Eminem — Revival

In the last days of 2017, Eminem drops his studio album number nine. The guests are Beyoncé, Pink, Skylar Grey, Alicia Keys, X Ambassadors, Kelhani, Phresher and Ed Sheeran. The music is provided by Rick Rubin, Skylar Grey, Eminem, Luis Resto, Mr. Porter, Mark Batson, Emile Haynie, Dr. Dre, Feemster, Lawrence Jr., Frequency, Aalias, Just Blaze, Alex da Kid, Fredwreck, Rock Mafia, Hit-Boy, Illa da Producer, Scram Jones and DJ Khalil.

Recorded over a year after Trump's first presidency, the album finds Mathers tackling personal and political issues alongside major pop stars over a production that's very close to rock and a terrifying mix. He completely forgoes hip-hop and refuses to rap for most of these eighty minutes, preferring instead to sing his own lyrics. A horrible choice, but one that was rewarded by the public: the album hit number one in his home country, Canada, Australia, and half of Europe, and was one of the year's best-selling albums in Canada and Switzerland, certified platinum on three continents, including in the US several years after its release.

The album's release is promoted by an embarrassing advertising campaign and an even more embarrassing cover. Two days before the release date, the disk was leaked online. Four singles were taken from the LP. The first is "Walk on Water", the opening track of the whole album, where Beyoncé opens the CD over a light production, then Eminem delivers originally speaking, then singing. The hit is considered to be one of the best songs in the rapper's history (like all the others, for that matter) and flies to first place in Israel, struggling in the rest of the world, even in the US it doesn't enter the top ten of the Hot 100 and doesn't get higher than number six among rap singles. It's a pretty disappointing commercial result for an Eminem single featuring Beyoncé.

The second single is "River": Mathers enlists Ed Sheeran, hook of Sheeran, then semi-hardcore rapping delivery by Eminem, light pop simplistic production, there's something wrong here. The commercial power of the guest makes the single fly in the European markets, reaching the top of the charts in Austria, Norway, Sweden, UK (and Scotland), stopping shortly before in Australia, Canada and half Europe, but continuing to struggle terribly at home, where it fails to enter the top ten of the Hot 100 again, and doesn't go higher than fifth place among rap singles, is certified worldwide but not in US by the RIAA. "Nowhere Fast" is the third single, Em delivers throttling his own flow in a song with Kehlani that is totally ignored by crowds, one of the rare singles of the whole career of Mathers to not enter the Billboard charts. The last single is "Remind Me", another flop.

Eminem intended the album to be a rebirth for himself and, with the election of the new President Donald Trump — a friend of the rapper's, who has previously collaborated with him and supported the controversial Slim Shady character — also a long-awaited rebirth for America itself, but instead it turns out to be a disaster on all fronts. He created an album in which he sings cheerfully and happily throughout, wanting to completely abandon the rap industry that has given him so much and taken away even more.

Musically, there are about twenty people behind the keyboards; Eminem is everywhere, Rick Rubin handles a fifth of the beats, and names like Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Hit-Boy, and Scram Jones pop up. The music twirls and dances between watered-down pop and watered-down rock, with several soulful interludes and riffs on other tracks. There's also a touch of trap, heavy beats to express hardcore, attempts at an epic beat, and alternative, light-hearted rhythms. On this type of production, Eminem creates the entire album singing and rarely rapping, alternating between more relaxed moments and others where he unleashes an aggressive style ("Remind Me"), variegated ("Framed"), and strangled ("Nowhere Fast"), often leaning into spoken word when he no longer feels like singing.

The disk is released by Shady Records, Aftermath and Interscope. It's a delusional album, for all. It's panned by critics, and The A.V. Club called it one of the worst works of the season, especially noting the "F" rating of Consequence. For fans, the author betrays hip-hop and for a reason that no one understands, he starts making a pop album mixed with rock, calling upon the biggest stars of the music industry to join them in a squalid orgy that seems to never end. To the casual listener, the guy has totally forgotten how to make music, and it shows here all the time.

By a wide margin the worst album of Eminem's recording career and one of the worst of the entire decade in rap.

Rating: 1.5/10.