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Pitchfork

He's playing the same old marshall vs shady real-or-fake game as usual and its as interesting and complex as it ever was.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Where The Marshall Mathers LP sounded like a primal howl of rage, The Eminem Show showcases an artist trying to make sense out of the chaos and turmoil in his personal and professional life.

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New Musical Express (NME)

It's a third album that avoids all the pitfalls of third albums: introspective without being self-pitying, expansive in scope without being pompous, exploring new directions without disappearing up its own arse.

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Dot Music

We've heard it all before, we know the punchline, we've bought into the joke, but still we want the delivery again and again.

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Entertainment Weekly

Beyond allowing peeks into his life, Eminem's other gambits are self-pity and self-mythologizing, and they aren't nearly as potent.

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Rolling Stone

Eminem just may have made the best rap-rock album in history

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Playlouder

This is mainly an improvement on a brilliant formula.

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Vibe

The Eminem Show is a brilliant piece of theater and a guilty pleasure. [Aug 2002, p.155]

Billboard

"The Eminem Show" is not a great artistic step forward, but it reaffirms Eminem's stature as a talented and prescient pop star.

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All Music Guide

The Eminem Show is essentially a holding pattern, but it's a glorious one -- one that proves Eminem is the gold standard in pop music in 2002, delivering stylish, catchy, dense, funny, political music that rarely panders.

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Mixer

It's safe to say that if you liked Em's last two albums, you'll like this one. [Aug 2002, p.80]

CDNow

The Eminem Show lacks the overwhelming, single-minded force that The Marshall Mathers LP had.

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CultureDose.net

With each successive album Eminem finds new depth and excitement within the same themes and structures he used way back on The Slim Shady LP, so even if new songs contain earmarks of Eminem classics, they still feel reinvigorated.

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Splendid

A thump-and-groove driven Cadillac ride down the shadowy streets of Motown.

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E! Online

He often riffs for too long, so by the time he's singing to his daughter on "Hailie's Song," you feel the album's nearly 80-minute length.

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Uncut

Behind the hype and the swagger, he's still baring enough of his soul for The Eminem Show to be compelling theatre. [Aug 2002, p.118]

Q Magazine

The only problem is Slim Shady. As Eminem outgrows his old alter-id, so the obligatory pantomime villainy, skits and crass cameos by Shady Records signings become a hindrance. [July 2002, p.109]

New York Magazine

The Eminem Show has pretensions toward real life, but it possesses all the resonance and revelation of a sitcom.

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PopMatters

A disappointing combination of promising musical experimentation and uninspired lyrics.

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Salon.com

We're unlikely to hear another platinum-selling album in 2002 that sounds as tired and thoroughly played out as the fourth offering from the troubled young Marshall Mathers.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 138 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alain C gave it a9:
This is his best album fr me it should be 9.5 out of 10. i mean its not perfect but its mad ill.

Ben F. gave it a10:
Eminem is amazing. I mean, he is a fabulous rapper. Why 75? It should be a lot higher than that.

Jack R gave it a10:
i know this cd was out 6 years ago but it is by far his best a without a doubt classic and is one of the best ever.

Jaffar R. gave it a10:
Best ever baby!! Intense lyrical vibe.

Ryan M. gave it a10:
Greatest ever.

Shady S. gave it a10:
This has got to B the best album ever made by Slim Shady! I've listened to every song every rhyme and every comment made on these works of art and i gotta say........ GIVE IT UP FOR EMINEM! without a doubt Shady has set the standard for rappers across the globe......... a side from 50 CENT of course.

Jess.L.S. M. gave it a10:
Jen C. obviously is a friggin nun, cuz she has not taste in music. or are you a guy? haha, fucker, get a life. "The Eminem Show" is the best shit, and it don't take a fuckin genius to figure that out. keep spittin, Marshall!

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