Tuesday 9/29: Machine Gun Kelly—"title track"
Today, we share our thoughts on a track off rapper Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk album.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a track off rapper Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk album.
Machine Gun Kelly—“title track”
Eli Enis:
Machine Gun Kelly’s pivot to Tony Hawk soundtrack skatercore might be the smartest move he’s ever made. After wasting his time battling Eminem to break into the Call of Duty rap fan market, he decided to double-down on the aging Zumiez employee vibe and make a record that looks and sounds straight out of 2001. Well, mostly, there are still rap songs on here and features from Halsey and Trippie Redd. But the record’s intro, “title track”, is a fully committed aping of Sum 41, Simple Plan, and of course Blink-182. Travis Barker produced this record and his gale force drumming is an obvious yet welcomed flair on this song, but I gotta hand it to MGK, he really owns this role.
The track’s suicidal subject matter is straightforwardly dark in a way that feels genuine, but I even find corny one-liners like, “If I was a painter I’d be a depressionist”, to be kind of charming. They’re subtle reminders that MGK is the rapper who made “Wild Boy” with Steve O and Waka Flaka, and could’ve easily tried to make a Lil Peep ripoff record or shell out for a Juice WRLD feature from the vault to cash in on the 19-year-old emo-rap base. But nah, MGK decided to do the most 30-year-old skater dude thing possible and just make a pop-punk record that sounds identical to the shit he grew up listening to. The stakes feel low and he sounds like he’s genuinely having a blast with it. Who would’ve thought that Machine Gun Kelly would make the best Blink-182 song since Tom left the band?
Eric Bennett:
Machine Gun Kelly has always been in a tier of celebrities I regard with furrowed brows and vague disdain. Other residents of this category include Halsey and twenty one pilots; a coterie of sentient Tumblr posts, clad in pastels, and adorned with shitty tattoos. Kelly is also someone, that despite knowing he’s a rapper, I strangely associate more so with his acting career, specifically his role in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s excellent Beyond the Lights. That is maybe the only piece of art he was involved in that I can recommend in good conscience. As I find myself forced to think about him, and listen to something he has made, I am pleasantly surprised that his work has taken quite a turn. By no means am I moved by “title track.” It’s just as cringe as anything else he’s done. Still, it’s probably not the worst thing I’ve had to listen to this year. It isn’t very long, but goes through several brief movements which is neat. I want desperately to compare this to Nickelback, but that just doesn’t feel close enough to the sound being displayed here. It’s maybe a close enough comparison in vibe, though.