Encore is the fifth studio album by the American rapper Eminem, released on November 12, 2004, through Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records, WEB Entertainment, Goliath Artists, and Interscope Records. As reflected in its title, cover art, and certain lyrics, the album was originally set to be Eminem's final studio album. Its lyrical themes include Eminem's criticism of then U.S. president George W. Bush, parodies of singer Michael Jackson and actor Christopher Reeve, and Eminem's feud with rappers Benzino and Ja Rule. Overall, the album features more comedic themes and lyrics than Eminem's previous albums. Encore charted at number one in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. By August 2005, the album had reached sales of 11 million copies worldwide. Encore was met with mixed reviews, with many critics deeming it inferior to his past material. Most of the album's middle portion was heavily criticized, though "Like Toy Soldiers" and "Mockingbird" were particularly highly praised and have retrospectively been ranked as some of Eminem's best songs. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encore_...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)