Pomegranate Rating: 2/10

This past week Machine Gun Kelly released his 5th studio album mainstream sellout. After hearing his single “emo girl”, a collaboration with Willow Smith, I knew I needed to hear the album. Here are my thoughts on the pop-rock star’s newest release.

There is a lot going on with this album so let’s start at the beginning, track 1 “born with horns”. It was ultimately not a good start to the album and gave me a good idea of what the rest of the album would look like. “born with horns” was like if you tried to turn a Disney Channel theme song into a rock song, and I highly emphasize the tried. This would go on for the next two tracks “god save me” and “maybe” which sounded very similar to the first track and were equally as disappointing.

With Machine Gun Kelly’s last album he turned from hip-hop to alt rock but if this album is proof of anything he isn’t good at rock either. It was a struggle to get through the 16 tracks knowing I could be listening to far better music. I thought that maybe the album was so long I would be able to decipher the good songs from the bad ones but I wouldn’t be able to do that either! Unlike with every other album I’ve ever listened to, there is no song I can confidently say is the best. The only track that was decent was “wall of fame (interlude)” which did not include any singing from MGK.

A majority of the songs sound almost exactly the same as we listen to the same instruments, beats, and MGK’s droll, boring voice. Part of why I dislike, and am growing to hate, this album is because Machine Gun Kelly is not a good singer. I don’t know how he’s been able to make a career in music when there is nothing special about his voice and even ruins most of the songs. Give this album to any other rock artist and it might have actually sounded good.

I expected Machine Gun Kelly to make a spectacular album especially as he was disappointed in not winning any awards for Tickets to My Downfall but this album definitely isn’t winning any Grammys. It’s humorous to note that the most popular song from the album “emo girl” is only popular after going viral for being so bad.

This album was an utter disappointment which I could find no redeeming qualities in. My final rating is a 2/10. It got a few points as there were a few good guitar solos. I would not recommend this album to any rock or alternative fan and hopefully MGK will try harder next time.