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Entertainment Weekly

Thankfully, producer Dr. Dre is there to temper the lyrical bloodletting, laying heavyweight hooks over even the most scabrous tales of family disturbia, and setting 'Bagpipes From Baghdad,' Em's inspired riff on rumored ex Mariah Carey, to snake-charming woodwind squiggles.

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Rolling Stone

By letting Dr. Dre take over the low-end-funk production, and rhyming about things he actually cares about, he comes up with a more painful, honest and vital record than anyone could have expected at this late date, up there with "The Eminem Show" or maybe even better.

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All Music Guide

His flow is so good, his wordplay so sharp, it seems churlish to wish that he addressed something than his long-standing obsessions and demons.

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NOW Magazine

If you’re able to tolerate the graphic descriptions of rape, incest, drug abuse, dismemberment and felching (Google it), the reward is an incredible amount of introspection, and top-shelf production by Dr. Dre throughout adds to the replayability factor.

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Urb

We know everything about Marshall Mathers...and on Relapse, he leaves Marshall behind. Instead, he embodies characters that we know aren't him, but allow him to re-channel the shock-and-awe rebellion (and skill) that made him great in the first place.

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RapReviews.com

His original army of fans, however, will surely enjoy most of the elements of Relapse and it certainly sets up the sequel nicely--though it might be wise to include a few more crossover hits on the second installment, you know, for everyone else.

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Vibe

When Relapse ditches Eminem the craaaazzzyyy white rapper, in favor of a maniacal narrator obsessed with graphic rape and violence (subjects much more in line with hip hop’s forgotten horror-core subgenre than anything to do with being a superstar rapper in 2009), Em works wonders with words, expanding the boundaries of the art of rap itself.

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MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Eminem settles for sensationalism straight up, and, worse still, makes you wonder whether he ever truly knew the difference.

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Dot Music

While Relapse is a slightly more energised record than the listless "Encore" (despite a Dr Dre production that is, for the most part, tired and dated), it's hardly the comeback many hoped for.

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Los Angeles Times

It's an impressively focused and clever work. But this music is not transcendent. It's still stuck in Marshall Mathers' muck, his fundamental mistrust of pleasure and love.

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The Guardian

The music tends towards the functional rather than the fantastic: the idea is clearly to focus attention on the star rather than the beats, which seems fair enough, given the moments on Relapse when you're dazzled anew by Eminen, by the acuteness of his imagery and the relentlessness of his panic-stricken flow.

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Drowned In Sound

The question remains unanswered, because while it was, undeniably, dull without him, Relapse is less 12 steps than a stumbling one backwards.

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Boston Globe

Relapse, flooded with more Dr. Dre beats than any other Eminem album, is easily better than "Encore" but nowhere close to his first three albums, because he doesn't try anything particularly different.

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Prefix Magazine

The production is ultra-clean and the lyrics are delivered with a precision that is not to be scoffed at. But mostly what lasts is the self-pity and anger, which is at least enough to warrant our attention.

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No Ripcord

Now he's making albums about recovering from addiction, sounding worn out and uninspired. Dude needs to find a muse or something.

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musicOMH.com

He infuses Relapse with occasional sparks, but fails to transcend the same tired themes--except, of course, when he becomes Marshall Mathers, the Recovering Drug Addict.

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Slant Magazine

The further Relapse strays from narrative veracity, the more one suspects his fanbase feels he's tapping into his bottomless well for horror-show grandstanding.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Unfortunately, the goodwill that Eminem builds up with these engrossing and macabre Mathers family confessions are too often torn down by his tedious turns as a goofy court jester.

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New Musical Express

The overriding feel is of an album just too jaded, too joyless to truly count as a return to form.

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Billboard

Now in his 30s, he doesn't surf the beat so much as box with it, with both brutality and no small degree of grace. That a rapper of this much verbal gymnastic ability is still making Perez Hilton cracks is too bad, but the bigger problem is that Eminem's recipe of gore and gay jokes sounds like the past.

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Pitchfork

Relapse can be an intermittently thrilling sonic experience until you realize everything sounds like a variation of 'What's the Difference,' 'If I Can't,' or even fucking '30 Something.'

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

It’s less a relapse than a rehash, less a comeback album than the kind of album artists need to come back from.

