Encore vs. Relapse

[Wic Kid]

Relapse. I adore serial killers and fiction.

[Kez]

I think i'm gonna get a lot of smack for this, but i'll be completely honest with you, i liked Encore more. Let me try and explain best i can. I'm not sure if it relates to the time period it came out or what, but my main feeling is that i felt Encore as an Eminem album, and Relapse felt somehow different to me in parts. When Encore came out, his hype was huge and the time period was much shorter from The Eminem Show as opposed to the Encore/Relapse gap. Relapse came out after so long, and came back with this serial-killer obsession shit and weird accent. You can see why it feels different to me. Plus, when Encore came out i was only around 12 or 13, really impressionable and had only recently began to follow his music.

I won't deny Relapse is the better album musically, cause it is. The rhyme schemes are intricate, the beats catchy and (in most cases) the choruses memorable. What it lacks for me is lyrical content. We've reached an enigma in Eminem's career; his introspective lyrics are what draws us to him, but thanks to his back catalogue he risks seeming repetitive to the masses to continue to draw on angst and pathos; however, the "roots" Relapse wished to return to are also reminiscent of the Slim Shady LP days. You can kinda get the impression, if you look at it that way, that Em was merely choosing the older standby as opposed to one so fresh in the public's mind. When Encore came out, everything about it was fitting, even down to the seeming "laziness" in it's creation. Not only did it follow the scheme of previous titles, but the cover art was an absolutely brilliant play on The Eminem Show's artwork in my opinion, and (as much as i hate the idea of Eminem ever stopping) was the absolutely perfect final solo album for him in every way in my eyes.

The subjects covered in Encore are not as stupid as people try to make out, i can go through almost every song and point out why it's content is superior to Relapse. Evil Deeds's self-awareness of my aforementioned dilemma is perfectly fitting for this album, especially as the opening track. Yellow Brick Road is a brilliant nostalgic song, which puts you completely in a situation. Rain Man has some absolute gems in it, and the admittance that he "didn't say shit" in the song is perfect as a theme for his encore. Crazy in Love represents perfectly the conflict in his music if you look at it less literally. Encore has an epic atmosphere as a final performance with the three-headed monster, the crowd chanting him on until he shoots them all and then kills himself to a club banger beat. I'm aware that Mosh appears very pretentious, but the ending of it still gives me shivers, and i can understand why people don't like the crudeness of Puke, but i personally have a soft spot for it. I won't deny Encore's got it's skippables; Just Lose It and Big Weenie are fucking unberable. My 1st Single is decent but rambles too much for me to see meaning in it, and Ass Like That is borderline entertaining given the context but ultimately still pretty stupid. But the self-awareness of the lyrics in Encore as a whole are so perfectly fitting that i can't accept when people say he didn't put effort into them or that most of it was pointless garbage.

By contrast, if you look at Relapse, 10 of the songs are about random violent acts, serial killers, drug addiction parody and/or sex in rare cases. I loved My Mom for its' nostalgia (ironically despite the "repetition", i thought he managed to put an interesting twist on it which fit the album concept), and i accept that We Made You and Crack a Bottle don't apply to the former, but that's cause they were designed to succeed in the mainstream and thus Em toned it down. Then you have the two "deep" songs, but their placement and the complete contrast from the previous subject matter makes Eminem seem typecast in my eyes; i get the impression that the only reason these songs were placed on here is to try and half-heartedly even out the album to appease fans that were waiting for deep, introspective shit, as is arguably to be rightfully expected considering all the possible muses at his disposal at the time. Plus, i found Relapse a lot harder to get into because 90% of it is fictional. I enjoy fictional music from him as much as the next guy, but fiction of this caliber actually just distanced me from the album more. Hearing him rap "blow a little bit of that smoke my way" after his battles with drugs have been so public just bores me. I mean, when i listen to Eminem what i always loved most was the ability to represent real life so that i could relate; but this is a function that Relapse signifcantly lacks, which i think may contribute to my preference of Encore over Relapse, as Encore, while it's also got its far-out subject matter, it's also still fixated on real life.

