Eminem

There's something about listening to an Eminem album that's like watching an overpaid, showboating athlete -- even though his antics make you cringe, his talent is so undeniable that you can't help but cheer every slam dunk and circus catch. On Encore, Em does way more than his fair share of irritating endzone dances, and at times it's clear that he's just coasting on his freestyling abilities rather than bothering to compose smart lyrics. But despite all that, this is still one of the year's best hip-hop albums. As he boasts on "Big Weenie" to all the other pretenders to the rap throne, "You're just jealous of me, cuz you/You can't do what I do."

What Eminem does, as most of the planet knows by now, is spit dazzlingly intricate rhymes with stream-of-consciousness abandon, stringing together boasts, jokes, disses, confessions and social commentary by turns scathing and silly. Even at his most infantile, as on the one-joke "My First Single," his flow is still mind-boggling, and amid all the belching sound effects and gratuitous obscenities he tucks away marvels of wordplay like, "Hickory dickory durk/Look at me work/Wizardry with these words/Am I a jerk?/Or just jerk chicken/Jerkin' your chain/Two jerks in a jerk circle/Or is it a circle jerk?"

Granted, there are the usual missteps: dark humor that crosses the line (calling out Christopher Reeve on "Rain Man" being the most obvious example), yet another kiss-off to ex-wife Kim (the truly unnecessary "Puke"), a subpar D12 showcase ("One Shot 2 Shot"). And there are no true knockout punches like "Cleanin' Out My Closet" or "Stan." Em is more interested in self-parody here than he is in self-examination -- though as he himself points out on "Evil Deeds," he's gotten so huge now that it's hard to take his forays into grief and self-doubt very seriously.

But forget what Encore isn't and enjoy what it is -- another entertaining, offensive and funny high-wire act from the most original voice in hip-hop, bolstered by some of Eminem and Dr. Dre's best production work to date. - Andy Hermann

Eminem took a hiatus after the release of his first motion picture, 8 Mile, in late 2002, but it never seemed like he went away. Part of that is the nature of celebrity culture, where every star cycles through gossip columns regardless of whether they have a project in the stores or theaters, and part of it is that Marshall Mathers kept busy, producing records by his protégés D12, Obie Trice, and 50 Cent -- all hit albums -- with the latter turning into the biggest new hip-hop star of 2003. All this activity tended to obscure the fact that Eminem hadn't released a full-length album of new material since The Eminem Show in early summer 2002, and that two and a half years separated that album and its highly anticipated sequel, Encore. As the title suggests, Encore is a companion piece to The Eminem Show the way that The Marshall Mathers LP mirrored The Slim Shady LP, offering a different spin on familiar subjects. Where his first two records dealt primarily with personas and characters, his second two records deal with what those personas have wrought, which tends to be intrinsically less interesting than the characters themselves, since it's dissecting the aftermath instead of causing the drama. On The Eminem Show that kind of self-analysis was perfectly acceptable, since Eminem was on the top of his game as both a lyricist and rapper; his insights were vibrant and his music was urgent. Musically, Show didn't innovate, but it didn't need to: Eminem and his mentor, Dr. Dre, had achieved cruising altitude, and even if they weren't offering much that was new, the music sounded fresh and alive. Here, the music is spartan, built on simple unadorned beats and keyboard loops. Some songs use this sound to its advantage and a few others break free -- "Yellow Brick Road" is a tense, cinematic production, yet it fits the subject matter. Eminem has decided to chronicle what's happened to him over the past two years and refute every charge that's made it into the papers. This is quite a bit different than his earlier albums, when he embellished and exaggerated his life, when his relationship with his estranged wife Kim turned into an outlaw ballad, when his frenetic insults, cheap shots, and celeb baiting had a surreal, hilarious impact. Here, Eminem is plain-spoken and literal, intent on refuting every critic from Benzino at The Source to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who gets an entire song ("Ass Like That") devoted to him. While the album is a little long, it's worth a listen to hear the moments that work really well, whether it's full songs or flights of phrase. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide