Encore? Isn't it time that Eminem gave us something new? Obviously the Slim Shady doesn't think so, since his latest offering is really just a rehash of everything he's done before - slagging off his mother, slagging off his ex-wife and, er, slagging off his hip-hop rivals. Which is not to say that Encore is a bad album. The crude vitriol is as bracing as ever, the rhymes are marvellously inventive and the anti-Bush diatribe 'Mosh' is one of the best songs he's ever written. The big disappointment is the lacklustre production of Dr Dre, whose static backing tracks suggest that he's fallen asleep at the controls. Maybe he's not the only one - Eminem is still the smartest rapper on the block, but he badly needs to find some new targets to keep himself sharp. On this so-so effort, he's really only treading water.
