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Entertainment Weekly

Thankfully, producer Dr. Dre is there to temper the lyrical bloodletting, laying heavyweight hooks over even the most scabrous tales of family disturbia, and setting 'Bagpipes From Baghdad,' Em's inspired riff on rumored ex Mariah Carey, to snake-charming woodwind squiggles.

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Rolling Stone

By letting Dr. Dre take over the low-end-funk production, and rhyming about things he actually cares about, he comes up with a more painful, honest and vital record than anyone could have expected at this late date, up there with "The Eminem Show" or maybe even better.

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All Music Guide

His flow is so good, his wordplay so sharp, it seems churlish to wish that he addressed something than his long-standing obsessions and demons.

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NOW Magazine

If you’re able to tolerate the graphic descriptions of rape, incest, drug abuse, dismemberment and felching (Google it), the reward is an incredible amount of introspection, and top-shelf production by Dr. Dre throughout adds to the replayability factor.

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Urb

We know everything about Marshall Mathers...and on Relapse, he leaves Marshall behind. Instead, he embodies characters that we know aren't him, but allow him to re-channel the shock-and-awe rebellion (and skill) that made him great in the first place.

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RapReviews.com

His original army of fans, however, will surely enjoy most of the elements of Relapse and it certainly sets up the sequel nicely--though it might be wise to include a few more crossover hits on the second installment, you know, for everyone else.

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Vibe

When Relapse ditches Eminem the craaaazzzyyy white rapper, in favor of a maniacal narrator obsessed with graphic rape and violence (subjects much more in line with hip hop’s forgotten horror-core subgenre than anything to do with being a superstar rapper in 2009), Em works wonders with words, expanding the boundaries of the art of rap itself.

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MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Eminem settles for sensationalism straight up, and, worse still, makes you wonder whether he ever truly knew the difference.

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Dot Music

While Relapse is a slightly more energised record than the listless "Encore" (despite a Dr Dre production that is, for the most part, tired and dated), it's hardly the comeback many hoped for.

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Los Angeles Times

It's an impressively focused and clever work. But this music is not transcendent. It's still stuck in Marshall Mathers' muck, his fundamental mistrust of pleasure and love.

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The Guardian

The music tends towards the functional rather than the fantastic: the idea is clearly to focus attention on the star rather than the beats, which seems fair enough, given the moments on Relapse when you're dazzled anew by Eminen, by the acuteness of his imagery and the relentlessness of his panic-stricken flow.

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Drowned In Sound

The question remains unanswered, because while it was, undeniably, dull without him, Relapse is less 12 steps than a stumbling one backwards.

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Boston Globe

Relapse, flooded with more Dr. Dre beats than any other Eminem album, is easily better than "Encore" but nowhere close to his first three albums, because he doesn't try anything particularly different.

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Prefix Magazine

The production is ultra-clean and the lyrics are delivered with a precision that is not to be scoffed at. But mostly what lasts is the self-pity and anger, which is at least enough to warrant our attention.

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No Ripcord

Now he's making albums about recovering from addiction, sounding worn out and uninspired. Dude needs to find a muse or something.

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musicOMH.com

He infuses Relapse with occasional sparks, but fails to transcend the same tired themes--except, of course, when he becomes Marshall Mathers, the Recovering Drug Addict.

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Slant Magazine

The further Relapse strays from narrative veracity, the more one suspects his fanbase feels he's tapping into his bottomless well for horror-show grandstanding.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Unfortunately, the goodwill that Eminem builds up with these engrossing and macabre Mathers family confessions are too often torn down by his tedious turns as a goofy court jester.

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New Musical Express (NME)

The overriding feel is of an album just too jaded, too joyless to truly count as a return to form.

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Billboard

Now in his 30s, he doesn't surf the beat so much as box with it, with both brutality and no small degree of grace. That a rapper of this much verbal gymnastic ability is still making Perez Hilton cracks is too bad, but the bigger problem is that Eminem's recipe of gore and gay jokes sounds like the past.

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Pitchfork

Relapse can be an intermittently thrilling sonic experience until you realize everything sounds like a variation of 'What's the Difference,' 'If I Can't,' or even fucking '30 Something.'

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

It’s less a relapse than a rehash, less a comeback album than the kind of album artists need to come back from.

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Spin

Relapse is really just another overlong summer blockbuster. We sit through it, then go look at pictures of kittens on the Internet, and wait until our souls snap back into place.

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Hartford Courant

Only one or two of these 15 songs (there are also five skits on the 20-track album) features the dazzling wordplay and unparalleled lyrical flow that made Marshall Mathers one of the biggest names in rap.

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PopMatters

Relapse is not only a half-baked rerun; it’s only half of a half-baked rerun.

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Sputnikmusic

I suppose you could say that’s what wrong with Relapse, it is almost completely non-sequitor, with no real lyrical substance until the last half of the album....Relapse sucks.

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cokemachineglow

There was a time when he did these things for our id, for our deeply rooted disgust at our own celebrity culture and so at ourselves. But here he’s not standing in for anyone, working himself into a feverish sweat solely for his own satisfaction.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 212 User Votes

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

Joe C. gave it an8:
Eminem has been my favorite rapper sice i heard the slim shady lp and this album reminds me exactly of this, yes he may only talk about murdering people and doing drugs, but he does with such lyricism and flow, do NOT underestimate this album trust me.

