Machine Gun Kelly’s new album, ‘Tickets To My Downfall,” which debuted in late September, has everything a pop-punk fan could want. Kelly, who has always been inspired by rock and roll, has switched up his style with a completely pop-punk album. Already, Kelly’s album has hit No. 1 on iTunes, and was No. 1 on the Billboard 200. ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ is also Kelly’s first Billboard Number One album in his career.
From Blink 182’s Travis Baker, Kelly’s long-time friend, playing the drums for the album, to features from artists Halsey on “Forget Me Too,” Trippie Redd on “All I Know,” and Blackbear on “My Ex’s Best Friend,” this album is among the best contemporary musical collaborations for a pop-punk album.
In an interview with Rock Sound, Kelly talks about how difficult it is for so many pop-punk artists to rise above hip-hop artists due to the latter being the biggest music trend. However, he refuses to believe even hip-hop fans won’t listen to pop-punk— when compared, the two genres are more alike than different.
“I think hip-hop and pop-punk is the same thing,” Kelly said in the interview. “Like, we’re all dressing the same… we all rebel, we all get high, we all don’t know what’s going on tomorrow, we all suck at life sometimes. Those things are all relatable issues and content that haven’t found a way to bridge with each other.”
Mixing hip-hop and pop-punk into this album, Kelly says his goal is to break the gap between these two genres. He feels that he and Baker discovered the formula on how to do this while working on the album.
Kelly also released a deluxe version of his album on Sept. 29, which includes another four great songs, including a cover of “Misery Business” by Paramore, and an acoustic version of “Bloody Valentine.”
One of the new songs on the deluxe album, “Body Bag,” which features Bert McCracken from The Used and YUNGBLUD, has very clear inspiration from Fall Out Boy’s hit song “Dance Dance.” Another one of the new songs, “Hangover Cure,” seems to reference My Chemical Romance when Kelly sings, “Sunset on my black parade, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Fans, both old and new, are raving online praising Machine Gun Kelly for bringing back pop punk music with this new album, also claiming this album is his best one yet. On Twitter, pop-punk fans ate up these references, with one user saying, “The black parade mention is immaculate in hangover cure.” Another user wrote, “The fall out boy sample on body bag is next level powerful.”
With the trends of artists changing up their style of music in the midst of their careers, it is always a risk and can even result in their downfall, hence the name of the album. Kelly knew it was a risk to put his rap devil title at stake. However, Kelly has a carefree attitude and does whatever he wants, and with this album it clearly worked out. In an interview with Beatroute, Kelly talks about where he sees the future of his sound going.
“Well, the ‘Tickets to My Downfall’ album is a pop-punk album from start to finish. I’m sure after that, just like with the first albums, people will try to box me in, but I’ll probably do what I normally do: piss everybody off and go in the complete opposite direction and break out of that box. I encourage everyone to keep up.”
Perhaps Kelly and Baker have paved a path for pop-punk to take over the music industry once again. Fans, get ready, because Kelly has made it clear pop-punk certainly is not dead.
Tickets To My Downfall is available on all streaming platforms.
Featured Image courtesy of Rockon.it via Flickr Creative Commons.
