Curtain Call: The Hits [Clean] [Edited]

Performer: Eminem
Engineer: Tony Campana; Mauricio Iragorri; Steve Baughman; Steven King
Producer: Eminem; Mike Elizondo; Jules Bass; The 45 King & Louie; Jeff Bass; Luis Resto; Eminem; Dr. Dre; The 45 King; Mel-Man; Mike Elizondo
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Eminem (drum programming); Eminem (rap vocals); Dido, Elton John (vocals); Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg (rap vocals); Jules Bass, Jeff Bass, Mike Elizondo (guitar, keyboards); Steven King (guitar); Luis Resto (keyboards, programming); Mark Batson, Tom Coster, Jr. (keyboards). Audio Mixers: Eminem; Steven King. Recording information: 54 Sound Studio, Detroit, MI; Marshall's House, Detroit, MI; TransContinental Studios, Orlando, FL. Photographers: Karin Catt; Anthony Mandler; Jonathan Mannion; Nitin Vadukul. It's hard to believe, given his gargantuan impact on popular culture, that Eminem had only released four full-length albums by 2004. That year's ENCORE showed the rapper's artistic vitality fading just a bit, but 2005's CURTAIN CALL, an overdue greatest-hits collection, helps remind audiences that Eminem produced a stunning string of singles in a short span of time. Naturally, CURTAIN CALL eschews the artist's most controversial material ("'97 Bonnie and Clyde," for example, from THE SLIM SHADY LP), focusing instead on his highest charters, like 8 MILE's "Lose Yourself" and introspective confessionals like "Cleanin' Out My Closet" (a rant against his mother) and "Mockingbird" (a tribute to his daughter). But even at his most sentimental and dramatic, Eminem displays a level of artistry that surpasses nearly anyone in hip-hop, if not pop music in general. Satirical, vicious, funny, and energizing, Eminem's material is never less than absorbing. CURTAIN CALL is packed wall-to-wall with winners (except maybe "Sing For the Moment," which reworks Aerosmith's "Dream On" in tiresome fashion), and at its most brilliant (like the self-reflexive romps "The Real Slim Shady" and "Stan") it's as era-defining as anything by N.W.A, Public Enemy, or even Bob Dylan. Though his individual albums are all pretty essential, CURTAIN CALL provides a valuable overview of an artist whose skills are unassailable, and whose role as a social gadfly remains as complex as ever. If Eminem's Curtain Call: The Hits really is his final bow and not merely a clever denouement to his series of Eminem Show and Encore albums, it's a worthy way to retire. And even if he stages a comeback years from now, there's little question that the first five years of his career, spanning four albums plus a soundtrack, will be his popular and creative peak, meaning that the time is right for Curtain Call -- it has all the songs upon which his legend lies. Which isn't necessarily the same things as all the hits. There are a few odds and ends missing -- most notably one of his first hip-hop hits, "Just Don't Give a Fuck," plus 2003's "Superman" and 2005's "Ass Like That" -- but all the big songs are here: "Guilty Conscience," "My Name Is," "Stan," "The Real Slim Shady," "The Way I Am," "Cleanin' Out My Closet," "Lose Yourself," "Without Me," and "Just Lose It." They're not presented in chronological order, which by and large isn't a problem, since the sequencing here not only has a good, logical momentum, alternating between faster and slower tracks, but they're all part of a body of work that's one of the liveliest, most inventive in pop music in the 21st century. The only exception to the rule are the three new songs here, all finding Shady sounding somewhat thin. There's the closing "When I'm Gone," a sentimental chapter in Eminem domestic psychodrama that bears the unmistakable suggestion that Em is going away for a while. While it's not up to the standard of "Mockingbird," it is more fully realized than the two other new cuts here, both sex songs that find Shady sounding as if he's drifting along in his own orbit. "Shake That" has an incongruous Nate Dogg crooning the chorus, while the wildly weird "Fack" finds Eminem spending the entire track fighting off an orgasm; it seems tired, a little too close to vulgar Weird Al territory, and it doesn't help that his Jenna Jameson reference seems a little old (everybody knows that the busty porno "it" girl of 2005 is Jesse Jane; after all, she even was in Entourage). Even if these three cuts suggest why Eminem is, if not retiring, at least taking a long break, that's fine: they're reasonably good and are bolstered by the rest of the songs here, which don't just capture him at his best, but retain their energy, humor, weirdness, and vitality even after they've long become overly familiar. And that means Curtain Call isn't just a good way to bow out, it's a great greatest-hits album by any measure. [Curtain Call was also released in a "clean" edition containing no profanity.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Entertainment Weekly (p.81) - "This hits package captures the half-decade moment when the tortured Detroit MC ruled the zeitgeist with whip-smart gross-out humor and jolting family confessions." -- Grade: A- Uncut (p.86) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "CURTAIN CALL sizzles with profane pop genius..."

Turning the music world on its head, Eminem, the blond-haired rapper from Detroit, forced the hip-hop world to accept him as an equal. Despite lyrics full of anger, misogyny, violence, racism, and homophobia, Eminem has been a major commercial success since his debut in 1999, selling records as no black rapper with similar lyrical content ever could. Considered by many a "rapper's rapper," the Dr. Dre-sponsored Eminem has accomplished the seemingly impossible--platinum sales with street cred intact, largely due to his triplet-based rhyme meter and undeniable narrative skill.

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