There are certain things you don’t expect to hear on an Eminem record: “I’m not gonna let someone else’s coffin rest on my conscience”, “come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness”; “no more blood for oil” and perhaps most surprisingly, “I apologize, I was wrong”. Yet these are all phrases that you’ll come across on Eminem’s fourth album, the first after the trio of records supposedly representing the three sides of his personality. So, is this the moment when the real Slim Shady, Eminem or Marshall Mathers finally stands up?
Given that there are so many contradictions running through the album, it’s probably doubtful. The aforementioned moments of enlightenment all occur in the first twenty minutes or so, a five song stretch that is simply phenomenal. The music is fantastic, tight and focused in the manner of ‘Lose Yourself’, ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ and his other finest moments. The lyrics, meanwhile, open up a whole new Eminem world – touching on his childhood (but avoiding the usual mother-directed bitching and references to his father), the degenerating state of hip-hop and his role in it, and, on the searing ‘Mosh’, a sense of political and moral outrage.
Could this, you wonder, actually be the record that sees Eminem the artist match Eminem the personality? The opening seconds of ‘Puke’ – the sound of, yes, someone puking – sadly answers the question. A predictable diatribe against his ex-wife, the rest of Encore sees him back on depressingly familiar ground. The anger and bitterness that sounded so effective when directed against George Bush and his crusades sounds empty and hollow when turned on a series of increasingly tired subjects. Obie Trice, 50 Cent and Stat Quo (sadly not a misprint) join him on ‘Spend Some Time’ – a particularly hateful track that reflects on the fact that none of them seem to be especially lucky with women. Like, hey guys, go figure. And surely Mathers is bright enough to notice the contradiction of putting a track like ‘Mockingbird’ (a sweet if slightly cloying ode to his daughter) next to a ‘love’ song that says “you let me beat the shit out of you”.
Perhaps he’s just reached the end of the line and, as the title track puts it, doesn’t want to leave the game without at least saying goodbye. The record ends with the sounds of Eminem firing at his audience before graphically blowing his own brains out. The final curtain then? If so, Marshall Mathers has left us with a lot of things – you just wish one of them wasn’t a nasty taste in the mouth.