>>95794
It takes a while to get used to, and I do mean a while, especially if you had it drilled into you that it was a bad album. In my case it took 7 years to fully undo that programming, when I went on a re-listen of his whole discography in preparation for his next album, which was ultimately for nought, but at least I got some appreciation for Relapse out of it. Didn't even bother relistening to Recovery and instead went straight on to the Bad Meets Evil album. The first time you listen to Relapse you're immediately thrown off. I can't remember if Marshall outright said it or not, but the whole reason behind the voice was that it allowed him to pull off insane rhyming schemes that otherwise wouldn't have been possible, and he doesn't even use it in some of those tracks, particularly the ones recorded prior to his overdose or shortly thereafter (e.g. Beautiful, Underground).
Relapse was a sorely needed fresh turn for him, when you consider SSLP was about being hungry for fame, MMLP was about showing the world what he could do now that he'd got their attention, and TES was about cementing his legacy. Encore was simply a retread of the latter that was redundant even with the worser tracks taken out in favor of those relegated to the bonus disc/Straight from the Lab. He needed a new gimmick, so he resorted to taking the piss out of the world. Because by that point, he'd done everything to build his name up and he did in just three albums, bypassing the slow rise to fame that most of his contemporaries had to go through, so what else was there to do? He almost took on Lil Wayne too before pussying out and collaborating with the talentless fuck, a battle I'm almost sure he would've won in the long run. Kanye and Drake may have been more toughly fought however. He was imbued with a creative spark that apparently saw him make over 100 songs, of which only 20 were selected for Relapse, a few more appeared on Refill and a couple were extensively reworked for Recovery. A handful got leaked until Koolo got a major telling-off, and the rest are sitting in a vault and probably won't be heard for another 10 - 20 years at least, quicker if someone puts him out of his misery.
>>95792
Cannot be said enough. The only song I've heard is the "lead" single on the radio, and it's clear that Sheeran is carrying Mathers, not the other way around one of the blandest pop records I've ever heard. I then read a few of the lyrics for the more politically-driven tracks and facepalmed similar in the manner he does on the cover. Apparently there's a song on that album called Septicaemia or something similar that's allegedly really good, but I wouldn't know since I've neither read the lyrics nor heard it, and don't intend to.