

This is particularly frustrating when opener "Evil Deeds" suggests it could have been his In Utero - "The shows over, you can all go home now", he spits wearily, "but the curtain don't close for me". Actually, it's worse than that.Twothirdsof this record could be Weird Al Yankovic, such is its woefulness. Encore starts fantastically but ends abominably. Having cleared out the closet of his private life, what does the man whos given us five years of rants against his mother and his ex-wife (not to mention 8 Mile) have left to say about his favorite subject: himself? Kicking back in his big executive Shady Records chair, you've got to wonder if he's still got the stomach to become Eminem. 31-years-old, rich and successful -he's played the belligerent poor white trash outsider for five years now.

Encore finds Marshall Mathers at something of a crossroads in his career.
