mainstream sellout
Originally, Machine Gun Kelly wanted to name his sixth LP *born with horns*, as a nod to the way he’s felt his entire life—like an outsider, whether he’s rapping or holding a guitar. Instead, he made the song *mainstream sellout*’s opening statement: a concussive, cathartic, two-and-a-half-minute rush of early-2000s pop punk whose chorus comes like a freight train, framed by a scream. “Alienate me, I\'m not the one you want,” he roars. “I feel so alienated, like I’m the devil’s spawn.” In the wake of 2020’s *Tickets to my Downfall*, the Cleveland native stays close to blink-182’s Travis Barker, who resumes his role here as executive producer and destroyer of snare drums. (The two now also share a “born with horns” tattoo.) What follows is an open-hearted, period-specific pop-punk record as envisioned by an artist with a rapper’s sensibility, from its many guest features (see: blackbear, WILLOW, Gunna, Young Thug, noted rap-rock enthusiast Lil Wayne) to the seemingly natural ways in which MGK makes the heightened, nursery-rhyme-like melodies of vintage blink (or Green Day) sound as though they’ve been a perfect home for raps all along. “Sleepin’ in, faked sick/Smoked a blunt, had a kid,” he sings on “paper cuts,” a song he dedicates to his late father, amid keening clusters of “Brain Stew”-like power chords. “Don’t belong, I’m a punk/Hello, world, you fuckin’ suck.”
The enfant terrible of the pop-rock revival wades deeper into the genre, coming back with even less than before.
Colson Baker has gone from underrated rapper to bonafide rock star, but his sequel to 2020's 'Tickets To My Downfall' is no victory lap
MGK continues his pop-punk dalliance and addresses the haters, but it’s unlikely to convince anyone to join the cause…
This is Colson Baker’s sixth album as Machine Gun Kelly and, in a sketchy way, follows the arc of his life to date
Machine Gun Kelly's transition from rapper with pop sensibilities to pop-punk revivalist that began in earnest on his 2020 album Tickets to My Downfall continues enthusiastically with sixth album Mainstream Sellout.
A tabloid-baiting relationship with Megan Fox and heightened celebrity are influences on an entertaining but cliched album
Machine Gun Kelly - Mainstream Sellout review: A Bad Singer, In Terrible Lyrics, Marketing Teams
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