Five years after exiting with Encore, Eminem returns to record stores today with Relapse, an album documenting how Slim Shady spent his long vacation: with a lot of pills. Paced by Dr. Dre’s stripped down, low-end-funk production, Em raps about his medication addiction, serial killing, marijuana, his mom and child molestation, but still finds enough room on the 76-minute-long disc to take some shots at some celebrities like Britney Spears, Sarah Palin and Kim Kardashian. But as Rob Sheffield writes in his four-star view of Marshall Mathers’ latest, “The power of Relapse comes from Em aiming his beat-downs at his truest target, himself.” At its best, Relapse unleashes powerhouses like the funny confessional “Déjà vu”; At its worst, it tests listeners with stale boasts and carbon-dated knocks on celebs like in “Crack A Bottle.”

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker also releases his second solo LP Further Complications today. A delicate mix of woozy soul and garage rock, an older, bearded, less-suave Cocker still has one agenda on his new Steve Albini-produced disc: Continue “his never-ending quest for twentysomething ass,” as Jon Dolan writes in his three-and-a-half star review of Further Complications. This is not This Is Hardcore, but it is a hilarious and over-the-top corker from Cocker.

And the Rookie of the Year thus far in 2009 has to go to Passion Pit, a synth-pop collective under the reigns of 22-year-old Michael Angelakos. Their debut album Manners earned four stars from Rolling Stone, thanks to its whooshing keyboards, dance floor beats, horns, a string section, shamelessly fruity melodies, a choir and, at the forefront of it all, Angelakos’ falsetto. It’s hyperemotional electro pop with charmingly tortured lyrics, and one of the best albums RS has heard by a new band this year.

For the rest of this week’s big reviews, check below:

• Cage the Elephant – Cage the Elephant
• Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted to Sins
• White Rabbits – It’s Frightening
• Zee Avi – Zee Avi
• The Field – Yesterday and Today