They’ve been in the business of giving their audience precisely what they expect for decades now, which has more or less been Eminem’s default position since 2010’s Recovery. In fact, AC/DC are an apposite comparison. There’s an argument that getting upset because Eminem has said something appalling on his new album is like getting upset because the new AC/DC album features a man dressed as a schoolboy playing guitar: it’s rather the point. Eminem’s response is a classic sorry-not-sorry: “I know nothing about the Manchester bombing is funny,” he offers on Favorite Bitch, before making a joke about the Boston marathon bombing. The latter provoked condemnation from both fans and the mayor of Manchester. It is one that shares its parent album’s preoccupation with Alfred Hitchcock – the late director appears on the intro the music on Alfred’s Theme is derived from Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette, which played while the credits rolled on the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents – and it reacts to its predecessor’s mixed reviews and the controversy it stirred with the track Unaccommodating, which featured queasy jokes about the Manchester Arena bombing. Likewise, Eminem’s Music to Be Murdered By Side B features an hour of additional music to make it a fully realised piece of work.

Artwork for Music to Be Murdered By Side B.

Eminem album 2020