Eminem #3: Not Afraid

Talkin' 2 myself.

Space bound blijf ik ook hels vinden..

en ook Not Afraid eigenlijk;hoe vaker ik 'm luister, hoe beter ik 'm vind worden.

Eerste indruk: goed album!

Niet zo goed als MMLP, SSLP en ES, maar wel beter dan Encore en Relapse.

Ik ben tevreden

Binnenkort maar even een luisterbeurt doen

Ik was op de basisschool helemaal fan van Eminem, ik zat op een christelijke school, en dus vonden ze het alles behalve leuk als ik deze muziek opzette omdat er teveel in gevloekt werd. Vond het vooral heel leuk om 'Kim' te draaien van The Marshall Mathers LP. Destijds was ik helemaal into Eminem, niets anders bestond er nog voor me. Nu heb ik zijn vorige album en 'Relapse' gemist, en begin ik overnieuw met luisteren, dus Recovery is een goede her-instapper .

Moet zeggen dat dit wel nostalgisch is om weer opnieuw naar te luisteren. Ben in de laatste jaren dit commerciële geluid niet meer gewend. Vind 'Not Afraid' wel een tof nummer!

Mis wel dat komische erg, juist dat was zo typerend aan zijn muziek.

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Op donderdag 10 juni 2010 22:46 schreef Edwinuss het volgende:

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Fake.

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Op maandag 14 juni 2010 00:25 schreef Boomlaars het volgende:

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Fake.

Ik zie nog steeds geen commentaar van je op het album en ben er zeker van dat je die wel hebt. Dus als je het niet erg vind, laat maar horen! Ben wel benieuwd!

Ik vind die nieuwe eminem stijl dus helemaal niks Veel te commercieel en dat niet-serieuze accent..

doe mij maar die oude albums

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Op maandag 14 juni 2010 20:39 schreef julian6 het volgende:
Ik vind die nieuwe eminem stijl dus helemaal niks Veel te commercieel en dat niet-serieuze accent..

doe mij maar die oude albums

Ik neem aan dat je Relapse bedoeld? Op Recovery zijn geen accenten te vinden, gelukkig.

Album is gewoon al te koop??? Zag 'm vandaag bij FRS liggen maar was er toch heilig van overtuigd dattie pas 22 juni kwam

Nederland 18 juni en in USA 22 juni

Ahh dat verklaart. Moet 'm nog ff halen vd week, had nu maar budget voor 1 cd en AW ging voor dan

Nieuwe album is echt briljant, die haddaway sample no love is geniaal.

Ga de CD zeker origineel halen.

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Op maandag 14 juni 2010 00:42 schreef sitting_elfling het volgende:

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Ik zie nog steeds geen commentaar van je op het album en ben er zeker van dat je die wel hebt. Dus als je het niet erg vind, laat maar horen! Ben wel benieuwd!

Van een engelstalig forum, weinig zin het te vertalen;

Abstract: MMLP=SSLP>Recovery>TES>Relapse>Encore

Introduction

Before I go into depth about Recovery itself, for clarity let me just summarize my views on Eminem thus far. As everyone probably knows, I hold his earlier work in high regard. The Marshall Mathers LP and The Slim Shady LP (+ Devil’s Night) in my eyes defined Eminem as an artist.

These albums contained everything what I think makes Eminem great as an artist: creative writing (Stan); sincere & heartfelt true to life songs (Rock Bottom); awesome storytelling songs (My Fault); intense & witty social commentary (The Way I Am, Marshall Mathers); quotable punchlines & metaphors (Im Back). Listening back to these albums, I still cannot find anything I dislike (apart from the Under the Influence chorus and the Ken Kaniff skit).

As I often mentioned, I felt Eminem was going downhill with TES. That album has some great songs like Sing for the Moment and Say Goodbye Hollywood (although the latter was poorly executed beat- and flowwise) but at the same time contains absolute filler tracks like Business, Drips, Soldier (yes, I hate Soldier, generic beat and forced flow), Say What You Say and ¾ of My Dad’s Gone Crazy.

Encore doesn’t deserve any elaboration. Happy to hear Eminem finally admit it was shit.

Relapse; same story. That entire album bores the fuck out of me, forced serial killer tracks with a lame accent. There are certain Stans on this board which defend and praise the fuck out of this album, calling it ‘conceptual’ and ‘lyrically genius’ (Eminembase is the first person who comes to mind, retard). Granted though, the snippet for Underground raised my expectations through the roof. Probably the only time I really enjoyed listening to something from Eminem like I do for his older stuff. It’s a piece of shit album, and I’m happy Eminem realized it himself as well.

Following Relapse, Eminem released some features which had some appeal, but lacked any substance. Forever had an awesome flow and delivery, DTW likewise but they were typical bragging verses. I don’t mind them, as long as they are backed up by great music.

