The Marshall Mathers LP

This album, the follow-up to the mega-selling The Slim Shady LP, is certainly one of this year's biggest rap releases.

The success of Slim Shady and Eminem's meteoric rise from a nobody to a rap superstar are themes that run through the record. Eminem is hell-bent on getting his version of events out and this desire occupies most of the lyrical content, with a lot of self-justification and lashing out at the non-believers to the fore.

Eminem has always kept good company, and mentor Dr Dre is back doing most of the production work. Sometimes Dre's elasticated G-funk beats work well, but other times they feel out of place and somewhat tired.'Bitch Please 2' has the whole West Coast gang on it, including Dre, Xzibit and Snoop and Nate Dogg, but it's nobody's best work.

Some of the best tracks here are the ones that move away from the classic Dre sound. 'Stan' is the story of an obsessive fan, all slow, fat beats with some brilliant vocals by Dido of Faithless. 'The Way I Am' is a dense rap, superbly produced by Eminem himself.

Unfortunately the great parts of this album are often overshadowed by unfocused, erratic spurts of nonsense. There is the tiresome obsession with violence, the unnecessary homophobia, and more aimless cursing and ranting than anyone could ever need.

This album just about makes it, but I have no dout he will do better.