I love every single Eminem album from Infinite to Relapse, but this album is just awful. Most songs here have awful, annoying beats with dry and less meaningful lyrics. The songs just dont have that spark that Eminem songs usually have. There are, however, two of Em's best songs from this album:
Mockingbird- This is one of my favorite Eminem songs ever. He is full of emotion here, making a truely beautiful and meaningful song to his daughter Hailie.
Like Toy Soldiers- Just a plain good song. Great beat and chorus, and very meaningful with well-written lyrics.

Other than those two, awful album. Oh well, Em made up for it by making Relapse.

The music pales in comparison to Eminem's previous four albums (including Infinite). The rhyme schemes are watered down, the vocal delivery is lacking, and the "beats" aren't particularly good.
Is that a bad thing?
Not if your're Eminem.
Being a student of all music, I find Black Metal in particular to be aesthetically interesting. Within said genre, generally, less is more. It's greater focus is simplicity, rather than its more widely revered counterpart. Many artists will even purposefully "underproduce" their albums to achieve a type of musical purity through, ironically, impurity. To some, an infuriating paradox. To those in the realm of esoteric understanding, one might say, the ultimate beauty comes to ethereal fruition. Some of the "greatest" Black Metal albums of all time are also undeniably the most incompetent. See "Transilvanian Hunger" by Darkthrone, "Antichrist" by Gorgoroth, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem, etc.
"Encore" is one of a kind. It's the first, and only, rap album in which the artist purposefully pulled back, so to speak. Eminem decided not to go the extra mile, decided not to put forth the same effort that made the "Marshall Mathers LP" and "The Eminem Show" as mindblowing as they were. The result is one of the most honest, most vital albums ever crafted.
Forgive my philosophic tone. In layman's terms, "Encore" is "so bad it's good". That's the simplest way to put it.
I've listened to a lot of music in my life, but... As bold a statement as I realise this is, "Encore" may very well be the greatest album of all time, in all music.
Try a new perspective.

Well I have to say that I had been a big fan of Ems from day one. I had not heard his very first CD Infinite but ever since the Slim Shady LP I had been hooked. So coming into this CD I wasn't expecting anything less from him. Bo was I wrong. Now I am not going to rip the CD and say it is one of the wrost CD's I have ever heard like other people have but there are certainly some down points on this CD. Starting with the down points songs that were just awful Big Winnie, Puke. I mean I know Eminem was trying to go for comedy here but I don't know what he was thinking. If he is trying to strive to a two year old audience but these were not good lyrically and not that funny either. While there were low points there were high points as well. Some of the songs that I really enjoyed on this CD were Mocking Bird, Never Enough, Till I Collapse, and My Dads Gone Crazy. These here are just good lyrically songs by Eminem. The one I really enjoyed was mocking Bird it did not hit home with me personally but I know that it did with Dads that have daughters. I really liked Never Enough featuring 50 cent but it was just too short for a song. My dad's gone crazy and Till I collapse were tied for my second favorite song on the CD. For his funny song Just Lose It I would place it as his third best funny song behind without me and the real slim shady. Critics had said that they felt Eminem was going soft on this CD. While I can see where they are coming from and I agree with them to a point I still feel he had songs that were explicit enough to not make him soft. Overall I think this was Eminem's worst CD to date but saying that there is no way this was a one star CD for when it came out at $9.99 there were enough good songs on this CD to keep you interested. Overall a 3 out of 5 Stars and a recommendation to pick it up for under $9.99.

This is the worst album I have ever bought by any artist. He used to rap well and have intelligent lyrics. On this album he got juvenile with his lyrics and tried to sing but he has no voice. I liked the four preceding albums to this one. Infinite, Slim shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP, and the Eminem show were excellent. Now he's making garbage like this. He sold out big time.

Pretty good album, lots of variety even within the realm of Eminem. Silly, serious, offensive and intense- a good mix. There are only two or three songs I regularly skip past while listening to the whole album, and 3/20 isn't so bad!

A bit of a disappointment when compared to masterpieces like The Eminem show. I was expecting change and instead it's the same old sorry themes again. I do like Mockingbird, even if it is comprised of the same old stuff, but overall the album fails to impress me much. He's stuck in neutral; he'd better get his act together fast or his sta will fade away.You're getting mediocre, dude.

The best album in the world!!!

This album was somewhat of a disappointment. There weren't as many quality tracks as his other albums. There were a few songs that were good though.

Track 20 is 1 of the best tracks em has done. Fair bit of filler.

He has done MUCH MUCH better stuff.

great man

For his forth and mabey his last cd it is great cd a tadd bit differint but still great.