Take a listen to “Crack a Bottle,” our first glimpse into Eminem’s upcoming album Relapse. Produced by and featuring Dr. Dre, as well as 50 Cent, it’s a solid track, but oddly held back by Dre’s dull production. Nothing too special here. Interestingly, a version of this song without Dre and 50 was leaked about a month ago, so Eminem actually released this so people could hear the finished version.

I’m interested in how the final product sounds. It’s pretty safe to slap the “anticipated” tag onto Relapse, because, well it is Eminem – but good Lord have his last two albums been awful. His music is almost entirely fueled by anger and a massive chip on his shoulder, and he was obviously not able to harness any of that after he got rich and comfortable. We’ll see if that changes at all.

As for the first effort: Meh. Color me apathetic …

MP3: