Review Summary: MGK ugh
In 2020, Machine Gun Kelly released Tickets to My Downfall and marked his transition to pop punk, in contrast to the hip-hop and rap/rock that had defined his career to that point. While some praised the transition, many punk faithfuls criticized the album as a blatant copy-paste of Blink-182 with worse execution (worth noting that Travis Barker—Blink-182's drummer—was a collaborator and co-producer). The aptly-titled mainstream sellout sees MGK leaning fully into this criticism and bull-headedly continuing in the same vein. As he said in a 2021 interview: "I don't try punk. I am punk." Um, okay.
I didn't have any real expectations for this record. In fact, I didn't want to review it since I figured my review would just be one of many that would be proverbially dunking on MGK. But I dutifully listened to the first three songs of this record, as I do with most new releases when I'm trying to decide what I want to listen to. And as I listened, I was surprised that I actually enjoyed many aspects of those songs, especially the opener born with horns. Yes, it's a straight-down-the-middle pop punk song, but it's really everything you'd reasonably want out of a recent-era MGK track: high energy and aggressive drumming from Travis Barker supporting the catchy, angsty, and relatively passionate vocal delivery. Yeah, the slower bridge is kind of awkward, but the track overall goes pretty hard. "god save me" and "maybe," while more of a mixed bag (and a lot of missed opportunity in the Bring Me The Horizon feature), continue with more or less the same formula.
However, after venturing past the first three songs I realized this album had exhausted its best ideas, and nowhere else was that same formula successfully reproduced. The remaining songs are bland at best and cringe-worthy at worst. Take "drug dealer," for example. The song was already pretty unenjoyable for me, with its flavorless instrumentation (like what on earth is going on with the guitar tone here) and boring chorus. But the Lil Wayne feature took things to an entirely new level (not in a good way). "Hard drugs mixed off a** / I'm snortin' coke off it"? No thanks. Several other songs reached those same lows or me (e.g., "make up sex," "emo girl," and "ay!").
Beyond the musical pitfalls and some terrible individual lines, the storytelling overall also fails to add anything here. While MGK alludes to the struggles with depression that color his experience, his lyrics lack the specificity or subtlety that more skilled songwriters employ to help the listener really connect with the emotions being conveyed. I don't want to invalidate that there is real angst that MGK is trying to get across here, but the execution just didn't happen. The lyrics here mostly feel like some combination of clichéd, cheesy, and phoned in.
Pop punk isn't dead—the success of Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR illustrates that clearly enough—but MGK and Travis Barker (who is also responsible for Blink-182's terrible Nine album) may have caused it some temporary damage with this botched resuscitation attempt.
