mainstream sellout - Album Review

The exuberant yet blasé Colson Baker, better known as Machine Gun Kelly, has made an impressive amount of noise in the last few years. Ever since starring in the Motley Crue rockumentary film The Dirt as drummer Tommy Lee, it seems MGK has dropped his rapping persona to permanently play that rock star role. His 2020 release Tickets to My Downfall -- the first full rock album put out by the rapper -- made enough of a splash for people to miss their Avril Lavigne eyeshadow and My Chemical Romance posters.

All of a sudden, the media remembered that pop punk existed, and since Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is now curating his own recipe for making modern-punk rock stars (2 cups of past relevancy, 1/2 cup of genre bending, two tablespoons of genericism, and one dash of hair coloring), it hasn’t seemed to fade. And in the forefront of all these pop and rap stars who want a taste of that sweet, sweet punk fame is Machinathon Gunther Kelly. After releasing Tickets and committing to the punk image, MGK can’t surprise us with a rock album anymore. No, now people have expectations and a frame of reference. So how will his 2022 release, the all-lower-case-to-remain-edgy mainstream sellout, compare to his rock debut?

Well, truth is, comparing mainstream sellout to Tickets to My Downfall is like comparing apples to, well, apples. mainstream sellout -- from the style, sound, and features -- is Tickets 2.0. Is that a bad thing, when Tickets was MGK’s first album to hit platinum status and top the Billboard Top 200? Well, not really, but it gives you a sense of Deja vu, much like eating your favorite food right after eating your favorite food. Sure, I love a rocky road ice cream cone more than the next guy, but I’m not doing backflips to get another rocky road ice cream cone immediately after. And if I DO want another ice cream cone, I’m looking for a little more variety.

Ice cream metaphors aside, my general consensus of the album doesn’t mean mainstream sellout was a blah album with blah songs. It just means that we ate at this restaurant last week. Take the features, for example. There was a lot of potential for MGK to stage dive into the rock realm with solid, heavy features -- and he hits the nail on the head with Bring Me the Horizon appearing on “maybe” – but he instead keeps his feet cemented on the stage with familiar features that are too comfortable and complacent. Didn’t we just hear blackbear and iann diorr on Tickets? Even Pete Davidson makes another cameo that wastes our time. Two Lil Wayne features on an album is one too many, and instead of saving the atrocity that is “emo girl”, Willow Smith pushes the song on its back and watches.

With that said, most of these songs are still fun to listen to. “make up sex” with blackbear may be my favorite off the album, and “ay!” with Lil Wayne is a ballad disguised under hip-hop percussions. I’m simply saying that, as some of these songs with features were singles or doubles, they could’ve left MGK trotting around the bases if he asked the right people to jump on with him. And who knows, he may have asked other bands and got rejected, which would only add to the rockstar poser theme that he’s embracing.

The highlights of the album, though, are tracks he did by himself. "god save me" and "WW4" come to mind, but the title track (not to be confused with the song "title track" that came off Tickets) is as raw and defiant as MGK could get. He knows the public's perception of him, yet it only fuels him to play off of it; honestly, that makes me like him even more.

Love him or not, MGK has already done an incredible amount in the pop punk revival, and several reemerging artists owe their most recent paychecks to MGK and Travis Barker’s impact post-2019. mainstream sellout is a good follow-up album that could've been great, but that isn't stopping me from playing it on shuffle. It does raise concerns, however. If MGK releases another Tickets replica as his third album, the new car smell will start fading, if it hasn't already. As long as he can keep his new music fresh enough for people to continue buying in, though, I don't know if even that could stop him.

Top 3 songs: mainstream sellout, make up sex, god save me

Rating: 5.5 Pete Davidson cameos/ 10