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Eminem sounds stale around the edges

“RELAPSE,” Eminem (Aftermath/Interscope)

When he gleefully announced his return to the scene with the infectious 2002 single “Without Me,” rapper Eminem turned his vitriol on electronica’s Moby, condemning him as “too old” at 36, making a vulgar suggestion and ending the attack with a smug, “Nobody listens to techno!”

Guess who’s 36 now? And as the resurfacing Eminem looks toward his impending 37th birthday, rap is at its lowest artistic ebb in decades.

But before he can save his genre from Soulja Boy Tell Em, Eminem had to save himself from drugs, which is the main point of “Relapse.”

In many ways this is one of those cliched facing-down-demons records, though at least it’s done in a classically schizophrenic style symptomatic of Eminem, aka Marshall Mathers, aka Slim Shady. In addition to the requisite self-effacing/confessional material — the realization he’s not unlike his loathsome mother, the shame of putting his daughter in a bad position — the rapper surprisingly celebrates alcohol (on a “Crack a Bottle” featuring his producer Dr. Dre as well as 50 Cent) and pot on “Must Be the Ganja” (again featuring Dre). He also takes numerous detours, although the only shocking one is his played-for-laughs recollection of being raped by his stepfather on “Insane.”

Otherwise, he’s in traditional misogynistic/homophobic form as he reveals abduction, assault and/or murder fantasies about Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and other overhyped celebrities. He works in a few chuckles, but virtually all of his cultural references feel overworn.

Perhaps it’s just the remnant effects of all the downers he ingested, but Eminem generally sounds tired and not into it. Good thing his lyrical flow remains unparalleled and Dre keeps the arrangements refreshingly simple, so “Relapse” is on solid footing. Also to his credit, Eminem has never sounded more genuine than he does on the grim ballad “Beautiful,” where he awkwardly, yet poignantly, offers to walk in his critics’ shoes if they’ll walk in his. (He wears a size 10.)

Mostly, though, Eminem sounds detached on “Relapse,” and many of his fan will feel the same way.

Maybe he ought to consider techno.

Rating (five possible): 3

Eels may leave you feeling dog tired

“HOMBRE LOBO,” Eels (Vagrant)

“Life ain’t pretty for a dog-faced boy,” sang Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett on the opening track of his “Souljacker,” released some 8 years ago.

Turns out life ain’t pretty for a dog-faced man, either.

As he contemplated direction for his new release — “Hombre Lobo” — Everett wondered what that boy’s life would be like as an adult. Apparently he decided it would be filled with misery, much like that of most of the misfit characters who populate Everett’s music.

The sad irony is, as Everett sings of a young man who craves recognition and appreciation, he does it in a way that’s hardly noticeable once the novelty has passed.

“Hombre Lobo” is repetitious, as Everett tends to be, and initially it follows a pattern of alternating muddy indie-rock tracks with tragic ballads. Chaotic cuts such as “Prizefighter,” “Lilac Breeze” and “Tremendous Dynamite” are cacophonous, with Everett’s ragged, modulated vocals driving the visceral mix. Meanwhile, the melancholy slow songs are steeped in anguish.

No matter how loud or gentle the arrangement, all the cuts on “Hombre Lobo” are boxed in with lo-fi smallness, which lends intimacy to the mix but also pressures Eels to make every detail pop. Compelling hooks are rare, however, and Everett blurs most songs with irritating, distorted vocals.

Nevertheless, he has gift for character development. Several tracks — especially “That Look You Give That Guy,” “All the Beautiful Things” and “Beginner’s Luck” — are striking on their own, separated from the rest of “Hombre Lobo.” Everett stirs both discomfort and sympathy as his hero struggles with a heartbreaking need for love yet wallows in self-pity and pushes into a creepy, stalker-ish mentality.

Ultimately, Everett’s portrayal is unblinkingly realistic, though it’s enervating to be on the side of a relentless whiner.

Rating: 3

Unbounded creativity zaps Zap Mama’s continuity

“RECREATION,” Zap Mama (Heads Up)

The capitalized “C” in Zap Mama’s new “ReCreation” indicates the act’s frontwoman, Marie Daulne, wants the title to convey a sense of reinvention rather than the playfulness that a lowercase “c” would imply. But if the group has experienced a rebirth, the formless songs of “ReCreation” suggest Zap Mama is in a new infancy, struggling to conjure a firm identity.

Daulne, who was born in the Congo and raised in Belgium, has been layering the influences of other genres into her world music since founding Zap Mama in the early 1990s as a multinational, a cappella group of women vocalists. The act’s “Supermoon,” from 2007, was almost desperately eclectic.

So it’s no surprise that while Daulne and company tapped into a Brazilian ambience for “ReCreation,” they embellished it with a jumble of funk, jazz, electro, R&B, Western pop, hip-hop, traditional African music, New Age and other styles.

Meanwhile, the vocalist is a free spirit not particularly tethered to the musical mishmash. Tracks have vague beginnings and ends and often fail to take any discernible shape as she coos and ahhs with off-kilter enunciations and ecstatic escapism.

It’s incongruent, but at least its uplifting organic rhythms and clubby cadence maintain a festive air as brassy trumpet notes poke through “Hello to Mama,” a vibrant arrangement jostles “Do You Wanna?” and a supple vibe underscores “Togetherness.”

“ReCreation” brings aboard noteworthy guests: French actor Vincent Cassel saunters through with sexy counterpoint to Daulne on “Paroles Paroles” and “Non, Non, Non,” for instance, and G. Love helps Americanize “Drifting.” Fans will be especially pleased to hear original Zap Mama members Sylvie Nawasadio and Sabine Kabongo drop in for a nostalgic appearance on “Singing Sisters,” bringing to mind the more focused days of the act’s genesis.

Daulne isn’t so simple anymore, for better and worse.

Rating: 3

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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