audio review : Curtain Call 2 ( album ) … Eminem

audio review : Curtain Call 2 ( album ) ... Eminem

Eminem should’ve come up with a different title. Curtain Call made conceptual sense coming after the Encore album. This new one, based on the cover artwork, attempts to merge the concert/stage theme with, of all random things, a pinball game.

Musically it covers every Eminem album since that first Hits compilation, which, since he’s made one good album in all that time; one man’s “trash” is another man’s treasure; results in a lackluster affair. Even his raps have gotten corny and verbose.

“Oh,” he mocks on Rap God, “he’s too mainstream.” It’s kind of true though. His first two LPs were fun, edgy and provocative. Relapse was a gratifying throwback. Imagine a cringey Ed Sheeran, Rihanna or Beyoncé chorus on one of those albums.

my rating : 3 of 5

2022

audio review : Curtain Call [ The Hits ] ( album ) … Eminem

“Hi” was his formal introduction to the world; “My name is Slim Shady.” Almost seven years later, after becoming the most famous rapper ever, Eminem returns to the stage for a Curtain Call. It’s a compilation of his most popular songs; The Hits; plus a few new ones.

Fack, an odd start, finds him shoving a gerbil in his ass. “This don’t mean I’m gay,” he declares, “I don’t like men.” It’s a silly song that has the rapper, a genius during his Shady LP debut, squirting a wad of babble. That’s the problem with too much of his recent stuff.

His rap skills have steadily declined; a fact that would standout like a thumb sore from holding the mic too long if these songs were ordered chronologically. Then there’s the problem an Eminem Hits album was bound to create; that most of his best songs aren’t hits at all.

Guilty Conscious and Stan; a studio version featuring Elton John singing and playing the piano like he does on the Live one would be epic; represent Eminem at his best, but they’re here amongst a bunch of corny chart-toppers like Without Me and Mockingbird.

my rating : 3 of 5

2005

audio review : Curtain Call 2 ( album ) … Eminem

video review : The Pepsi Super Bowl 56 Halftime Show

video review : The Pepsi Super Bowl 56 Halftime Show

Snoop Dogg is the highlight here and that’s not a weed pun. In a Halftime Show full of stilted performances; Mary J Blige, who isn’t a protégé of Dr Dre and shouldn’t have been included, goes way over the top; he easily comes across as the most authentic and likeable. Watching him Crip walk to California Love, you’d think he was entertaining guests at a backyard barbeque; not on stage in front of the biggest viewing audience in America.

50 Cent is comparatively stiff, but he at least has sexy groupies In Da Club with him. The logic of giving three fat chicks a stage to themselves is lost on me. Not that the show, which is a bit of a mess, makes a lot of sense in the first place. Eminem is big enough to headline The Super Bowl on his own. His appearance here to perform his most obvious hit comes across as both anticlimactic and corny. Still he’s not as annoying as Kendrick Lamar. Few rappers are.

my rating : 2 of 5