fest “Cinderella Man”, and “Hidden Bonus Track”. “No Love” will most likely be remembered moreso for the fact that the genius Just Blaze sampled “What Is Love” by Haddaway, despite Wayne being nearly asleep on the track. “Hidden Bonus Track” is eerily reminiscent of “Underground” from Relapse, only superior lyrically. I was pretty surprised that Eminem didn’t lay any jabs at Canibus on this record (Canibus dissed Em earlier this year – again), but this is pretty much a freeverse tackling all emcees, so perhaps Bis is included. “Almost Famous” is another “I’m Back” free-verse, complete with a look back at his rise and his rebirth, firing warning shots at any who dare challenge him.
A lot of people are going to groan when I mention that there is not only one, but TWO songs about Kim on this record, but trust me when I say that these songs are far and away unlike any previous Kim song. It’s no secret that the relationship between Kim and Marshall is one of the rockiest of any musician, but Recovery finds Eminem thought-provokingly examining their issues, as well as expressing his true frustrations. “Space Bound” finds an enclosed Em admitting his own stubborness but also expressing what makes him tick. The song is beautiful – no bones about that, and Em hasn’t been this open in almost a decade. Concordingly there’s “Love The Way You Lie” with Rihanna, which is a bit broader, but there is no denying that Kim was in mind. This may be the first song where tough guy Eminem describes the “warm n fuzzy” feelings. I’m going to mention “25 To Life” even though I am unsure if this is actually about Kim or an extended metaphor for the music industry or perhaps a drug addiction. Eminem lashes out about his imperfections and his newfound confidence. It’s amazing what Em did with Kim here. He doesn’t kill her, rape her, kidnap her, hog tie her, or even dump her. This is a new man.
Comparisons will be made between Recovery and Marshall Mathers LP in terms of quality. Heads will probably argue which is better for years to come. The ironic thing about that is the fact that sonically, both albums are polar opposites. Dr. Dre handled nearly all of the beats for Marshall Mathers LP, primarily using stripped down beats and melodies, usually with very rough drums and semi-rock rifts. Recovery however, has a slew of producers from Mobb Deep’s Havoc, to Just Blaze, to DJ Khalil, and surprisingly NO beats were produced by Eminem himself (The Eminem Show was 90% produced by Em). This is much more musical, and while Marshall Mathers LP provided that psychotic, horrorcore claustraphobia, Recovery feels open and spacey, touching the sky rather than stabbing the Earth.
Bottom line is, Recovery sounds like no other Eminem album ever created. This is TRUE musical evolution, something many people felt was long overdue for Marshall Mathers. If you listen to his albums from Slim Shady LP to The Eminem Show, then skip over Encore and Relapse, you will notice an artist that slowly but surely evolved and matured, despite hitting a plethora of speedbumps along the way. Going back to Rocky: I Hate Rocky IV and V. IV is too political and V is well… V. You know it sucks. So I just prefer not to watch them and pretend that the movies go I, II, III, and Balboa. That’s what I’m doing with Eminem. Encore and Relapse don’t exist anymore (even though I don’t hate the latter) and Recovery is the true follow-up to The Eminem Show, and an album that MUST be heard by everybody, specially those people who wrote him off; like me.
Perhaps no other title is more fitting, Recovery is the story of a man who finally found the right path. All we can hope for now is that he doesn’t stray from it.
