Not much time has passed since I listened to Machine Gun Kelly’s first pop-punk effort, Tickets to My Downfall, but that’s just because I dropped the ball. Now that his companion album, Mainstream Sellout, is out in the world, I won’t be making the same mistake twice.
Truly, this is another top to bottom pop punk album, and even though I read today that MGK’s next album will head back into the rap world, I do think this genre is his calling. With that being said, this album sounded a whole hell of a lot like Tickets to My Downfall. The tempo never really varied that much on any of the tracks off this record, and frankly, MGK doesn’t have the vocal range to do much other than a mid-tempo, monotone verse. Not that I dislike it, but over the course of 16 tracks, it gets kind of repetitive. Luckily, there were lots of tracks off this record that featured a strange array of guest vocalists.
In general, every song played at a speed that’s appealing to my 2000s emo and pop punk self, so nothing was outright disappointing off this record. In fact, only “5150” came across as truly generic. Everything else put out a little something that was unique. With that being said, I don’t think I loved a single song off this record. It’s a pleasant listen all the way through, but nothing offered here will be played on repeat. Perhaps “Maybe,” featuring Bring Me the Horizon’s Ollie Sykes and “Emo Girl” featuring Willow Smith are the most memorable off the album. I will say, the latter song kind of surprised me. The infamous Oscar slap notwithstanding, The Smiths have always seemed pretty overrated to me, so I never gave Willow’s music career much of a chance. Not saying that I will now, but I was pleasantly surprised.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the appearance of some rappers like Lil Wayne and Gunna on this album, because as we all know, MGK came up in the rap genre, but still. It was neat to see how they were incorporated in these songs. I particularly liked the different vocals present in “Die in California.” Another song that rose above the rest was “Papercut.” It started out acoustic and demure, but I really enjoyed the journey it took to the end. Something I also found myself really paying attention to over the course of the album were the lyrics. Both “God Save Me” and “Papercuts” were both deeply personal, about how MGK has contemplated suicide and also how he defies public perception. I also liked the title track, “Mainstream Sellout” and how he addresses the hate that’s come his way from this genre jump. “Leave the scene, you’re ruining it” is a pretty great line.
Overall, I’m happy to see a “hometown” artist really make it, and kind of later in his career. It seems like he’s in a good place personally, and I think his music is only benefitting from that. Rap or not, I’ll likely be checking out his next full length release. If you’ve got a nostalgic heart, I recommend the tracks “Maybe” and “WW4” which reminded me of Armor for Sleep and Fall Out Boy, respectively.