by
Eminem
- Record Label: Shady Records / Interscope
- Release Date: Jan 17, 2020
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Jan 17, 2020Eminen’s 11th album offers over an hour of the world’s greatest rapper blasting away on all cylinders. It is the first great album of 2020, so lethally brilliant it should be a crime.
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Jan 21, 2020Music To Be Murdered By is far from the star-studded, commercially sustainable album Recovery was, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On this album, despite its handful of flaws, Em shows strong signs of adapting to the times through modern musical choices and smarter songwriting.
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Jan 21, 2020As a whole, Music to Be Murdered By is as hit-and-miss as anything Eminem has released this side of the millennium. But remove the skits, the relationship songs, the family songs, the morose gun control song, and the quirky Ed Sheeran club goof and you still have 36 solid minutes of the daffy, one-of-a-kind rap genius that keeps captivating true-school heads and longtime fans. Or, if you’d like, keep it all and you still have the most solid work he’s done in a few years.
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Jan 30, 2020If they look hard enough, any artist could find criticism of their work online. That’s sort of the curse of the Information Age. But not everyone overreacts quite as much as Eminem does. But if his fears grow tiring, his lyrical ability can still give you something to admire, even if the album is somewhat uneven.
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Jan 21, 2020With this project he shows that age is just a number, defying any expectations that have been set by the rap scene.
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Jan 21, 2020If he’s figuring out from scratch how to be a compelling artist again, Eminem’s improved the caliber of his beats and guests, taking stands against the right day-to-day injustices, toning down the tasteless (with the exception of the already-infamous Ariana line, of course), and rapping with the manic precision of someone who just snorted a whole sandcastle of cocaine and Vyvanse. If only a single minute of it was as hilarious or bracing as Chris D’Elia’s impression of him.
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Jan 21, 2020While his talent for head-spinning flow and cutting barbs is still very much in effect, the album is a passable but ultimately forgettable meandering through popular hip-hop sounds of today.
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Feb 11, 2020He clearly cares about his output, but “Music To Be Murdered By” is, unfortunately, another mixed bag of tricks, propped up by lyrical acrobatics and underwhelming production.
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Jan 24, 2020Music to Be Murdered By sees Eminem pulling himself out of Kamikaze's wreckage somewhat, though he still falls victim to moments of willful dumbness and a tedious self-obsession that's become par for the course. On the album's best tracks, there are still hints of the fire that made Eminem a rap legend.
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Jan 22, 2020Music To Be Murdered By succumbs to temptation a few times, with a pop concession here and a lacklustre verse there, but it’s the clearest sign yet that there’s a future for Eminem as well as a legacy.
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Jan 22, 2020For what it's worth, we know Eminem is an incredible lyricist. We know he has punch lines that can pierce your mind and make you laugh. But what we don't know is whether or not he has anything real to say, and to his detriment, Music to Be Murdered By puts that in the spotlight.
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Jan 21, 2020Musically, he gestures towards the current hip-hop world a little more intentionally than his hermetic-sounding albums have tended to in the recent past. ... In a new lyrical wrinkle, Em steps into the role of political commentator and protest voice, with mixed results.
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Jan 17, 2020He splits the difference on ‘Music To Be Murdered By’, indulging his immature ego (griping at bad reviews, stirring controversy for the sake of it) even as he offers salient social criticism and admits his missteps. He’s ready to pass on hard-earned wisdom before running his mouth like he hasn’t learned his own lessons. And he offers casual fans a hook or two before embarking on another lyrical work-out.
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Jan 17, 2020If Music to Be Murdered By covers a lot of old ground, it does so in considerable style. It’s a stronger album musically than its predecessor.
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Jan 27, 2020It is not, strictly speaking, a good record—Eminem hasn’t made one of those in a decade—but it boasts enough technical command and generates just enough arresting ideas to hold your attention.
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Jan 21, 2020Music to Be Murdered By doesn’t improve on Kamikaze, that’s largely down to its run time and hodgepodge of styles, but I can say there was at least some effort put into this one. The production is decent, the vocals occasionally hearken back to his playful era, and the guests do a pretty great job throughout, but there’s still too much baggage being carried over from the ‘10’s Eminem albums, and it kills a lot of the potential here.
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Jan 17, 2020Eminem belittles the trauma of a then 26-year-old Ariana Grande for kicks on “Unaccommodating” by comparing himself to the Manchester Arena bomber. The sour taste of this track lingers well beyond the album’s centrepiece, “Darkness”, which is intended as a searing critique of America’s toxic gun culture. Instead, his use of gunfire and explosion samples feels grossly exploitative.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4,259 out of 5097
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Mixed: 222 out of 5097
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Negative: 616 out of 5097
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Jan 17, 2020It's Eminem's best album since Recovery. Good music production & some banger tracks make this album great.
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Jan 17, 2020
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Jan 17, 2020Slim Shady is back!! Amazing features, not a lot of fillers straight to the point. Production is also on point.