Kamikaze, the new album he released by surprise on Friday, sounds like exertion: the turns of phrase are laboured, the double-time flow strained. The implication is that because Eminem knows how bad it was, and because he is willing to admit it, he is in a position to do better. Kamikaze does seem like the product of hard work, and it’s obvious that, for the first time perhaps in years, he cares. Rather it sounds like the distraught flailing of an artist too anxious and too self-doubting to be comfortable fading into obsolescence. That’s what Kamikaze really sounds like, more even than its indefatigable effort: desperate struggle, desperate strain.

Source: National Post September 06, 2018 10:52 UTC