Piano Forum

Topic: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?  (Read 1951 times)

Offline eminemvsrach

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 93
Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
on: June 29, 2009, 07:07:20 AM
Yup, Eminem's new album, Relapse. I love it so much. Especially the song "Beautiful".

What are your opinions?
"Music is Enough for a Lifetime, but a Lifetime is never enough for music."

                              ---Sergei Rachmaninoff

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #1 on: July 13, 2009, 02:31:47 PM
The short version: Relapse sucks

The long version: The biggest problem with this album is that Eminem doesn't really know what to do to recreate the success and controversity of his first two albums, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP. Back in those days, Eminem was constantly critiscized and demonized in media, and had a hunger to prove himself. The MMLP is the result of that, and it is one of the greatest if not the greatest hip-hop album ever created.
Relapse tries too hard to be funny and controversial like those albums, but it fails simply because Eminem doesn't have much to say, or any controversity left. Dissing Jessica Simpson? Yeah sure. Instead there are forced hooks and poorer lyricism in place that simply fails to draw you in. The only song where Eminem really has something concrete and honest to say, that he feels that he might be done with rap, that he is feeling that he is loosing his sense of humor and doesn't want to be famous anymore, is Beautiful, and Beautiful is the only truly beautiful moment on this CD, and I love that track.
There are of course a few other decent tracks on the CD, but it is plagued by too much filler (compare "Old Times Sake" to "Guilty Concience" of the SSLP, both tracks are a "feat Dr Dre" track, but Guilty Concience is vastly superior simply because they have something to say, while on Old Times Sake we find Eminem and Dr. Dre rapping about... practically nothing) and the "Relapse" concept that the album tries to execute seems too contrived and the album fails because of that.

I'm a big fan of the MMLP, the better tracks of the SSLP and The Eminem Show, and Like Toy Soldiers and Mockingbird from Eminem's worst album, Encore, and as I said, Beautiful, though.

Offline minor9th

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 686
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #2 on: July 13, 2009, 09:49:55 PM
How anyone who purports to like classical music can tolerate even one second of that repetitive, misogynistic garbage is beyond me.  ::)

Offline ahinton

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12144
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #3 on: July 13, 2009, 10:39:17 PM
No, I have not heard it, but it occurs to me at this point that it might be time for our Thal to experience one...

Best,

Alistair
Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

Offline weissenberg2

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 579
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #4 on: July 13, 2009, 10:41:27 PM
No, I have not heard it, but it occurs to me at this point that it might be time for our Thal to experience one...

Best,

Alistair

Ya, you seem like more of a 'Lil Wayne kinda guy. Right?
"A true friend is one who likes you despite your achievements." - Arnold Bennett

Offline ahinton

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12144
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #5 on: July 13, 2009, 10:47:49 PM
Ya, you seem like more of a 'Lil Wayne kinda guy. Right?
I have no idea, but I rather doubt it...

Best,

Alistair
Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #6 on: July 14, 2009, 11:42:17 AM
Quote
How anyone who purports to like classical music can tolerate even one second of that repetitive, misogynistic garbage is beyond me.  Roll Eyes

Well, at least I said that Relapse sucks except one song ;) However I enjoy classical music and play the piano on an advanced level, have studied composition and whatnot, but I still enjoy Eminem. It's mostly his lyricism, his excellent use of timing and rythm, and his mindbending rhyming schemes that draw me in. We are of course talking about early Eminem, he stopped trying on Encore and Relapse is a little better but it still sucks.

Listen to "Stan" by Eminem. That is some pure poetry right there.
[/youtube]

Offline minor9th

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 686
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #7 on: July 14, 2009, 09:59:15 PM
This thug literally makes me ill.

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #8 on: July 14, 2009, 10:42:36 PM
Quote
This thug literally makes me ill.

Oh, how come? :] (I make the assumption that your statement comes from listening to the song)

Offline eminemvsrach

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 93
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #9 on: July 19, 2009, 07:29:24 PM
Well, at least I said that Relapse sucks except one song ;)


Which song are you talking about?
"Music is Enough for a Lifetime, but a Lifetime is never enough for music."

                              ---Sergei Rachmaninoff

Offline ahbach

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 73
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #10 on: July 19, 2009, 07:37:01 PM
Quote
How anyone who purports to like classical music can tolerate even one second of that repetitive, misogynistic garbage is beyond me

I agree....that style of music I find to be most annoying....and not enjoyable.

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #11 on: July 21, 2009, 11:56:36 AM
Quote
Which song are you talking about?

Beautiful, it feels so honest and nothing feels contrived with it. I mean, sure, he is honest about his drug addiction and whatnot, but he adds that accent to simulate that he is mad and blabla and it doesn't work:
Quote
The only song where Eminem really has something concrete and honest to say, that he feels that he might be done with rap, that he is feeling that he is loosing his sense of humor and doesn't want to be famous anymore, is Beautiful, and Beautiful is the only truly beautiful moment on this CD, and I love that track.


