Today, my Mum came back from Tesco with Eminem's latest album - Recovery, which saved me having to think about what I was going to listen to today.First thing I noticed: there's a much more serious feel to this than his early work, nay all his previous work. There's nothing as light-hearted as My Name Is, Without Me or We Made You to be found, and no comedy skits or public service announcements. The random celebrity references still raise a smile, but they're thrown in amongst a darker collection of tracks.
Not that this is a bad thing, if anything I welcome the way the heightened themes of regret, hope and determination result in a more sombre, yet still uplifting feel, particularly in Love The Way You Lie and my personal favourite Space Bound - both have quite fantastic choruses to complement the naturally brilliant lyricism of the verses.
One of the best things about the album is the variety amongst the samples and collaborating artists that appear on it. Most of them work - the Black Sabbath reference on Going Through Changes especially, and even the Pink collaboration is allright.
Just to keep things fair and balanced, I must admit that not every song is a standout (so it's not quite worth a perfect score), but a hell of a lot of them are.
4.5/5 - Probably won't yield as many hits as his previous work, but as an album I loved (almost) every minute of it.
