OT: The Music Thread: Part IX - RIP Kris Kristofferson

[Dennis Bonvie]

 

[EvilDead]

One of the most disjointed releases that was messed up from numerous leaks, Eminem's 2004 Encore album was the first misstep in his great music career. While the album wasn't as terrible as the man who raps and produced the majority of its songs says it is, it certainly was a step down given the hype for it after the critical success of the album that preceded it in The Eminem Show. One of the reasons why the album isn't as solid as it could be is due to leaks of songs that would've been on the record from the 2003 bootleg Straight From the Lab. Which caused Eminem to leave six of the seven songs that were on the bootleg off Encore and write entirely new material out of haste. Other reasons include the stress from the constant music leaks, the stress from endless touring and fame that he was getting less and less able to handle, stress from a heated public feud between Ja Rule and his friend 50 Cent which he got dragged into, and his personal life spiraling out of control with his ex wife among other things caused Eminem to get burnt out and cause him to get deeper into drug addiction. This led to some lackluster music being made that made its way onto this record which wouldn't have been on it had he not been in the clutches of addiction. That said, even with all of that, this album does have good music on it that, if you are a fan of rap and hip hop, especially in the 2000s, are very memorable and are still great to listen to. Mockingbird, Evil Deeds, Yellow Brick, Road, the title track, and Never Enough are, in my opinion, the best ones in the album with the bonus CD song We As Americans being an excellent song that was one of the songs leaked in the Straight From the Lab bootleg and still should have been on the record regardless of the leak. For the duds...oof...steer clear of Rain Man, Big Weenie, My First Single, and Mosh. All four songs were replacement tracks for after the 2003 bootleg, with the first three Eminem admitted wouldn't have been on the album if he was sober while Mosh has aged like milk placed on the radiator with the way it handles critiquing the 2004 election. Eminem has written better politically minded songs than this tripe. If you want to go back and give this troubled record a spin, do it for sure.

 

[Babajingo]

Whenever I hear this song and Jungleland and Incident on 57th St all I can think of is my girlfriend from Hoboken my freshmen year at UMaine. Good memories.

 

[hrdpuk]