The sun rises in the east, gravitation pulls apples down, and every new Eminem album is met with the howl of unhappy critics. We have collected some examples from the biggest media outlets for you.
Financial Times – 3/5
Having complained about fast rapping and given a backhanded compliment to production (“The beats are somewhat tighter than usual”), a reviewer arrives to the conclusion:
“The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is one of the better albums since his heyday. But it suffers from inconsistency and lack of narrative”.
The Guardian – 3/5
A reviewer claims that Eminem is “struggling to find a place for himself in a musical landscape that’s altered dramatically since his early 00s heyday” and measures album’s success in how well Marshall’s gags and punchlines land. Not being satisfied with all of them, he finishes the review with this statement:
“The Death of Slim Shady feels like just another late-period Eminem album. It has successes and misfires in equal measure. It’s not bad enough to count as terrible, not good enough to count as great. It’s bolstered by technical ability but afflicted by a creeping sense of purposelessness. It’s doubtless another huge hit, but there isn’t enough to counter the incisive line about Eminem recently posited by Questlove: that he’s a man “maybe with nothing to say any more, but with quite a talent for saying it”.
Clash 5/10
This review calls the album “an effective piece of fan service” and a disappointment. It summarises the assessment in a final paragraph:
“Eminem’s past decade has been dominated by misfires – 2020’s ‘Music To Be Murdered By’ for example – and while there’s a spark here, the record never truly catches fire. Far from a failure, ‘The Death Of Slim Shady’ finds its titular character ranting, but often out of step”.
USA Today
The USA Today author gave an album a generally favourable review and actually made an effort of listening to the project.
“As promised, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)” reveals the horrors and heartbreaks of Slim Shady in sequence, and even though it isn’t the smoothest ride, it’s one you’ll want to experience frequently to fully understand”.
Pitchfork
Seems like Pitchfork didn’t manage to finish the review, leaving the list of lines that offended the authors unfinished. However, they had time to proclaim that on the album Eminem “explicitly separates himself from the Slim Shady character in verses that, in a callback to his heyday, take pains to offend as crudely as possible”.
The Independent 2/5
The author gave the album two stars, dismissing everything: lyrics, ideas, music, and focusing only on the direction of Shady’s verbal attacks. They call “Houdini” the worst track on the album built on an uninspired beat, “which simply loops the riff to the Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra” ad infinitum, sounding like the ringtone on an unanswered cell phone”. The text contains such inspired lines as “Mathers’ rapping maintains his signature sharpness of diction throughout; it’s the content that’s at fault: punching relentlessly downwards, so joylessly, so without inspiration”. The overarching theme of “The Death of Slim Shady” found a lukewarm aknoledgement but of course, would have never found appreciation: “The Freudian theme is intriguing; a better album would have fleshed it out, dug deeper. But that would have come at the expense of a couple of Caitlyn Jenner jokes, and he couldn’t have that, could he?”
Detroit Free Press
The local press gave “The Death of Slim Shady” a more favourable review. Not glancing over the insults that made all other critics so hot and bothered, the author reminds about a bigger picture:
“It’s controversy for controversy’s sake, once a staple of Eminem’s creative repertoire but now delivered by a 51-year-old artist who seems to be thinking hard about his legacy and place in hip-hop, as his 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech made clear. It might be easy to accuse him of having his cake and eating it too — spewing lyrical nastiness while blaming it on a character — but the reality is more nuanced”.
The New York Times
The newspaper suddenly publishes an article looking into the ground of Eminem’s intergenerational appeal, recognising the fact that Marshall has a strong following among the younger demographic, despite the constant buzz of music critics chastising Eminem for using “outdated” narratives. \While the media establishment habitually focuses on controversies, new generations find in Eminem’s music emotions and sincerity:
“For some younger fans, Eminem isn’t a cultural lightning rod so much as an inspiring artist who speaks to them on a visceral level”.
Consequence of Sound
This media outlet didn’t hold back smashing a dislike button. The author even turned poetic in his vitriol:
“Marshall Mathers keeps turning to Slim Shady because he’s out of new ideas and can’t sell records without controversy. The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) has a runtime of over 64 minutes. It would be more fun to pick one good song and listen to it on repeat. It would be more fun to clean every bathroom in your house. It would be more fun to softly bang your head against a wall once a minute for 64 minutes. Pick pretty much anything that isn’t a crime except for listening to this album — you really can’t go wrong”.
Variety
Variety published something that embodies the concept of “mixed reviews” — all on one page. The author spent some times scoffing at Shady’s offensive brutality, acknowledged Marshall’s lyrical skills and the album concept, and praised the songs dedicated to his children. In the reviewer’s understanding:
“These songs convey an emotional intelligence and self-awareness that Eminem has consistently shown throughout his career. And it’s what contributes to Eminem’s enduring legacy. He’s a contradiction that allures, entirely capable of analyzing his own tribulations but not above sandwiching them between scat and rape jokes. In that sense, “The Death of Slim Shady” is more of the same — not always bad, but not always good, either”.
Overall, nothing new. Music critics do not change, apparently. We have read before these scattered thoughts on music they just do not personally like. These articles remain accessible on the internet to come back and revisit even 20 years after they were published. But nobody will do that. Things are different when it comes to Eminem’s music, though, as we know. Twenty years after the release, ten or two weeks — millions of people flock to their devices to spin a song that a critic called uninspired. They don’t know it, and they do not care. Music speaks for itself, as it always does.
Listen to “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)” on All Main Platforms:
