I have listened to the musics today. Two albums, one which I have been waiting a long time for so forgive the enormous review for it:
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs: I’m really glad I finally got around to listening to this, because it was a pretty wonderful experience. If I’d realized so much of it was experimental rock stuff, I would’ve found my way to it a lot sooner! But yeah, the main preconceived issue of contention, the graveliness of his voice, turned out to be nothing at all. I really liked his voice a lot, much more than recent Bob Dylan’s grinding death rattle. The only one where it really bothered me somewhat was “Downtown Train”, where it sounded like cement being dropped in a blender. On top of that his instrumentations are fantastic, and stuff like “Singapore” and “Clap Hands” sound like old folk tunes or sea shanties I could hear being sung through time.
Generally, I don’t particularly love his slower stuff here—with some exceptions, like “Blind Love” and “Anywhere I Lay My Head”. But everything else is wonderful; my absolute favourite song is definitely “Gun Street Girl”, which is just magnificent, and “Rain Dogs” comes right after that. Along with those, “Clap Hands” and “Tango Till They’re Sore” make up my top few favourites.
So all-in-all I really liked the album, particularly the weirder, more experimental tracks. Go figure.
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2: So I was really excited and then a little less so when I heard the reviews…but after listening, I think this might be my favourite Eminem album. It started out strong, started to lag a little, but came back full-swing and stronger than ever. I like that it feels so cohesive, but like so many disparate parts of a whole. The first song (“Bad Guy”) is definitely an intro, an homage to the original Mathers LP and a subversion, reminding you that while this is a sequel, it isn’t a rehash, so don’t expect the same stuff.
From there the next four songs are pretty good (though “So Much Better” has an awesome beat—a heavier reworking of “Criminal”, from the original LP), but not amazing. Then “Asshole (feat. Skylar Grey)” kicks in and it gets pretty great. The song is funny, strong, with awesome flow and some laugh-worthy lines and, more importantly, a beat that sounds a little reminiscent one of my favourite Zelda songs! (“Turned Into a Bunny!” from A Link to the Past, for those who care) It also has a Scott Pilgrim reference, which is wonderful.
From there on out we get some songs with seriously amazing flow, both on a technical level and an aural level, like “Rap God” and “Brainless”. The latter seriously feels like old-school Em (fitting, since it’s probably an homage to “Brain Dead”, from The Slim Shady LP), with him singing a catchy chorus, dropping witty lines and funny retorts. He also has another song where he sings ¾ of it, called “Stronger Than I Was”, which is only really outstanding in that he uses it to address how Kim (the wife he famously would rap about murdering and slitting her throat) must have felt from her side of the relationship. This kind of closure and introspection becomes a theme throughout the album.
He has another duet with Rihanna called “The Monster” that’s pretty good, but feels a little bit too much like “Love the Way You Lie” rehashed. But then comes “So Far…” which at first feels kind of weird and ‘ew’, but as it goes becomes more and more absurd and was the song that drew the most genuine smiles and laughs from me. The beat is sampled from a country song (a country song!) and the flow is fun and it’s just wonderful. Most importantly, though? He makes a straight-up Zelda reference! I did not realize Em was one of us. ;w;
The biggest highlight of the album for me is probably “Love Game (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”. It just feels like the epitome of it all…his humour, subversive lines and punchlines, absurdity and really dark moments that are still funny. More than that, though, the reason he and Kendrick are my two favourite rappers and I wanted to see them go at it verbally: they are the two most technically-gifted rappers I’ve ever heard. And this song does not disappoint. They both bring forth effortlessly complex flows and wordplay, but they both still manage to be funny and absurd (which I hadn’t seen from Lamar yet, so that was awesome!) and the song is easily just the most incredible experience, in my opinion. Not only were my expectations met, they were broken, and that’s saying something, seeing as my expectations were high.
Finally, the tone shifts dramatically for “Headlights (feat. Nate Ruess)”. At first I was worried it was gonna be a generic “overcoming troubles” song, but it was probably the most jaw-dropping moment on the album. The song where he comes right out and forgives his mother. It was seriously powerful when I wasn’t expecting it…this was the biggest act of closure and maturity on the LP. It must’ve taken a lot to do that after spending so much of his career lambasting and decrying her for all the things she’d done to him and his little brother. It’s kind of a tear-jerker if you’ve been following Eminem all through the years, and Nate Ruess’ hooks and bridges only help to strike home that impacting feeling in the chest that this album is a milestone, that this album is a pivotal moment in not only his life, but in his fans’. He’s getting older and there’s no more excuses for petty squabbles and holding onto grudges forever. He’s letting things go.
Finally, the album closes with “Evil Twin”. I have to say, it’s pretty much the perfect closer. Rather than trying to finish it with some sob-story attempt at a “deep” song or trying to replicate the victorious sounds of “’Til I Collapse”, he just goes right ahead and gives one last display of dexterous lyricism and punchlines. Here, in spite of the struggles between Marshall and Shady in all albums prior, he finally embraces the fact that they’re one and the same. Two sides of the same coin.
This is the final act of closure.
Most may not consider this Em’s best album yet, but it would be hard to argue it isn’t his most grown-up record. It’s a return to form, sure, but it’s also an announcement that things have changed. He’s found his niche. Somewhere betwixt the rabid spitfire comedy verses of early Shady, the introspective gloominess of Marshall Mathers, and the muddled confusion of insanity and clarity his more recent albums brought, is the real Eminem.
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is not an ordinary sequel. It’s a throwback to the fans of his earlier, better work, but the first song takes the idea of reliving past glories and quite literally murders it in the most brilliantly allegorical way possible. It contains homages to show the return to roots, but in small doses with massive changes to show that he’s not going to be stuck in the past. It’s an album of redemption and, as I’ve said several times now, an album of closure. Eminem brings up and kills off bits and pieces of nostalgia and his older work, he slowly closes the gates on all the things that made him who he is in the past, burning bridges and letting go of grudges, resolving all the threads he’d left hanging and finally shutting the doors on all the concepts, ideas, hatred, people and grudges that made up the music and art of the man we know and love, like a dying man seeking closure, seeking to make things right in a final blaze of glory before lying down to take one last breath.
But within the finality of the album is a spark that feels like it's only just been ignited, one that's got the potential to burn with more intensity than the last. On the surface, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is an album of closure, a finale, the final act of a two-decade-long career. But deep, deep down, it’s only the end of an act, a resolution that sets the stage for the real final chapter.
Act 1 was early Shady and Marshall, rapid-fire wit and dark introspection. Act 2 was Eminem, post-drugs and struggling to regain his footing with this newfound maturity, eventually culminating in this very album. Now, after these curtains close and open again, Act 3 begins.