"Relapse" is due out sometime this year.

How did I just, now, finally get around to listening to "No Apologies" from Eminem?

I think he's toying with me. After 8 Mile I had a (perhaps unrealistic) fantasy wherein the next album from Em would be consistently of the caliber of "Lose Yourself" and "Rabbit Run." Encore was.. not quite that.

"No Apologies" is.. if not at the same level as "Lose Yourself," at least worthy of sharing space on the same disc... so now starts the (potentially deflating) process of (once again) waiting for an album that I can only pray will be as good as it could be.

(If the first single off the new album is another "The Real Slim Shady" clone, I swear I'll fly to Chicago and very diplomatically -- and in a Christian manner -- smack Em upside the head. I will then flee, very very quickly, before I get shot.)