Eminem - Recovery (2010)

After a depressed and drug addicted Eminem released the lukewarm Encore in 2004, he went on hiatus for almost five years before returning with 2009′s Relapse.  Once again, the reception was less than stellar.  Recovery is Eminem’s attempt to put Encore and Relapse behind him and rekindle what it was that made him great from 1999-2002.

It’s hard for me to consider Recovery a successful album.  It definitely sounds more like Em’s older releases than did Encore or Relapse, but it does so in many of the wrong ways.  He doesn't seem to have updated his list of pop culture references since The Eminem Show, making references to Austin Powers and Mariah Carey (go figure).  The primary theme of the album seems to be apologizing for his last couple releases.

To Em’s credit, the rapping on this album is actually very good from a technical standpoint.  The rhyme schemes are extremely intricate.  The problem is what he’s saying.  All the cleverness and wit of his early releases is long gone; he doesn't even have shock value anymore.  The whole album is painfully lacking in catchy, singalong, tracks.  Unfortunately, most of the memorable lines are notable for being bad.  It’s practically devoid of any hooks whatsoever.  Eminem sings most of the ones that are present and… well, let’s just say that there is a reason Em doesn't have a singing career.

For an attempt to return to his 1999-2002 form, there was an incredible shortage of Dr. Dre and self produced tracks on Recovery.  Dre ended up with only one credit, with Em himself not being the primary producer of a single track.  Em’s Rolodex must’ve gotten a workout contacting all the producers on this album.  Marquee producers, DJ Khalil and Just Blaze got the most production credits, with four and three, respectively.  If you’re a fan of lots of soft rock samples in your hip-hop, the production on Recovery will be a treat for you.  For the other 95% of us, listening to Recovery is a long 77 minutes of dreary keyboards and awkward samples that don’t fit together in any sort of cohesive manner.

Of course, as a hip-hop snob, I would be remissed if I failed to mention the presence of Lil Wayne, Pink and Rihanna on the album.  How could any fan of 1999-2002 Eminem not feel at least a little betrayed by their presence?  Em told us that he was going to try and return back to the sound that we all know and love, and instead we get him collaborating with exactly the kind of people that he built his career making fun of.  That’s the definition of selling out; becoming what you would have once mocked.

Despite all my criticisms, Recovery is worth a spin or two.  Yeah, it falls way short of what he wanted it to be, but there is reason to be optimistic about Eminem’s future.  Unlike on Encore, Eminem shows that he is still a very technically skilled rapper.  A few more quotable hooks would’ve really served this album well, if for no other reason than to distract from the occasional painfully bad lines that end up being the most memorable.  Really, what brought this album down was the production, though.  How, as a producer, you can not provide top shelf beats for an Eminem album is beyond me, but it just seemed like the beats were phoned in.  Remember when Just Blaze used to be good?

Best Tracks: Talkin 2 Myself, Love the Way You Lie, Cinderella Man, Going Through Changes

Overall: 55/100