I mean, look at this fucker. Just like the album itself, that cover art seems to have some layers of meaning to it. Yeah, the pill concept is pretty clear, but what about Em's face. What does it tell ya? Is he depressed? Is he sad? Is he taking a dump? Like the Monalisa, who the fuck knows. The dark background is like foreboding of what to expect in terms of content.
I'm still regularly bumping Relapse, and every time I hear it it doesn't cease to amaze me. At the same time though, I feel like it could have been so much more, and I'm disappointed that after all the bitching there was about it (and even Em decided to embrace it), we'll never see something as bold as this project.
All of Em's albums have been concept albums, or more specifically, "personal" concept albums. The SSLP was the introduction to the world to the Slim Shady persona, the MMLP was a deeper look at the sinister mind of Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers, The Eminem Show was an introspective view of the Eminem character and all the elements that revolved around him, and Encore was a demonstration of what fame can turn you into. Relapse, however, strikes to me as a more intricately designed, complex concept packed with imagery and metaphors that some may dismiss as an album that's not as "personal" as Em's past work, but that's only because they can't see the relationship between the concepts and themes touched here with the events Marshall experienced during his drug addiction era.
I already made the Em horrorcore thread, where I talked about how all this serial killer, maniac stuff could be a metaphor of all the hallucinations and fucked up stuff being an addict can turn you into, so I won't go to deep into it. I just want to talk about how much potential this whole concept had (and still has).
I think the main problem with the execution of Relapse was that Em didn't go all the way in. It's like 60% of the Relapse Eminem envisioned was mixed and mashed with 40% that barely had anything to do with it (and it clearly shows when you compare the quality of both things).
The album starts extremely well with the Dr. West skit and then 3 A.M, but some redundant (albeit enjoyable imo) songs start to appear later. Stuff like Bagpipes from Baghdad, We Made You, Old Time Sake, Crack a Bottle, even Beautiful (which I love) don't add anything to the experience, and they bring down the quality of it.
In a perfect world, Em would have created an album that, from beginning to end, would stick to the themes of songs like Buffalo Bill and Music Box, while also adding songs that explain the context of all these dark themes (Deja vu, Dr. West Skit, Underground) in order to create a more cohesive project that tries to do something that no one has done before. There are glimpses of that in Relapse, like in the Tonya -> Same Song and Dance Skit, but it would have been even better if all the songs and not only a couple were tied together as some sort of twisted dark tale.
Damn, I've made so many Relapse related threads because I fucking love the concepts Em touched here. Him branching out of the stuff he usually does or did in the past allowed him to create breathtaking songs like Stay Wide Awake. And to be honest, I do think that project exists (Refill is part of it), but we'll probably never had the chance to hear it unless it miraculously leaks somehow.
I really do hope next Em album, which is not going to be anything like Relapse sadly, tries to tackle on some kind of interesting concept and Em goes all the way with it. He's so fucking talented at creating compelling songs that you can see playing in your head even if you haven't seen a video about it.
Discuss. And read the whole thing ya fuckers.
