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.
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.
Eminem faces his (possible) final curtain with a frustrating album that may be insipid in parts, but is totally inspiring in other.
Encore is a fourth fascinating record from Eminem, but it's also easily his weakest and, in many ways, tamest album to date.
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.
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.
His audible lack of interest during Encore's least-inspired moments raises intriguing questions about what happens next.
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.
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.
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
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
1 | Curtains Up 0:46 | 52 |
2 | Evil Deeds 4:19 | 53 |
3 | Never Enough 2:39 | 72 |
4 | Yellow Brick Road 5:46 | 66 |
5 | Like Toy Soldiers 4:56 | 86 |
6 | Mosh 5:17 | 62 |
7 | Puke 4:07 | 26 |
8 | My 1st Single 5:02 | 15 |
9 | Paul (Skit) 0:32 | 38 |
10 | Rain Man 5:13 | 32 |
11 | Big Weenie 4:26 | 23 |
12 | Em Calls Paul (Skit) 1:11 | 27 |
13 | Just Lose It 4:08 | 42 |
14 | Ass Like That 4:25 | 28 |
15 | Spend Some Time 5:10 | 55 |
16 | Mockingbird 4:10 | 88 |
17 | Crazy In Love 4:02 | 51 |
18 | One Shot 2 Shot 4:26 feat. D12 | 64 |
19 | Final Thought (Skit) 0:30 | 46 |
20 | Encore / Curtains Down 5:48 | 66 |
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