AOTY 2023

Encore

Eminem - Encore
Critic Score
Based on 17 reviews
2004 Ratings: #334 / 453
User Score
2004 Ratings: #368
Liked by 51 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
Rolling Stone

Encore isn't as astonishing as The Marshall Mathers LP. Few albums by anyone ever will be. But in the time-honored manner of mature work, it showcases a phenomenally gifted musician and lyricist doing all the things he does best.

75
SPIN

It includes some of the most thoughtful music of Eminem’s career, and some of the butt-stupidest, and while there’s a lot to like about both, the album feels transitional and muddled, the work of an artist cleaning out his closet while mulling over his next move.

70
NME

Eminem faces his (possible) final curtain with a frustrating album that may be insipid in parts, but is totally inspiring in other.

70
HipHopDX
When it comes to skills, very few can compare. Ever. But doesn’t always translate into making the best music. “Encore” is an example of that.
70
DIY
We haven't bothered to look out of our windows since we first heard it (who needs the real world anyway?), but we can only imagine the world is reeling in the wake of a Martika comeback. It's long overdue.
65
Pitchfork

Encore is a fourth fascinating record from Eminem, but it's also easily his weakest and, in many ways, tamest album to date.

60
Q Magazine
So, does it match expectations? No.
60
The Sydney Morning Herald

Encore improves and grows on extended listens, but it never reaches the lyrical potency of the first couple of Eminem albums, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP. It also lacks the smart commerciality of his last one, The Eminem Show, and the best moments of the dodgy D12 album.

60
NOW Magazine

While he's still ready to take on all haters ... Eminem's shifted his attack strategy slightly in Encore. He seems less interested in trying to offend as many people as he can, instead choosing his targets – the Bush regime, Michael Jackson and Jessica Simpson – more carefully.

60
The Guardian

His audible lack of interest during Encore's least-inspired moments raises intriguing questions about what happens next.

60
AllMusic

Since he's a talented artist, there are moments scattered across the record that do work, whether it's full songs or flights of phrase in otherwise limp tracks, and that's enough to make it worth a spin, but Encore never resonates the way his first three endlessly fascinating albums do.

52
Coke Machine Glow
Eminem is as entitled to make a bad album as anyone else, and it seems logical that, in an obvious state of transition, this was his time to do it.
50
Slant Magazine
Eminem’s weakest moments are always the ones in which he feels the need to apologize.
43
Entertainment Weekly

On an album that sags with filler and trite rehashes, he sacrifices the rich, multi-textured productions of The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show for thug-life monotony, cultural zingers for petty music-biz score-settling, and probing self-analysis for juvenile humor.

40
Tiny Mix Tapes
Upon listening to the album, it becomes immediately obvious that Em has deviated too far from what made him great.
BradTasteMusic
32

The first time, as a kid, that I got an Eminem album and was confused

landlalt
10

eradicate the upper class

ImpalaLT
31

Oh no! He has a new gun! Lucky for us, just like this album, the gun doesn’t work.

Album number five from Nem Nem was released four days early because it was leaked on the internet. At the time, Eminem considered this to be his final album. That aged like a mayfly.

Many critics and fans, plus Eminem himself, said that this album was a big step down from the legendary three-album run that he had from 1999’s “The Slim Shady LP” all the way to 2002’s “The ... read more

Yellowfrogyeah
33

Not good

Nomad
35

For the love of Christ Marshall, what the hell is this?
even in my Em D rider days, I already knew this album was hot dookie, what were they thinking!? I think the album was intended to be this dumb and goofy, like a kind of troll album. But, to troll who? Eminem used to make songs to piss people off before this album, but at least he did it in a more clever and comical way, what was even the point of this?
It isn't the worst thing ever though, besides from the terrible fucking track run from ... read more

50

"but it has Mockingbird" 😃👨🫡🫡

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Track List

1Curtains Up
0:46
52
2Evil Deeds
4:19
53
3Never Enough
2:39
72
4Yellow Brick Road
5:46
66
5Like Toy Soldiers
4:56
86
6Mosh
5:17
62
7Puke
4:07
26
8My 1st Single
5:02
15
9Paul (Skit)
0:32
38
10Rain Man
5:13
32
11Big Weenie
4:26
23
12Em Calls Paul (Skit)
1:11
27
13Just Lose It
4:08
42
14Ass Like That
4:25
28
15Spend Some Time
5:10
55
16Mockingbird
4:10
88
17Crazy In Love
4:02
51
18One Shot 2 Shot
4:26
feat. D12
64
19Final Thought (Skit)
0:30
46
20Encore / Curtains Down
5:48
66
Total Length: 1 hour, 17 minutes

Year End Lists

#26/SPIN
#39/NME

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