Eminem - Recovery (Album Review)

Kermit the Frog once sang how it wasn't easy being green. Years later, Lauryn Hill sang a song where she mentions how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I can only wish Eminem would have listened to those two. However, it's quite obvious he didn't. Eminem had good intentions with this record. Recovery is not at all what it could be. Recovery could have been an outstanding comeback effort for our favorite white rapper. Instead, this album is a confused mess muddled
with valleys and very few peaks.

Eminem isn't the rapper or person he once was. He has made that painfully clear. Especially on the record, " Talkin To Myself". Em raps with the aggression we've come to know him for saying, "Them last two albums didn't count/Encore I was on drugs, Relapse I was flushin them out/I've come to make it up to you now/No more f**kin around". Too bad he doesn't deliver on that promise.

Recovery is rife with pretentious beats that Slim Shady tries to ride like a brand new Cadillac with a great pair of shocks. The result sounds more like an El Camino on its last legs. His subject matter swings between trying to become a new man after the drugs and trying to regain his former glory as the best rapper in the game. Neither subject produces anything near his former hits or signs to show he's going to reclaim his spot. Even the few featured artists are not living up to their potential and hype. Pink sounds disastrous on "Won't Back Down". Lil Wayne is spaced out on "No Love"- which samples
Haddaway's What Is Love", the song made famous by Saturday Night Live. Rihanna sounds extra nasally on "Love The Way You Lie".

While there are a lot of things wrong with this sixteen song collection, there are a few good things. Em continues to rap with
compound syllables, which is probably the biggest saving grace on the disc. His introspection is raw and sometimes a bit much, but that's what we've come to love Eminem for.

Honestly, I wish we could erase this and his last two albums off his discography because the legacy his first two albums created will most certainly be tarnished. Looks like Slim Shady is having a hard time accepting who he is without the substance abuse. And that's a hard pill to swallow.