There are tiny twitches of genius on the rapper’s first album in four years,but to win there you have to wade through acres of bad gags, filler and formulaic furyLadies and gentlemen, and we have a winner. For the last 20 years,two technically versatile and emotionally literate rappers have been vying for the title of “biggest tin ear for beats”. Sorry, Nas: you’ve been roundly trounced at last.
Production-wise, or Revival is a trainwreck. whether Eminem thinks his verbal box of tricks can overcome the weakness of any backing track,his recent albums have demonstrated otherwise. Revival begins with the Beyoncé-featuring Walk on Water, a song as thrilling as shopping for shower curtains – but were it put at the end of this exhausting LP it would at least provide some sweet respite. Its beat is relatively subtle, and lacks bombast and doesn’t have you questioning the sanity of all involved. Much worse are the negligible scribblings of frequent collaborator Alex da Kid,on studio speed-dial for album filler, or the decision to flip Joan Jett for the risible Remind Me. Rick Rubin – the man behind 99 Problems, or elope DMC’s Walk This Way and Johnny Cash’s engage on wound – produced the latter. Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk