Amazon.co.uk Review
Marshall Mathers has always delighted in confounding expectations, so we should have guessed he'd respond to the title Most Important Artist Of His Generation with
Encore – an album peppered with puerile humour, myriad references to his past career, and plenty of farts, burps and vomiting. Thankfully, even Slim Shady on a bad day can be a fairly mighty proposition: the seething "Mosh" is a rare moment of high seriousness--a trudging anti-Bush epic in the vein of "White America" that positively vibrates with bile – while the skittery "My 1st Single" proves that Mathers can be engaging even when he's rapping about basically nothing.
The key to understanding Encore is through its pursuit of sheer offensiveness for offence's sake, be it the comic accent on "Ass Like That", or the relentless gay jibes of "Rain Man" – all of which seem to be more about prodding the hornet's nest of controversy that any genuine prejudice. Still, it's occasionally hard to escape that there's a certain weariness to Em's delivery, an impression that sometimes extends to the arrangements – see "Like Toy Soldiers", a jaundiced account of rap feuding, rendered unnecessarily corny by a sample of "Toy Soldiers" by '80s two-hit wonder Martika. --Louis Pattison
Description
While Eminem has revealed levels of depth far beyond his Slim Shady persona, few could have anticipated "Mosh", the second single from his 2004 release, ENCORE. This song, by one of music's most controversial artists, features Em focusing his rage like never before, ultimately calling on the youth of America to rise up?and vote. While his brilliantly scathing tirade against President George W. Bush didn't lead to the politician's defeat, it certainly captured the country's attention and attempted to raise listeners' political awareness. It also effectively increased the already-huge stature of the expectation-defying Detroit rapper only a few weeks before his highly anticipated fourth record's release.
ENCORE is far from a letdown, as Eminem's twisted mind continuesto produce razor-sharp rhymes, whether examining the world (the aforementioned "Mosh"), venting his spleen ("Puke"), exploring his soul ("Like Toy Soldiers") or just being plain silly ("My 1st Single"). While Em's inclination towards the shocking is well documented, other than "Mosh", the record isrelatively toned-down; he even apologises for racist comments made on a 1993 underground tape. However, that's not to imply that the proceedings are low-key; ENCORE burns with thefire of a master lyricist letting his words loose on whatever crosses his mind.
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