Dec 18, 2020 Hi. It's me. What a time we are in, stans. For perspective: think how ~~labored Em albums used to be. From Recovery to MMLP2 - three years. Then a huge drought, four years for.... Revival. In hindsight you can see how adrift, and unfocused the guy was. Like from Recovery to Kamikaze has some ~OK material, but nothing like this output. From 2018, after the Chloraseptic remix or whatever has really been a second (or third) kind of Golden Age to be an Em fan. Which leads me to Side B. The capstone on this period of productivity, the emergence of a looser, somewhat more musical and effortless, more confident and funny Em. Some of you are just completing your first listen - for others, you're already giving it multiple spins. (Shady Records people, if you're reading this, hire me. You won't find a more charitable writer who isn't an utter hack, tbh.) How would you rank it? vote away!
Dec 18, 2020 B-/C+ range. I still find this stuff to be scattershot and inconsistent, often juvenile and obsessed with ideas he should have moved past years ago. But I agree on your point - he at least feels like he is having fun now, less fixated on his towering legacy and what we want to hear, and more focused on just making music that interests him. So while this (and its predecessor) really isn't for me and I don't expect I'll be playing it much, it does seem like the type of music Eminem "should" be making 20 years in. Not vital, but with much more purpose than, say, Revival
Dec 18, 2020 B- but I need to play it a few more times. Don't think It will ever go higher than B for me
Dec 18, 2020 yeah there's still this lingering sense of roteness or something. i dont mind the 'punchlines' necessarily or how utterly generic some of the records become (skylar grey intro? a decade after LTWYL?) .... but its all camouflaged in his passion for the artform, the fun rap nerdiness of the proceedings and goings on, that i think it ~works far better than some previous endeavors. in other words i think the juvevile stuff almost is forgivable imo bc its packaged with this notion of what He thinks a rude throwback emcee should sound like. something kind of workmanlike about it that i appreciate
Dec 18, 2020 Right now, somewhere between a 5 and a 6, since I prefer Kamikaze and MTBMB and a gave those a 6.
Dec 18, 2020 I'm mostly in the same boat as Swizz—like with side A this is probably something I'll give a handful of listens the first couple weeks then won't really revisit much, but even as someone who doesn't really listen to Em like that anymore it's nice to hear him make something that actually feels like an Eminem album. With a few exceptions, everything from recovery thru revival just feels so robotic, soulless, and/or tryhard. Stuff like the closing track truly captures the magic of a prime eminem song which imo is something he hadn't really done since relapse until these two albums. I've only listened once but if the worst offenders on here are more of those copy and paste relationship songs—that's not bad! There's no Stepdad on here lol. I think Side A is a C+, which would make this a B-.
Dec 18, 2020 A+ for me. Gotta say I don't think the original MTBMB album grown on me that much so quick.
Dec 18, 2020 That's a A. Production (by Em on most of it...), flows, hooks... The only thing you can say is there's not enough lyrics. But for me it's top tier Em's albums.
Dec 18, 2020 Voted A- just falls short of the classics it’s still very early so my opinion could change
Dec 18, 2020 Premonition > MTBMB SB. Side B is full of bars, some of the greatest, but it also has a lot of love/relationship type songs that Ive moved past after Recovery. Wasn't a fan of the beat on Higher. Killer beat is sick but unsure of the content. I think every song has its ups and downs, there's wasn't a single 10/10 on there .Gnat and Zues was great though 9/10.
Dec 18, 2020 Gave it 5 listens so far and just cant get into it. I'll play it again later but doubt it will change my grade. F
