Machine Gun Kelly’s transition to rock was a lot successful than I thought given his album went to number one on the Billboard Hot 200 and a couple of his songs charted on the Hot 100, including one in the Top 40.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out a few of the songs and snippets of others and it’s not for me. I personally thought it was a smart move switching from rap to pop punk since his hip hop image got tarnished and he does have the intensity and charisma to do rock. Despite that, it doesn’t click with me at all , mostly because I don’t like his monotone voice, it doesn’t fit with the pop punk style of the instrumentation. It’s definitely there and he does seem really passionate about this genre and I applaud him, but he could’ve done it a bit better than just distorted guitars and songs about troubled relationships. At least the millenial crowd is eating it all up and it does bring some sort of rock back on the Hot 100 after being dormant for so long so there’s that.
Overall, a pretty underwhelming album based off of what I’ve heard. I’m not gonna be harsh and condemn him for the genre switch so I’m gonna say that I wish him good luck with this new direction and I hope he reaches a new and bigger audience, but don’t expect me to be a fan anytime soon.