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EMINEM - ENCORE
ARTIST:
TITLE:
Encore
LABEL:
CATNO:
9864674
FORMAT:
Vinyl record
DESCRIPTION:
2xLP Rap / Hip Hop LP from 2004 Repressed - Eminem took a hiatus after the release of his first motion picture, 8 Mile, in late 2002, but it never seemed like he went away. Part of that is the nature of celebrity culture, where every star cycles through gossip columns regardless of whether they have a project in the stores or theaters, and part of it is that Marshall Mathers kept busy, producing records by his protégés D12, Obie Trice, and 50 Cent --
all hit albums -- with the latter turning into the biggest new hip-hop star of 2003. All this activity tended to obscure the fact that Eminem hadn't released a full-length album of new material since The Eminem Show in early summer 2002, and that two and a half years separated that album and its highly anticipated sequel, Encore. As the title suggests, Encore is a companion piece to The Eminem Show the way that The Marshall Mathers LP mirrored The Slim Shady LP, offering a different spin on familiar subjects. Where his first two records dealt primarily with personas and characters, his second two records deal with what those personas have wrought, which tends to be intrinsically less interesting than the characters themselves, since it's dissecting the aftermath instead of causing the drama.
On The Eminem Show that kind of self-analysis was perfectly acceptable, since Eminem was on the top of his game as both a lyricist and rapper; his insights were vibrant and his music was urgent. Unfortunately, Encore is not the flipside of The Eminem Show as much as it is its negative image, where everything that was a strength has been turned into a handicap this time around. Musically, Show didn't innovate, but it didn't need to: Eminem and his mentor, Dr. Dre, had achieved cruising altitude, and even if they weren't offering much that was new, the music sounded fresh and alive. Here, the music is staid and spartan, built on simple unadorned beats and keyboard loops. While some songs use this sound to its advantage and a few others break free -- "Yellow Brick Road" is a tense, cinematic production -- the overall effect of these stark, black-and-white productions it to make Encore seem hermetically sealed, to make Eminem sound isolated from the outside world. This impression is only enhanced by Em's choice of lyrical subjects throughout the album. Instead of documenting his life, or the shifts in his psyche, he's decided to chronicle what's happened to him over the past the two years and refute every charge that's made it into the papers. This is quite a bit different than his earlier albums, when he embellished and exaggerated his life, when his relationship with his estranged wife, Kim, turned into an outlaw ballad, when his frenetic insults, cheap shots, and celeb baiting had a surreal, hilarious impact. Here, Eminem is plainspoken and literal, intent on refuting every critic from Benzino at The Source to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who gets an entire song ("Ass Like That") devoted to him. It's a bizarre move that seems all the more humorless when you realize that the loosest, funniest song -- the first single, "Just Lose It" -- is a sideswipe at Michael Jackson, the easiest target Em has yet hit. And that's the major problem with Encore: it sounds as if Eminem is coasting, resting on his laurels, and never pushing himself into interesting territory. Since he's a talented artist, there are moments scattered across the record that do work, whether it's full songs or flights of phrase in otherwise limp tracks, and that's enough to make it worth a spin, but Encore never resonates the way his first three endlessly fascinating albums do.
all hit albums -- with the latter turning into the biggest new hip-hop star of 2003. All this activity tended to obscure the fact that Eminem hadn't released a full-length album of new material since The Eminem Show in early summer 2002, and that two and a half years separated that album and its highly anticipated sequel, Encore. As the title suggests, Encore is a companion piece to The Eminem Show the way that The Marshall Mathers LP mirrored The Slim Shady LP, offering a different spin on familiar subjects. Where his first two records dealt primarily with personas and characters, his second two records deal with what those personas have wrought, which tends to be intrinsically less interesting than the characters themselves, since it's dissecting the aftermath instead of causing the drama.