Jason D. gave it a0:
This ALBUM is the WORST album Eminem has EVER made. Eminems first 3 albums + 8 mile soundtrack made him a legend, Encore was bad because of songs like puke but it had great songs like mosh, like toy soldiers, mockingbird, 1 shot 2 shot. Relapse is far worse than encore. Back when eminem did sslp you he had clever lines that made you say wow. He tries to recreate these on this CD but it is a dizaster. It sounds like he is trying 2 hard, and the dreaded accent that he started using on encore is on over half of the songs. Fans want eminem back but they want the eminem that was on the eminem show back. Realistically, the guy is 36 years old he should be progressing as an artist rather than being a parody of his old shyt. Jay-Z said "people want my old shyt, but my old album" Eminem needs to follow that and progess from the level he was at during the eminem show. HOPEFULLY Relapse 2 will be better, But RELAPSE 1 is TRASH.

Demoine O gave it a10:
This album is lyrical genius.He is still the greatest rapper alive.The way he puts the rhymes together is genius.I spit so I know how difficult it could be there has not been any album that came out in 2009 that has outsold this album.I can wait until relapse 2 come out next year and I am going to buy relapse refill this December.

Thee Stranger gave it a2:
I keep reading all these comments, and everybody going on and on about his first three golden records. The guy had TWO records: Slim Shady L.P. and Marshal Mathers L.P., the second of which was overplayed to death, and once he came out with The Eminem Show, crying about his mommy and all that crap, I tuned out (oh, and he's back at it again with this album). Well, I TRIED to tune out, but it was kind of hard with my best friend still loving and playing everything the guy crapped out to death. If you ask me, he's put out pretty much nothing but crap since Marshal Mathers, and I can't even listen to that record anymore I've heard it so much. Some of his 8 Mile soundtrack stuff was alright, I guess. I really love his first album (not Infinite; Infinite doesn't cout) for tracks such as "If I Had" and "As the World Turns". I loved the humor and his over-the-top comicbooky/horrorcore style, and his utilization of an evil alter-ego reminded me a lot of Kool Keith's Dr. Octagon. Actually, I see a big parallel in the two artists careers. They each put a classic debut solo album, and then a second, much more visceral and much angrier direct sequel... basically angry about the success of their first album. Anyway, gave this a try because a friend told me it was a return to form, and that I would like it since I really like the Slim Shady L.P. Well, after listening to it, it kinda sounds like that's what Eminem was going for with this record, but he fails horribly. This has got to be his worst record to date. If you ask me, I think the guy took "too much ♪EEEEEEEEEEEEE ♪".

nandish h gave it a9:
Relapse may not be Shady's best album, but by far definitely in his Top 3. All songs except Hello, Must Be The Ganja, Underground, Insane were awesome (my personal opinion). Same Song & Dance & Beautiful & Bagpipes From Baghdad were probably the Top 3 songs off the album. Relapse was kinda way too much on the "Relapse" side, Em should have had a majority of non-relapse/medical issue related songs. However the album, in my view deserves a 8.7/10 rating. Em might have been trying to save the best songs for "Relapse 2" - hope R2's a double-album. Relapse did not showcase Eminem's lyrical talent to the fullest. But no doubt, its one of the albums of the year. Metacritic was harsh on Em, but in rating of music albums - with its variety of genres- it is unfair to have a record rated by a single person. The rating committee should comprise of a majority of music critics of the genre of the album and maybe 30% of people form other closely related genres. This will achieve a more accurate and just rating.

James V gave it a7:
With Eminem gone from the game for 5 years, and with all the personal events that have happened in his life, I expected a more personal album addressing more serious issues. Instead, there are only 2 serious songs on this record. 'Beatiful" and 'De Ja Vu' are the only meaningful songs, and they are both great tunes. The rest of the album is filled with jokes and sick humor. The accent he uses on every song except 3 is terrible, bringing songs like 'Bagpipes' from possibly enjoyable tunes, to barely listenable. From a hip hop perspective, Em still has it. His rhymes are very well crafted, he has good wordplay and some good lines on this album. But the retarded voice he chooses to use wrecks the record. There are a few really good songs, a few boring ones, and a few unlistenable ones. Maybe Relapse 2 will have more serious songs, and that's his idea, but if not I would've put at least a few more meaningful tunes on #1. Eminem still has it, but he didn't bring it on this album. At least he didn't bring everything we know he is capable of bringing.

Chris gave it a10:
Eminem comes in 2009 to make things better in hip hop and he's coming with a great album.he begins with his bloody "3 a.m." and continues with the songs "My Mom" and "Insane" which he blames his mothers for for his recent drug abuse and tells us in a genius way about his problems with his stepfather.The lbums has a lot of songs that he explains us what he went through during his addiction with drugs.He is more honest that anyone would expected.The songs "Deja Vu", "Beautiful" and "Underground" are (for me) masterpieces!!His intelligence and his skills can be seen in these songs.Surely better than Encore, Relapse is an awesome work from Eminem and is sure that fans are going to love it!

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