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Spin

Relapse is really just another overlong summer blockbuster. We sit through it, then go look at pictures of kittens on the Internet, and wait until our souls snap back into place.

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Hartford Courant

Only one or two of these 15 songs (there are also five skits on the 20-track album) features the dazzling wordplay and unparalleled lyrical flow that made Marshall Mathers one of the biggest names in rap.

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PopMatters

Relapse is not only a half-baked rerun; it’s only half of a half-baked rerun.

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Sputnikmusic

I suppose you could say that’s what wrong with Relapse, it is almost completely non-sequitor, with no real lyrical substance until the last half of the album....Relapse sucks.

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cokemachineglow

There was a time when he did these things for our id, for our deeply rooted disgust at our own celebrity culture and so at ourselves. But here he’s not standing in for anyone, working himself into a feverish sweat solely for his own satisfaction.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 204 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

nandish h gave it a9:
Relapse may not be Shady's best album, but by far definitely in his Top 3. All songs except Hello, Must Be The Ganja, Underground, Insane were awesome (my personal opinion). Same Song & Dance & Beautiful & Bagpipes From Baghdad were probably the Top 3 songs off the album. Relapse was kinda way too much on the "Relapse" side, Em should have had a majority of non-relapse/medical issue related songs. However the album, in my view deserves a 8.7/10 rating. Em might have been trying to save the best songs for "Relapse 2" - hope R2's a double-album. Relapse did not showcase Eminem's lyrical talent to the fullest. But no doubt, its one of the albums of the year. Metacritic was harsh on Em, but in rating of music albums - with its variety of genres- it is unfair to have a record rated by a single person. The rating committee should comprise of a majority of music critics of the genre of the album and maybe 30% of people form other closely related genres. This will achieve a more accurate and just rating.

James V gave it a7:
With Eminem gone from the game for 5 years, and with all the personal events that have happened in his life, I expected a more personal album addressing more serious issues. Instead, there are only 2 serious songs on this record. 'Beatiful" and 'De Ja Vu' are the only meaningful songs, and they are both great tunes. The rest of the album is filled with jokes and sick humor. The accent he uses on every song except 3 is terrible, bringing songs like 'Bagpipes' from possibly enjoyable tunes, to barely listenable. From a hip hop perspective, Em still has it. His rhymes are very well crafted, he has good wordplay and some good lines on this album. But the retarded voice he chooses to use wrecks the record. There are a few really good songs, a few boring ones, and a few unlistenable ones. Maybe Relapse 2 will have more serious songs, and that's his idea, but if not I would've put at least a few more meaningful tunes on #1. Eminem still has it, but he didn't bring it on this album. At least he didn't bring everything we know he is capable of bringing.

Chris gave it a10:
Eminem comes in 2009 to make things better in hip hop and he's coming with a great album.he begins with his bloody "3 a.m." and continues with the songs "My Mom" and "Insane" which he blames his mothers for for his recent drug abuse and tells us in a genius way about his problems with his stepfather.The lbums has a lot of songs that he explains us what he went through during his addiction with drugs.He is more honest that anyone would expected.The songs "Deja Vu", "Beautiful" and "Underground" are (for me) masterpieces!!His intelligence and his skills can be seen in these songs.Surely better than Encore, Relapse is an awesome work from Eminem and is sure that fans are going to love it!

Kgosi P. gave it a9:
Eminem,the rhyme king of all time.big up to that flow you produced in this album!

D.Tail gave it a10:
F*cking brilliant album and a serious comeback...Next one lose the accent tho slim.

Jimmy B gave it a6:
Average CD, I expected a lot more out of Em. I would agree this is better than Encore, but Encore was garbage so that is not saying much. The stupid accent and the high pitched voice kills Dre's beats. There are a few good tracks, but over all very disappointing. I really wanted to like this album, but some of the stupid, forced shock value seemed like a desperate to bring back his old sound.

Jordan A gave it a10:
Ok, any rating below an 8 is absolutely ridiculous. The album is great! Very creative. The lyrics are amazing. Every song has a meaning and tells a story. The album puts you in the shoes of the one and only Marshall Mathers. We get his point of view of what he was going through over the past couple of years. The critics need to stop expecting him to put out the "Greatest Album of All-Time". Lower your expectations for goodness sake. He's not Einstien. What he is though, is the Greatest Rapper of all-time and he is back and will be at the top of hip-hop once again.

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