The latest releases reviewed.
VARIOUS Eminem Presents The Re-Up Shady/Interscope ***
Hold your horses at the back, this is not the new Slim Shady album. Instead, after a pretty miserable 18 months which featured rehab, cancelled tours (including that no-show at Slane Castle), the murder of his best pal and another failed stab at marriage, Eminem rounds up the Shady troops for a mix-tape beano. There are six cuts from Marshall Mathers here, all recalling the urgency of his earlier work before fame and fortune turned him into a rapper moaning and whinging about, well, fame and fortune. Of course, he's still on the same lyrical tip (and it's the same targets as before, as Mariah Carey knows only too well), but Em's flow and voice sound strong and determined. Elsewhere, Fiddy takes time out from hawking vitamin water to throw down some lines on the title track, and there are solid if unremarkable turns from a range of Shady stablehands including Stat Quo, Obie Trice and Bobby Creekwater. www.eminem.com Jim Carroll
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Since the Last Time Edel ***
You have to admire Arrested Development's brave attempts to get back in the game. Since selling five million copies of their debut album, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of... , in the early 1990s, they've been largely overtaken by everyone else in the hip-hop sphere and lapped by Arrested Development the TV show on Google. Since the Last Time has its moments, especially when Speech and friends find a vein of that rich, luxurious southern-fried funk that served them so well over a decade ago. Miracles has some fantastic hooks as it lands a couple of digs at hip-hop's current fads and fashions, while Down & Dirty will remind you of fellow southern players Outkast. But there's just not enough of that kind of spark, and tracks such as Stand really don't demand much more than a cursory listen. www.arresteddevelopmentmusic.com Jim Carroll
