Eminem – Recovery

It's sad what a few years of personal problems and patchy albums have done for Marshall Mathers, alias Eminem, a guy who once turned out some of the most skilled and irreverent rhymes in hip-hop, but now looks strangely out of touch.

Recovery though, is anything but the Detroit rapster's blazing return to form. It's certainly intense, as Mathers tries to make amends with some dazzlingly intricate wordplay (Cinderella Man, 25 To Life), but musically the album is characterised by dubious production choices, cringeworthy hooks, a complete lack of humour, and some genuinely bad songs (Space Bound, W.T.P, Not Afraid, Going Through Changes, etc.).

Worse still is Mathers' hapless singing, which marrs every other song here, and the coarse hollering which now constitutes his rapping style. Spend an hour with Recovery and you'll soon be pining for his laid-back delivery of yore. Take a trip back to The Slim Shady LP, there's little sustenance here. [Martin Skivington]