Don't get me wrong, his flows and beats on Relapse are some of his best, incredibly sick to listen to. The string of multis in Insane are, as the name implies, just fucking insane. Same Song and Dance is pragmatically brilliant, it has the amount of depth some wouldn't even think Eminem capable of. Bagpipes from Baghdad is just the catchiest shit ever, Stay Wide Awake contains possibly the most complex three verses he's ever written and the return to Steve Berman was hilarious. But when i think of what makes an album better, i have to take into account content, structure and context, and in that respect, for me, Encore wins out overall.

tl;dr, Encore > Relapse for me Don't kill me, that's my opinion.

[dR3]

^ Where did you copy that from?

[Kez]

^ Where did you copy that from?

Go ahead and Google lines from it lmao you won't find any results, that's all me.

[dR3]

I was just kidding.

[Knight-ofthe-Pen]

why is this thread 5 pages? that means there's actually a DEBATE about the thread's question?? there's a discussion?

because you add another statement, right? no need for discussion I guess

[pfati]

I think i'm gonna get a lot of smack for this, but i'll be completely honest with you, i liked Encore more. Let me try and explain best i can. I'm not sure if it relates to the time period it came out or what, but my main feeling is that i felt Encore as an Eminem album, and Relapse felt somehow different to me in parts. When Encore came out, his hype was huge and the time period was much shorter from The Eminem Show as opposed to the Encore/Relapse gap. Relapse came out after so long, and came back with this serial-killer obsession shit and weird accent. You can see why it feels different to me. Plus, when Encore came out i was only around 12 or 13, really impressionable and had only recently began to follow his music.

I won't deny Relapse is the better album musically, cause it is. The rhyme schemes are intricate, the beats catchy and (in most cases) the choruses memorable. What it lacks for me is lyrical content. We've reached an enigma in Eminem's career; his introspective lyrics are what draws us to him, but thanks to his back catalogue he risks seeming repetitive to the masses to continue to draw on angst and pathos; however, the "roots" Relapse wished to return to are also reminiscent of the Slim Shady LP days. You can kinda get the impression, if you look at it that way, that Em was merely choosing the older standby as opposed to one so fresh in the public's mind. When Encore came out, everything about it was fitting, even down to the seeming "laziness" in it's creation. Not only did it follow the scheme of previous titles, but the cover art was an absolutely brilliant play on The Eminem Show's artwork in my opinion, and (as much as i hate the idea of Eminem ever stopping) was the absolutely perfect final solo album for him in every way in my eyes.

The subjects covered in Encore are not as stupid as people try to make out, i can go through almost every song and point out why it's content is superior to Relapse. Evil Deeds's self-awareness of my aforementioned dilemma is perfectly fitting for this album, especially as the opening track. Yellow Brick Road is a brilliant nostalgic song, which puts you completely in a situation. Rain Man has some absolute gems in it, and the admittance that he "didn't say shit" in the song is perfect as a theme for his encore. Crazy in Love represents perfectly the conflict in his music if you look at it less literally. Encore has an epic atmosphere as a final performance with the three-headed monster, the crowd chanting him on until he shoots them all and then kills himself to a club banger beat. I'm aware that Mosh appears very pretentious, but the ending of it still gives me shivers, and i can understand why people don't like the crudeness of Puke, but i personally have a soft spot for it. I won't deny Encore's got it's skippables; Just Lose It and Big Weenie are fucking unberable. My 1st Single is decent but rambles too much for me to see meaning in it, and Ass Like That is borderline entertaining given the context but ultimately still pretty stupid. But the self-awareness of the lyrics in Encore as a whole are so perfectly fitting that i can't accept when people say he didn't put effort into them or that most of it was pointless garbage.

