Best Songs of 2009 – #7
Following 2004’s disappointing Encore, Eminem’s Relapse was a welcome return to form, sort of. Like most of his work, it is split about equally between the frivolous, the violently misogynistic and the powerfully personal. This time out, though, that formula felt a bit strained.
I found myself tempted to skip the “shocking” stuff (ok, ok, you cut off her head, next!) to get to the confessional material. Eminem is not going to grab headlines for being outrageous and controversial — not anymore — so he should settle down and craft an album that sounds, start to finish, like it was written by a grown-up.
‘Deja Vu,’ the best song on Relapse, is a perfect example of the sort of thing he can do. It’s an honest, sometimes darkly comic look at the descent into drug addiction that kept him out of the studio for five years and nearly killed him. He conveys the doubt, insecurity, pain and shame that accompanied his crisis and does it all in intricate rhyme.
I’m a prime candidate for the gene to receive the drug addict traits
Blood pressure climbs at a dramatic rate
I seem to gravitate to the bottle of Nyquil then I salivate
Start off with the Nyquil like I think I’ll just have a taste
Couple sips of that then I gradually graduate
To a harder prescription drug called Valium like ya that’s great
I go to take just one and I end up like having eight
Now I need something in my stomach cause I haven’t ate
Maybe I’ll grab a plate of nachos and I’ll have a steak
And you’d think with all I have at stake
Look at my daughters face…
“Mommy somethings is wrong with dad I think
He’s acting weird again he’s really beginning to scare me
Won’t shave his beard again and he pretends he doesn’t hear me
And all he does is eat Doritos and Cheetos
And he just fell asleep in his car eating three musketeers in the rear seat”
Sometimes I feel so alone, I just don’t know, feels like I been down this road before,
So lonely and cold, It’s like something takes over me, Soon as I go home and close the door,
Kinda feels like deja vu, I wanna get away from this place I do,
But I can’t and I won’t say I tried but I know that’s a lie cause I don’t
And why I just don’t know…
Maybe just a nice cold brew what’s a beer
That’s the devil in my ear, I been sober a fucking year
And that fucker still talks to me he is all I can fucking hear
Marshall come on we’ll watch the game it’s the Cowboys and Buccaneers
And maybe if I just drink half I’ll be half buzzed for half of the time
Who’s that mastermind behind that little line?
With that kind of rational, man, I got half a mind
To have another half of glass of wine, sounds asinine, yeah I know
But I never had no problem with alcohol
Ouch, look out for the wall aim for the couch I’m about to fall
I missed the couch and down I go looking like a bouncing ball
Shit must have knocked me out cause I ain’t feel the ground at all
Wow, what the fuck happened last night, where am I?
Man, fuck, am I hungover and god damn I got a head ache
Shit, half a Vicodin? why can’t I?
“All systems ready for take-off, please stand by”
Sometimes I feel so alone, I just don’t know, feels like I been down this road before,
So lonely and cold, It’s like something takes over me, Soon as I go home and close the door,
Kinda feels like deja vu, I wanna get away from this place I do,
But I can’t and I won’t say I tried but I know that’s a lie cause I don’t
And why I just don’t know…
So I take a Vicodin splash, it hits my stomach and ah
A couple weeks go by it ain’t even like I’m getting high
Now I need it just not to feel sick, ya I’m getting by
Wouldn’t even be taking this shit if Deshaun didn’t die
Oh yeah there’s an excuse, you lose Proof so you use
There’s new rules, it’s cool if it’s helping you to get through
It’s twelve noon, ain’t no harm in self inducing a snooze
What else is new? Fuck it, what would Elvis do in your shoes?
Now here I am 3 months later full blown relapse
Just get high until the kids get home from school, homes, relax
And since I’m convinced that I’m insomniac
I need these pills to be able to sleep so I take 3 naps
Just to be able to function throughout the day, let’s see
That’s an Ambien each nap, how many Valium? Three.
And that will average out to about one good hour’s sleep
OK, so now you see the reason how come he
Has taken 4 years just to put out an album beat
See me and you we almost had the same outcome, Heath
Cause that Christmas you know the pneumonia thing
It was bologna, was it the methadone ya think?
Or the hydrocodone you hide inside your pornos
Your VCR tape cases with your Ambien, great place to hide ain’t it
So you can lie to Halie I’m going beddy bye Whitney baby good night Elaina
Go in the room and shut the bedroom door and wake up in ambulance
They said they found me on the bathroom floor
Sometimes I feel so alone, I just don’t know, feels like I been down this road before,
So lonely and cold, It’s like something takes over me,
Soon as I go home and close the door,
Kinda feels like deja vu, I wanna get away from this place I do,
But I can’t and I won’t say I tried but I know that’s a lie cause I don’t
And why I just don’t know…
Meet Me In Montauk 
I pretty much agree with your assessment of this album and this song. Hearing it now, though, I am again struck by how brutally honest Eminem can be and how compelling that is. May have to pop this album (or Matthers) in my car right now for my Em fix.:)
One trend I am seeing in your list is that it reflects the fact that you really don’t listen to radio, as the list is very much album oriented. I’m not saying I am much better, except that I probably listen to a bit more between Radio Disney, The Pulse and Coffeehouse on the satellite radio. I’ll wait to see the rest of your list to see if some of the more single oriented songs make it, because I do feel there are a few worthy of ranking.
You mean singles that I don’t own on albums? I won’t have any of those on the list because, you’re right, I never listen to radio (well, a little bit of XM radio, but that’s usually the 80s channel or XM Cafe, not stations that play new singles).
I do feel like I’ve missed out in the past on some of the big hits like ‘Umbrella,’ ‘American Boys,’ ‘Single Ladies,’ anything by Lady Gaga, that sort of thing. Not sure what the big hits were last year, though. Do you have any in mind?
I will wait until the end of your list to reveal my list, but yes “SIngle Ladies” would be an example of one that I feel absolutely should be on there.
‘Single Ladies’ wouldn’t be eligible for my list because it was released in late 2008. It might have made it otherwise.
Was the single released in 2008, or just the album? I think when you are looking at singles, it should be when they were released or they made it onto the charts.
Yes, the traditional concept of a “single” is sort of as a separate release altogether, so it could be looked at separate from the album’s release.
But I’m interested in looking at songs, not singles, so I look at when the full album was released. The pool I choose from is the list of albums I purchased from the previous year (or at least albums released during that span even if I haven’t heard them in full).