Since Eminem’s last albums have all been beyond disappointing, I was worried that this was Eminem’s new direction, bragging about his ability to rap, with his last great album dating back to 2001.

The turnaround seemed to come with the Airplanes II verse ft. Bob. This time he actually gave a personal spin to the verse, which made me hopeful for the content for Recovery. After that Not Afraid dropped, which dropped my expectations due to the corniness of a lot of the lines. Then Won’t Back Down came, which made it extremely unlikely at that point that Recovery was going to have any more replay value than Relapse. At this point I was thinking Recovery was either going to be horrible and ridden with silly punchlines (90% probability) or the tracks which I was hoping to hear were nothing like these 2 released songs (10% probability).

Recovery

The opening track, Cold Wind Blows, starts off brilliantly. Usually I’m put off by Eminem’s cringeworthy singing (like on the bridge of Not Afraid), but my attention was immediately captivated. In addition, the beat is fucking awesome. Best beat Eminem has rapped over for years. The content is mere self-glorification, but it’s believable and far from corny like DTW. Great way to start off the album: 9.5/10

Talking 2 Myself: Finally, an introspective track. It’s good to hear Eminem that he was a complete piece of shit musically the past years. You can thank me for confronting him with this information through this board. Not too fond of the R&B chorus, but lyrically this is exactly what I was looking for in this album. 9/10

On Fire: This track bores me. The chorus is wack as well. I haven’t listened through this song completely once yet, so I think it’s simply not for me: 5/10

Won’t Back Down: Pink sucks, wasted feature. The 3rd verse saves it from being complete shit. 6/10

W.T.P.: Filler, better than his usual club tracks but I don’t care for it at all, probably I’m too old for it: 5/10

Going Through Changes: EPIC sample, deep introspective track. Whereas Déjà vu was descriptive about his drug addiction, this is more of a reflection with regards to his feelings. Complementary and perfect. 10/10

Not Afraid: Everything’s been said: 7/10

Seduction: Great verses, average beat and shitty chorus: 6/10

No Love: My favorite Eminem verse off the album. I love the energy and the content. Brilliant beat, I love how it starts off dark with the piano, damn I love everything about this song except Lil Wayne. He’s tolerable anyway. 10/10

Space Bound: Fantastic sample, haunting Eminem verse with a climactic and unexpected 3rd verse. One of Eminem’s best songs ever. This is the kind of creativity which makes me appreciate Eminem as an artist. 10/10

Cinderella Man: Average, disappointing chorus. Maybe it has to grow on me, but it doesn’t sound like anything special. This would be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many brilliant tracks on this album. 7.5/10

25 To Life: I knew from the first verse what this song was about, but it didn’t make the song less impressive and enjoyable. 8.5/10

So Bad: I don’t know who produced it, but it reminded me off Dr. Dre and Relapse. This beat sounds generic as fuck, hence I still have to listen to it from end to end. First verse made we want to skip to the next so I probably won’ t for a while 4/10

Almost Famous: 10/10. Amazing track, the beat perfectly enables Eminem to switch up his flows mid- and towards the end of his verse, which sounds like something that would perfectly suit MMLP or Devil’s Night. Absolutely brilliant sample. Fuck it, I’d give it a 20/10 but it’d mess up the overall score

Love The Way You Lie: This feature got me worried when I first heard about it. As it turns out however, I love Rihanna on this track, the chorus hooked me in instantly, Eminem’s verses are spot on as well. I read someone post here that this must have been a semi-therapeutic track for both of them considering their destructive personal affairs. This is exactly what I think about this track and why it’s one of my favorites (hmm, I have many it seems). Lol @ people thinking the content of the verses and Rihanna doing the hook is a mere coincidence. 9.5/10

You’re Never Over: I expected more from the Proof tribute track, but I understand Eminem’s decision to do the seemingly corny chorus himself, as he wanted to make it his own tribute to him, on which a guest singer would have been out of place. Still, the chorus was a bit disappointing, especially when comparing it to Hailie’s Song, where his singing is about as cheesy but still 10 times more bearable. The second verse closes the album perfectly, the second half is about as enthralling as the last 10 minutes of Requiem for a Dream. 9.5/10

Bonustrack: This is what a bonus track should sound like, simply dope rhymes on a good beat. 8/10

Conclusion: Recovery blew me, and my expectations, away. Great production (it’s so refreshing to hear Eminem on non-repetitive Dr. Dre beats), great content with a few disappointing tracks. The creative, introspective and reflective tracks were the absolute shiners. Overall score: 8/10

Wat een plaat

Even luisteren

Hij is overigens online gratis op Luisterpaal te beluisteren:

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/