The Eminem Show is surprisingly very good. I was a little concerned when I heard that Eminem was taking over the production reins from Dr. Dre, but I think it's turned out to be a non-issue. This new album is very much in the same style as
The Marshall Mathers LP...heavy, enticingly simple hard-driving beats contrasted with sporatic, trebley instrumental elements and Eminem's familiar thousand-words-per-minute ranting. Now I have the feeling that I've said something similar about other hip-hop albums before, but on this album, these divisions are as readily apparent as ever. Yet again though, it's Eminem's vocals that serve as the main musical highlight. While his voice has a kind of punk-kid quality that I would normally find irritating, Eminem's flow is so natural and effortless that it tends to overshadow any other vocal misgivings. In the end, the effectiveness of his delivery makes his voice seem more identifiable and quirky than annoying. It's a shame that all anyone ever wants to talk about are Eminem's lyrics, because his ability to bend and manipulate the most unweildly of phrases to fit within the parameters of a song are second to none. I can't be the only one that's read through the lyric book and thought, "How in the world does he turn that into music?".
Now if you do want to talk about lyrics, it should be said that
The Eminem Show has an entirely different focus than the previous album. It's just as self-absorbed as his other work, but strangely (the album cover depicts a stage), it's less theatrical. Eminem seems less intent on spewing forth random hate just to stir the pot and speaks mostly about the nature of his own personal ties and societal influence. The scathing personal attacks are directed mainly towards his mother and ex-wife, basically blaming them for the disintegration of both respective relationships. The high esteem he holds for his daughter is even more pronounced on this album than the last, and if we didn't know better, we could at times almost mistake Eminem for a role model. Almost. Gone, nearly completely, is the anti-homosexual sentiment that was spread throughout the
Marshall Mathers LP. It's difficult to tell whether this was done to appease the gay activists or if it was due to a guilt-induced change of heart. Considering that we're talking about Eminem here, the most keenly self-aware artist in popular music, he probably figured that any further sensationalized gay bashing would be perceived as a desperate attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice and would end up being career suicide. Personally, I'm glad he ditched that particular angle, as he's too talented an artist to have to rely on such cheap heat. Instead, we get an increased level of heterosexual content, definitely lewd, raunchy, and sometimes off-putting, though far from shocking. Actually, the same thing could be said for the entire album. The most apparent observation that can made about the content, and probably the only one that matters in the end, is that the public's reaction to the lyrics will ultimately be far more interesting than the lyrics themselves.