Quote
I agree....that style of music I find to be most annoying....and not enjoyable.

Wierd, and none of you can explain why :) listen to the "Stan" video I posted higher up in the thread dammit!

Online perfect_pitch

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 8494
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #12 on: July 21, 2009, 01:31:54 PM
I'm trying to learn Petrouchka and Brahms Paganini Variations for an exam next year, and have loved classical music since I was 9 years of age...

And I DO enjoy listening to the music of Eminem...

In an effort to justify why some people may not like him - songs like The Real Slim Shady, Without Me, We made you - songs like that are sort of parody songs where Eminem does take the mickey out of a lot of people, his life and his instant success and some of it does sound cynical and like petty bickering... (however I still love these songs)

But a lot of his other songs like Stan (the one above which I do enjoy), The Way I am, Cleaning out my closet are his way of expressing the unfortunate sh*t that has gone wrong in his life, his horrid childhood... They are no way a different form of expression than Opera was to Mozart!

Offline minor9th

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 686
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #13 on: July 21, 2009, 03:50:50 PM
Wierd, and none of you can explain why :) listen to the "Stan" video I posted higher up in the thread dammit!

I think the key words in my response explain it fully: repetitive, misogynistic, and garbage! I feel the same way about all rap, even if they aren't about cop killing, crack selling, or depicting perverted sexual practices. The incessant beat and avoidance of actual musicians is so inartistic to me. Plus, just because words rhyme does not make something a poem! (I'm an English teacher...) If you enjoy "music" that glorifies ignorance/violence/drugs/hatred, never changes the beat, and rarely uses actual musicians, then be my guest.

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #14 on: July 21, 2009, 05:04:48 PM
Quote
The incessant beat and avoidance of actual musicians is so inartistic to me. Plus, just because words rhyme does not make something a poem! (I'm an English teacher...)

You mean despite the fact that there are real world musicians performing the beat? It is not easy to craft a beat you know, there is all the difference in the world between a good producer and a bad producer.
No, not because the words rhyme (though the rythmic timing, rhyming, wordsmithing in general require a LOT of talent to be on Eminems level, he is in fact one of the best MCs to have recieved mainstream attention) but because of the way the song works.

I have heard "Stan" be compared to Rimbaud’s ‘Le Dormeur du Val’.


For example, the song begins normally, with a fan called "Stan" writing to Eminem, sharing his pains and sorrows, tells Eminem that his girlfriend is pregnant. But Eminem never answers, and as the song progresses with each letter (verse) we gradually begin to understand that Stan is sick, and his fandom becomes more and more obsessional ("I even got a tattoo of your name across the chest"). He cuts himself because he takes the words in Eminems songs so seriously ("Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds/It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me/See everything you say is real, and I respect you cause you tell it"), he stops caring about his girlfriend and ends up saying "P.S. I think we should be together too". Eminem still doesn't reply.
Stans last message to Eminem, recorded on tape as he sits in his car, is the message of a broken, almost mad person.

That's kinda how this is, you coulda rescued me from drowning
Now it's too late - I'm on a 1000 downers now, I'm drowsy
And all I wanted was a lousy letter or a call
I hope you know I ripped +ALL+ of your pictures off the wall
I love you Slim, we coulda been together, think about it
You ruined it now, I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it
And when you dream I hope you can't sleep and you SCREAM about it
I hope your conscience EATS AT YOU and you can't BREATHE without me


The last picture is terrifying, Stan driving his car off a bridge, with his pregnant girlfriend tied up in the trunk.

The song ends with a verse of Eminem writing back, but suddenly realises that he is too late, and that he saw Stans death on the news a couple of weeks ago.

the message of the song is clear, the scary power of fame and that fans should not take Eminems words litterally. It becomes clear that Eminem meant to write back, but that he just haven't found the time.
If you think he is a violent mysogynist, consider that it is Stan and not Eminem who ties up his girlfriend. Eminem tells Stan to treat his girfriend better (“I really think you and you girlfriend need each other/Or maybe you just need to treat her better”). And he never encourages him to act foolishly (”I’m glad I inspire you, but Stan why are you so mad, try to understand that I want you as a fan. I just don’t want you to do some crazy sh*t.”)

Quote
I'm an English teacher...

Try reading "Stan" as a poem https://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/eminem_lyrics_107/the_best_of_lyrics_518/stan_lyrics_5999.html



lol I am feeling that I am becoming more and more like Stan in this conversation  ::) ::)

Offline eminemvsrach

  • PS Silver Member
  • Jr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 93
Re: Has anyone heard "Relapse"?
Reply #15 on: July 23, 2009, 04:34:14 AM
lol then I guess no one here is wanting to hear relapse 2.
"Music is Enough for a Lifetime, but a Lifetime is never enough for music."

                              ---Sergei Rachmaninoff
For more information about this topic, click search below!
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert