Encore (2004)

                                   

It's been a fucking while. But now we move on to 2004's Encore. Ugh. This album just gets on my nerves.

It's really weird when and artist makes one of my favorite albums and then goes on to make one of my least favorites. Anyways.  I should note that Eminem was on loads of drugs during the production. And it really hurts the album. I should mention the many songs that pretty much just sound like high, immature rambling.
Songs like My First Single, Rain Man, Just Lose it, and  Big Weenie. The third one being the main single to promote the album. People did love it, though. The weird thing about this album is that a lot of the themes are very mixed. We have the silly, immature, nonsensical aforementioned songs, and we have songs like

Mockingbird and Like Toy Soldiers, which are both pretty heavy, as well as being singles.

Mockingbird is one of Eminem's most popular songs, and while it is very emotionally driven, I really don't like it. He sounds kind of tired during the whole thing, and while I understand the need for Eminem to write about his daughter, I just can't get into the Hailie songs. The few tracks that I do really enjoy are the aforementioned Like Toy Soldiers, a song about rap feuds, and Yellow Brick Road, a song in which he talks about his life as a teenager.  Other than these songs, and Mosh, which kind of goes on for too long with it's repetitive beat, there's really not too many songs that I really like off of this album. Most of the tracks just seem like filler to me.  This album is kind of only notable because of a few of the singles and because it's notorious for being Eminem's worst release to date


Favorite Track: Yellow Brick Road
Least Favorite Track:Big Weenie/Rain Man/My First Single, pretty much any of the annoying  rambly songs.

Overall Rating

4/10

The Eminem Show (2002)

When you make 2 solid albums, it's hard to make a perfect follow up to them. In this case, I think that Eminem did an okay job. The album is definitely not perfect, and has a few holes, but it's definitely pretty good.   The album is fueled on the popular singles Without Me and Cleanin' Out my Closet.
Oh, and before I go any further, irrelevant comment time. Em totally looks like he's taking a bong hit in the cover. The album is a bit lighter than the previous.  So a lot of the violent themes on the previous 2 are not as prevalent. The album has some political themes, (White America, and  Sing For the Moment, which are both solid tracks. (Although, I really don't like the Aerosmith sample, which is pretty much the foundation.) This album is probably Eminem's most personal and serious.Although it's not without his trademark humorous songs (Without Me). Although there are many good tracks, there are also a few weaker tracks, in my opinion (Drips, Superman), and even if it's an important subject to Eminem, I usually skip Hailie's Song- aside from one verse, the entire song is sung rather than rapped, interestingly enough. It's not particularly bad, it just bores me, with the weaker tracks, the album contains some of my favorite Eminem songs, (Till I Collapse and White America, which are generally regarded as two of his strongest songs)

Overall, the album has some of the most standoutish songs of his entire career, but with a number of weaker and forgettable tracks, the album just feels inconsistent, what I mean is, going from a great track like Sing For the Moment to something really meh  like Superman, it's just kind of jarring, in a way.

Favorite track-Till I Collapse.
Least favorite track-Drips

Overall Rating- 7/10

The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

This album is pretty much the sequel to The Slim Shady LP, and to date, it's his best selling release, with 27 million copies sold.This album is usually considered to be his best, that or the previous. As I discussed in the last post. Like the last album,this album contains many violent themes. (Just listen to Kim, that song was actually omitted from the censored release, and replaced with The Kids, a completely different song. instead of just making edits.)

Along with older themes, Eminem also raps about his sudden new fame, and the status of being something of a role model to impressionable younger listeners. He was, after all, probably the most controversial at this time. The album, hence the name, is a lot more personal than the prequel. This album contains some of the more popular singles, Stan, The Real Slim Shady and The Way I Am, the last one being of my favorite songs by Em.

However, as much as I like this album, it has a few forgettable tracks (Amityville, Remember Me?, and oddly enough, the track with Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, and Xzibit, Bitch Please II.)

Overall, it's a solid album and does a great job following up from Slim Shady LP.

Favorite Track- The Way I am
Least Favorite Track-Amityville

Overall rating: 8/10

The Slim Shady LP (1999)

This album shows a drastic change from his last release, Infinite. The chill and relaxed themes are now gone, and replaced with bold, aggressive and angry ones. This was also his first successful album. Largely due to hip-hop mogul Dr Dre's involvement, Eminem managed to find his way in the limelight.

I'd say that this is my personal  favorite album in his discography, although it's hard to choose from this and 2000's Marshall Mathers LP. This album introduces Eminem's alter ego, Slim Shady, an insane, angry, murderer.
Most of the songs done as the character also had a comical, almost cartoonish feel to them, despite the extreme violence. As an example, listen to the tracks Brain Damage or My Name Is.

Along with the Slim Shady tracks are more personal tracks like If I Had and Rock Bottom. 97' Bonnie and Clyde could be considered a mixture of both sides. The track involves Eminem dropping his dead girlfriend into the lake, all while baby talking to his daughter Hailie about the situation, it's probably one of the more striking tracks on the album. Because it truly is interesting.

Bad Meets Evil is a track that doesn't really fit in anywhere with the album, but it's arguably one of the best

examples of Eminem's lyrical capabilities, as he goes back and forth with rapper Royce Da 5'9

Overall, the album, by many, is considered to be Eminem's magnum opus, and with good reasons,Newer Eminem fans would probably be turned off by the violence, but I feel that this was the highest point of his career.

Favorite Track-Brain Damage
Least Favorite Track-Cum On Everybody.
Overall Rating- 9/10

Infinite (1996)

When people talk about Eminem's albums, this is probably the least remembered.  It was his first full length album, and it was released independently. So Dre was not involved, therefore, the album has a way different sound than the rest of discography. The best way I can describe it, is that it sounds "chill and jazzy". The themes on the album are a lot more relaxed, as this was before Eminem introduced the "Slim Shady" character. Despite the fact that this album is way unlike any other album in his discography. I think that it is a great album. A lot of the song themes involve personal struggles with poverty(It's Okay) , desire for fame(Never 2 far) , hell, he even has a love song (Searchin') Which is honestly really fucking odd, if you are more familiar with his later releases, Where most of his songs involving relationships were bitter, and often violent. This album also contains many guest verses from local rappers (most of them being from Eminem's group D12)

Overall, this album is pretty solid, and criminally forgotten, I should add. and if you aren't turned off by the different sound this album has, in comparison to later releases,  it's definitely an excellent way to hear the milder side of Eminem

Favorite Track-It's Okay
Least Favorite Track- 313
Overall Rating- 8/10