Here is the track-by-track review of his 9th studio album:

Walk on Water: 

Gone are the days (it appears, anyway) when Eminem would open his records with a sarcastic public address announcement for a short comedy skit. This record begins with a piano playing minor chords (To add to the sombre atmosphere.) and a soaring chorus sung by Beyoncé that one would find at a gospel Church congregation. The biggest surprise, though, is that he is talking in a severe manner on this track and even asks himself if, because of the albums that have gone before, has he pushed his levels too far and if he can still reach them. My theory behind this introduction is that maybe, he has heard and taken on board all the criticism of his material since his first three albums. Okay. Maybe, you haven’t heard of the debut album from 1996, “Infinite”? But you have heard of the albums that set him onto the world stage. “the Slim Shady LP” from 1999 and “the Marshall Mathers LP” that followed it in 2000. Whether he or you like to admit it or not, those albums propelled him and made you pay attention to what he had to say, no matter how controversial. Indeed, even in the second verse, he mentions that after”the Marshall Mathers LP” and feels that, although initially, he is pleased with his material, it just doesn’t surpass nor match the work of his third album. He sounds discouraged and concedes that the records after his third album are just “garbage”. Rick Rubin is the Producer chosen for this project, and already, you can hear this album is more Johnny Cash sounding than his Beastie Boys work. Despite this, Em doesn’t seem too bothered about it and continues to the Johnny Cash-inspired production. Then, at the end of the track, Em seems to have adopted his “Fuck you” attitude and bellows “, Me and you are not alike, Bitch, I wrote ‘Stan’!”.

Believe: 

So…We have discovered at the end of “Walk on Water”, we have found that Eminem is now ready to go to war on this record, despite feeling downcast and being his own worst enemy for most of the opening track. This track, however, is sad and tragic. It sounds like a rapper approaching his 50s trying to appeal to the children who listen to the singles chart in the now, but he still raps with the thug in him and talks controversially about politics. Despite the contemporary feel of the music, this song’s controversial topics remind me of “the Way I am”. However, he mentions how he enjoyed the chase in his younger days, but now he is older, he finds it hard to remain hungry because that chase is no longer his priority, and he has achieved a lot thus far. Plus, he is now financially set up for life. The same goes for most songwriters and artists once they have passed that point. Let’s hope the Eminem of the late90s and early 2000s remains on this record, though.

Chloraseptic: 

This is Eminem at his finest, and he even brings along rap battle MC in the shape of Brooklyn’s, Phresher, who has said that Eminem wanted him on this track because it is “Raw as fuck”. Indeed, Eminem rolls back the years and, you can hear signs of “Guilty Conscience”, “Criminal”, “Kill You”, to name three ultra-violent tracks. Indeed, the fucking nutcase adopts his Slim Shady persona to perfection as he gives a detailed account of how he will kill you with your book of shit rhymes by ripping off the wire. An old friend, Kon Artis from Eminem’s group, D-12, features on production.

Untouchable: 

Fucking hell, he isn’t playing on this record. This is Eminem wilin’ out. This time the subject is the state of American politics; in this six-minute scolding track, he uses characters. For the first three minutes, he takes on the persona of a racist white police officer, explaining how he targets black individuals and abuses his authority to terrorise black communities. The beat used for this persona is very guitar-based. Then the final three minutes switch to a moody piano loop, where he raps with the persona of a modern-day black American and how he feels about himself and his community being targeted because of their skin colour. Eminem plays this role brilliantly as he launches scathing attacks on police brutality, segregation, employment discrimination and the hypocrisy about America being ‘the land of the free’. Em proceeds to attack the current president and his party without mercy. Indeed, he may have lost some fans and upset fellow musicians in the process, but does he give a fuck? I very much doubt it. Em always falls on his sword and fuck what you think while flipping the bird in your direction, either metaphorically or physically.

River: 

Emile Hayne produced the track and was a case of the featured artist, Ed Sheeran, who recorded most of the track on a trip to Australia in March 2016 on Russell Crowe’s farm. Ed plays his trademark instrument, the guitar, then the drums and the piano. When Ed finished recording the track, he sent it off to Eminem and didn’t receive a reply

or any form of communication for several months. Once he did, the final product depicts Ed playing the persona of a liar and a cheat, which is then followed by Eminem talking about taking advantage of a Woman, using her for a one-night stand, and regretting the fact it happened, because he never wanted her in the first place, but is being consumed his guilt.

Remind Me (Intro): 

God knows why this couldn’t have been included in the following main track. It is a short 27-second introduction to the entire track as follows. We hear drums, an angelic choir, and Em talking about how a girl makes him do things he wouldn’t normally do. The track ends with some short scratching by a DJ.

