albums and tracks

Editor's rating

In the four years since his last album, Encore, it seems that the real Slim Shady hasn't been able to stand up without hefty helpings of prescription drugs. Never afraid of airing his dirty laundry in public, on his long-awaited return Eminem shows us the contents of his medicine cabinet too. If one addiction isn't enough, the lyrical content on Relapse also seems to suggest that Marshall Mathers' DVD player has been binging on shlock-horror films while its owner failed to deal with the pressures of being both the decade's most successful rap artist and middle-America's bête noire.

But will Relapse see him retake both those titles? Well, given that lead single 'Crack A Bottle' broke all download records upon its release, there are obviously plenty of people hungry to hear him again. He's also trying his hardest to offend moral guardians and numerous famous names - something that has certainly worked in the case of Mariah Carey's husband Nick Cannon, who has already retaliated to Eminem's disses on 'Bagpipes From Baghdad'.

Meanwhile, 'We Made You' has him slavering over Sarah Palin and Amy Winehouse, 'Same Song And Dance' is a fantasy about murdering Lindsay Lohan and there's enough homicidal misogyny in 'Medicine Ball' and 'Stay Wide Awake' to make Necro look like Ne-Yo. But they just sound like tired shock tactics next to the real heart of darkness Eminem lays bare on 'Deja Vu', 'My Mom' and 'Insane'; where he rhymes about childhood abuse and drug addiction with brutally disarming honesty.

But what really resuscitates Eminem here is Dr Dre, who has returned to provide him with some of the best beats of his career. Eminem's energised reaction to them proves that some of his old mentor's magic was the only prescription he ever really needed.

Paul Clarke