As a rapper, Machine Gun Kelly once vied for Eminem’s crown. However, his Hot Topic aesthetic and take on rock-rap always felt more suited to a spot on the Warped tour. It made his reboot to pop-punk star on 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall – facilitated by Blink-182 drummer and genre revivalist Travis Barker – feel as inevitable as his subsequent tabloid-baiting romance with actor Megan Fox: the pair allegedly drank each other’s blood when they got engaged.
Unhinged rockstar relationships and heightened celebrity have clearly shaped Mainstream Sellout. The songs about infatuation are most entertaining: the energetic guitars and yelped vocals on devotional Emo Girl feel lifted from a 2000s teen flick; the poppier Post Malone stylings of Make Up Sex houses the album’s best (albeit lyrically uninspired) chorus; and bewildering Lil Wayne collaboration Drug Dealer, hopefully a metaphor for the addictive power of love, is so melodically enticing that you can overlook its abject absurdity.
