Eminem

Encore

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.