Remind Me: 

This track uses a sample of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock & Roll”. Does it still make sense that the short intro was used, as the main track is rock-based? No, not really. In this track, Slim Shady reappears as he hits on a Woman with a big arse and big fake boobs, but this time, Slim Shady is a lot more polite as he does, rather than resorting to his usual upfront misogynistic and sadistic frame of mind. The track is more comedic than the typical psychotic type of tracks his alter-ego is known for.

Revival (Interlude): 

Ah, for fuck’s sake. We finally get to the title track, and it is nothing but a pointless interlude. Remember what I said in my previous article? I can’t stand these: pointless throwaways where a track that wasn’t selected could have been given another chance. Over a piano riff reminiscent of Adele’s “Someone Like You”, we can hear a female voice singing about rising from the ashes. The female vocalist Regina Spektor gave a short sample of her “Human of the Year” track. Wonderfully sung, but still a very pointless interlude.

Like Home: 

Remember when Eminem used to attack homosexuals during the early part of his career? On this track, he stands up for them and supports their inclusion and transgender in the United States military. Once again, he proceeds to attack the current president, and this time, he takes it further than his policies and goes after the president’s physical appearance, saying that he looks like a canary with a beak. He accuses the president of watching Fox News and constantly repeating himself and how he uses Twitter to make political decisions that must be addressed in the Senate or the White House. He also laments about the appearance of the current president in the “Shady Convention” mock political video, which was used to promote Em’s Shade45 satellite channel. He says that he wished he had never included Donald Trump in the video and should have had the foresight to know that he was about to tear apart the values that America stand for. Em still believes that America is the greatest country to reside in and the people need to combat what is happening in the current climate. Although, he thinks the current President doesn’t give a fuck about the people and that there are more than enough people in America against the president’s policies and can rebel against the system. Alicia Keys features.

Bad Husband: 

The title says it all. Em talks in depth about his explosive relationship with ex-wife Kim Scott (Who he has aimed at on several albums. The worst is “Love the Way You Lie”, where he sets the house on fire in the video with Kim in it. Although, he has done far worse lyrically on many of his albums.) and their daughter, Hailie. The song structure sees Em rap to both of them on alternating verses, first of all in an aggressive manner and then in an apologetic tone, where he regrets using them and airing his family disagreements in the media. He also mentions that despite their dysfunctional and violent relationship, it hurt him badly when he divorced and walked away from Kim. Indeed, he compared it to sawing off a body limb—X Ambassadors feature on this melancholic track of conflict and reconciliation.

Tragic Endings: 

This remains on the previous track’s subject of Eminem’s strained relationship with ex-wife Kim. He talks about how he still finds it hard to cope with their divorce, and the feelings remain. Even though he would prefer they got back together, he knows that Kim would hate for him to find happiness with her or someone else and takes great pleasure in watching him suffer after the way it all ended. Frequent collaborator Skylar Grey features on this (She also wrote the opening track on this record.). Her writing is consubstantial with Em to let the listener know how Em feels/felt about their troubled relationship. This line sung by Sklyar sums up the relationship entirely “I’m dying to breathe, and all you do is strangle me. What a relief.” A very powerful message that tells you what that relationship was like. Kim prayed for Em to kill her to set her free. Luckily, it never came to that, but that line alone is enough to tell the story.

Framed: 

Ah, this is once again the real Slim Shady standing up (No awful pun intended.) Remember “97 Bonnie & Clyde” from the 1999 album “the Slim Shady LP”? This track follows that same route, as Slim Shady explains how to kill someone and get away with it in extreme detail while he takes the production back to those days with guitar licks and a repetitive drum loop. He mentions that when killing females, you better wear three layers of clothing, or you will not succeed and end up facing life imprisonment or life on death row as it is in America. Once again, Donald Trump has shots fired at him as Slim Shady has his daughter Ivanka in his boot but has no recollection of how she ended up there (More than likely dead, I presume, as this is Slim Shady.). The track ends in denial, with Slim Shady half-heartedly saying how the missing person was nothing to do with him and that he was, well…framed.

Nowhere Fast: 

Em seems to adopt his alter-ego more as the record goes on. On this fast-paced string section track, he goes after other rappers (No names mentioned at all.) and says that despite his age, he is far from finished in the game and arrogantly expresses that he is better now than when he was at the peak of his powers. He believes he is just starting to reach his prime, and all the youngsters in the modern era are easy prey for him. Kehlani accompanies him and sings about living the fast life and dying young. Something that Eminem somehow managed to avoid. Yes, he lived a fast life, but how he didn’t die young, either through family members, psychotic fans, drug addiction, or his controversial views, is just a mystery.

Heat: 

I was quite shocked on this track because he managed to find common ground with the current president rather than attacking him relentlessly, which has been the central theme of this record. Albeit only for a short time. He talks about grabbing Women by their pussies and agrees with Donald, but that’s it. That is the only time he is mentioned on the track after that. He pays homage to producer Rick Rubin but in a humourous way. He says the female at the song’s centre is hot enough to melt Rick’s beat. Rick’s production on this sees him return to DJ scratching and guitar distortion that served him well on “the Marshall Mathers LP 2” track “Berserk”. The sample used is the introduction featured on the film soundtrack to Boogie Nights (Hence the title “Heat”.) The track even ends with a brief dialogue from Mark Wahlberg’s character.