By contrast, if you look at Relapse, 10 of the songs are about random violent acts, serial killers, drug addiction parody and/or sex in rare cases. I loved My Mom for its' nostalgia (ironically despite the "repetition", i thought he managed to put an interesting twist on it which fit the album concept), and i accept that We Made You and Crack a Bottle don't apply to the former, but that's cause they were designed to succeed in the mainstream and thus Em toned it down. Then you have the two "deep" songs, but their placement and the complete contrast from the previous subject matter makes Eminem seem typecast in my eyes; i get the impression that the only reason these songs were placed on here is to try and half-heartedly even out the album to appease fans that were waiting for deep, introspective shit, as is arguably to be rightfully expected considering all the possible muses at his disposal at the time. Plus, i found Relapse a lot harder to get into because 90% of it is fictional. I enjoy fictional music from him as much as the next guy, but fiction of this caliber actually just distanced me from the album more. Hearing him rap "blow a little bit of that smoke my way" after his battles with drugs have been so public just bores me. I mean, when i listen to Eminem what i always loved most was the ability to represent real life so that i could relate; but this is a function that Relapse signifcantly lacks, which i think may contribute to my preference of Encore over Relapse, as Encore, while it's also got its far-out subject matter, it's also still fixated on real life.

Don't get me wrong, his flows and beats on Relapse are some of his best, incredibly sick to listen to. The string of multis in Insane are, as the name implies, just fucking insane. Same Song and Dance is pragmatically brilliant, it has the amount of depth some wouldn't even think Eminem capable of. Bagpipes from Baghdad is just the catchiest shit ever, Stay Wide Awake contains possibly the most complex three verses he's ever written and the return to Steve Berman was hilarious. But when i think of what makes an album better, i have to take into account content, structure and context, and in that respect, for me, Encore wins out overall.

tl;dr, Encore > Relapse for me Don't kill me, that's my opinion.

AGREED

[UofLCard]

why is this thread 5 pages? that means there's actually a DEBATE about the thread's question?? there's a discussion?

Look back at my OP and I never really give a 'question'. I just compared the two albums on that Encore had the more serious songs.

[Kez]

why is this thread 5 pages? that means there's actually a DEBATE about the thread's question?? there's a discussion?

Be a pretty boring thread if it was just full of people agreeing.

[Stanley C.]

lyrics: Relapse

this coming from the same person who thought Way I Am was one of em's best verses, Love You More was better than most of Eminem Show, and Lose Yourself's third verse was wack.

[Stanley C.]

The Way I Am isn't a verse, dumb fuck.

tell me when i said Lose Yourself's third verse was wack, dumb fuck.

LMAO

dumb fuck? is that the only insult along with "stan" that cesspools of internet idiocy as yourself can come up with? This explains your understanding of lyricism quite well.

[GoodGirlsGetGutted]

"cesspools of internet idiocy"

Where have I seen this before?

[UofLCard]

Great: My First Single, Big Weenie and Fack

........Welp, everyone has their opinions.

[jshashwat]

Dont u think Spend Some Time on Encore and Underground on Relapse are serious too?

[xxTrigger1989xx]

The Way I Am isn't a verse, dumb fuck.

tell me when i said Lose Yourself's third verse was wack, dumb fuck.

LMAO

dumb fuck? is that the only insult along with "stan" that cesspools of internet idiocy as yourself can come up with? This explains your understanding of lyricism quite well.

try making sense.

Wack: Bagpipes from Baghdad, Same Song and Dance (lyrical but corny as fuck), and We Made You
Okay: Remember Me?, Music Box, and I'm Shady
Good: My Name Is, I'm Back, and Rain Man
Great: My First Single, Big Weenie and Fack

Em has a hell of a lot of good material....hard to choose.

wow, you're a fucking idiot. I understand Relapse tracks being counted as wack, Fack/Big Weenie were pretty good songs, and like I said refill/slim shady LP were okay at best, but Lose Yourself isnt in your greats list? Are you fucking serious?

anything you say from here on in is suspect. you're a fucking idiot.

Yeah, this guy's credibility just shot to hell. Fack and Big Weenie are horrible songs. This dude has shit backwards