On The Eminem Show that kind of self-analysis was perfectly acceptable, since Eminem was on the top of his game as both a lyricist and rapper; his insights were vibrant and his music was urgent. Unfortunately, Encore is not the flipside of The Eminem Show as much as it is its negative image, where everything that was a strength has been turned into a handicap this time around. Musically, Show didn't innovate, but it didn't need to: Eminem and his mentor, Dr. Dre, had achieved cruising altitude, and even if they weren't offering much that was new, the music sounded fresh and alive. Here, the music is staid and spartan, built on simple unadorned beats and keyboard loops. While some songs use this sound to its advantage and a few others break free -- "Yellow Brick Road" is a tense, cinematic production -- the overall effect of these stark, black-and-white productions it to make Encore seem hermetically sealed, to make Eminem sound isolated from the outside world. This impression is only enhanced by Em's choice of lyrical subjects throughout the album. Instead of documenting his life, or the shifts in his psyche, he's decided to chronicle what's happened to him over the past the two years and refute every charge that's made it into the papers. This is quite a bit different than his earlier albums, when he embellished and exaggerated his life, when his relationship with his estranged wife, Kim, turned into an outlaw ballad, when his frenetic insults, cheap shots, and celeb baiting had a surreal, hilarious impact. Here, Eminem is plainspoken and literal, intent on refuting every critic from Benzino at The Source to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who gets an entire song ("Ass Like That") devoted to him. It's a bizarre move that seems all the more humorless when you realize that the loosest, funniest song -- the first single, "Just Lose It" -- is a sideswipe at Michael Jackson, the easiest target Em has yet hit. And that's the major problem with Encore: it sounds as if Eminem is coasting, resting on his laurels, and never pushing himself into interesting territory. Since he's a talented artist, there are moments scattered across the record that do work, whether it's full songs or flights of phrase in otherwise limp tracks, and that's enough to make it worth a spin, but Encore never resonates the way his first three endlessly fascinating albums do.
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£32.49
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Mint (M)
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Mint (M)
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Last FM Information on Eminem
Please note the information is done on a artist keyword match and data is provided by LastFM.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph, MO), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time and is credited with popularizing hip hop in Middle America and contributing to the acceptance of white rappers in a predominantly Black genre. His work in the late 1990s and early 2000s was often controversial due to its transgressive content, but he has also been noted for representing the angst of lower-income Americans through lyrics that include political criticism, social commentary, and technical skill in rap delivery.
After releasing his debut album "Infinite" (1996) and the extended play "Slim Shady EP" (1997), Eminem signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and achieved mainstream success in 1999 with "The Slim Shady LP". His following albums, "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000) and "The Eminem Show" (2002), were major commercial successes, with each selling over one million copies in their first week in the United States. "The Eminem Show" was the best-selling album worldwide in 2002. After "Encore" (2004), he took a hiatus partly due to prescription drug addiction. He returned with "Relapse" (2009) and "Recovery" (2010), the latter being the best-selling album worldwide in 2010. His subsequent studio albums—"The Marshall Mathers LP 2" (2013), "Revival" (2017), "Kamikaze" (2018), "Music to Be Murdered By" (2020), and "The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)" (2024)—all debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.
In 2002, he starred in the drama film "8 Mile", earning critical acclaim for his portrayal of a fictionalized version of himself. The song "Lose Yourself" from the "8 Mile" soundtrack topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks, the longest for a solo rap song at the time, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making him the first hip-hop artist to receive the award.
Eminem was a member of the hip-hop groups New Jacks, Soul Intent, Outsidaz, and D12, as well as the duo Bad Meets Evil with Royce da 5'9". He co-founded Shady Records, which signed artists including D12, 50 Cent, and Obie Trice. He also established the Sirius XM Radio channel Shade 45 and opened the restaurant Mom's Spaghetti.
Eminem is the best-selling rapper and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated worldwide sales exceeding 220 million records (and some sources reporting over 230 million equivalent album units). He is the first act to have ten consecutive albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200 (with his total reaching eleven number-one albums including later releases). He has five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United States, he is among the highest-certified artists, with multiple albums and singles certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His awards include an Academy Award, 15 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, 17 Billboard Music Awards, 15 MTV Video Music Awards, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Billboard named him the Artist of the 2000s, and Rolling Stone has ranked him among the greatest artists and songwriters of all time.
Studio albums
Infinite (1996)
The Slim Shady LP (1999)
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
The Eminem Show (2002)
Encore (2004)
Relapse (2009)
Recovery (2010)
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)
Revival (2017)
Kamikaze (2018)
Music to Be Murdered By (2020)
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (2024) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