Offended: 

This track is an intent by him to get into the Guinness Book of World Records in terms of the numerous syllables used and the ferocious speed of the verses. And once again, he is not afraid to talk about controversial matters going after R. Kelly, Donald Trump, his daughter Ivanka and the first lady, Melania. This is Eminem from those early albums, which made people and subjects the target of his songs, and fuck the consequences. Indeed, he is still angry that the current president hasn’t acknowledged his diss about him at the BET Awards. He talks about attacking Ivanka while he hits on Melania to rile the president into responding. Em even takes a moment to show respect to Illa da Producer, who made this saying that the drums and hard snares bring out the worst in him.

Need Me: 

I loved the collaboration on P!nk’s “Revenge” on her latest album “Beautiful Trauma”. We saw Eminem at his most hateful and P!nk following suit. Alex da Kid is again on production as he is on most of the record with Rick Rubin (Illa da Producer, not much.). On this power ballad, his percussion is accompanied by P!nk’s two verses and a chorus before Eminem comes in. The biggest surprise is that he gradually harmonises over her second verse. I can’t recall any track where he does this when collaborating with female singers. This track has a waltz feel where he goes mad about being in a dysfunctional relationship and how she reminds him of his mother, yet they are made for each other.

In Your Head: 

I never saw this coming, but a sample of the Cranberries’ 1994 hit “Zombie” is used and remains underneath the beat throughout. This track features a producer yet to appear, MC/Producer Scram Jones from New York. You might not know the name per sé, but you know his work. He has been working with Ghostface Killah and Jadakiss since the turn of the century, and this is his debut production with Em. Em references previous album comparisons and how maybe after so many wrong decisions in his career, he should have called it a day after his 2010 album “Recovery”? Which saw the Eminem we all became fans of re-emerging from his cheesy pop slumber. Let’s face it who liked songs like “Without Me” and “Lose it”? Utter Pop-friendly shite.

Castle: 

This one reminds me of “Stan”. You can hear the pencil writing on the paper in the sound effects, but indeed, he is also delivering the verses like, he is writing a letter. Rather than adopting a psychotic and obsessed fan, he plays himself and writes a letter to his daughter, Hailie. The first letter is written before her birth in 1995 (Echoing 2Pac’s “Letter to My Unborn Child” premise.), the second a year after her birth (Again, repeating 2Pac/Makaveli tha Don’s “Words to My First Born”.) and third on her 12th birthday. Hailie was twelve in 2007, a year that you would think he would want to forget as he was gradually slipping into darkness after an overdose of methadone almost saw him die. Still, he decides to sign off the letter as he would have done if he did write the final letter after overdosing and saying goodbye. You could say pretty much a suicide note included. Skylar Grey features.

Arose: 

The final track uses a loop taken from the title track of Bette Midler’s 1979 album (She also starred in the film.). This track is a continuation of the narrative of the previous track. Em talks candidly about that overdose addressing his family and former D12 member, Proof, whom he was close with until his demise in 2006. Em says that the death of Proof was the catalyst for his world falling apart the following year. Returning to the continuation of “Castle”, the third verse features on this track and as the track ends without warning. This time, however, it has been altered. Em throws the methadone down the toilet, complete with the sound effect of dawn and the toilet flushing.

Overall: 

This is the Eminem/Slim Shady I have missed for a decade. Save for the 2003 film “Eight Mile” soundtrack, loosely based on his early beginnings in the rap game. There hasn’t been much that has shown his controversial and, one might say, ‘Real’ side. I could not stand the utter cheese on his album after “the Marshall Mathers LP” up to “Recovery”. That’s a decade of shit music. He made me want to listen again after 2010’s “Recovery”. That Eminem, who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, re-emerged, and it was welcomed. I don’t care if he has rediscovered his controversial nature; that’s what he is to me. I prefer him to act like one of his idols 2Pac, rather than bowing down to the record executives and making chart-friendly hits. Fuck that. That isn’t Eminem, and it certainly isn’t his alter-ego Slim Shady, that’s for sure. This album was fucking brilliant.

I loved all the controversial topics featured and his targeting of popular figures who deserved it. I was a big fan of his first three records, and this harks back to those days for me. Although I have mentioned in previous articles that artists/bands are free to express themselves in any way they choose, it doesn’t really work for Em. Yes, it was nice for him to show his more vulnerable side on this album, but he did it in a way that didn’t use cheesy beats. Rick Rubin and Alex da Kid were amazing on production, along with Skylar Grey, Alicia Keys and Phresher as some of the collaborating artists. I look forward to what Eminem has on his 10th studio album. He’s made me restore my faith in him. 9/10

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