Machine Gun Kelly released his fifth studio album “Tickets To My Downfall,” on Sept. 25. With Travis Barker as an executive producer, this project leans further into the pop-punk and has little to no rapping. The album features collaborations with Travis Barker, Trippie Redd, Iann Dior, and Halsey.

The title track lyrically explains the meaning of the phrase, “Tickets To My Downfall.” The lyrics to the track explain how Kelly feels people want to see him decline and crash.

“Bloody Valentine” was the first single released from the album and won a VMA for “Best Alternative Video.” Actress Megan Fox appeared in the music video for “Bloody Valentine,” which was released in May. Fox is also featured on the album in “Banyan Tree (Interlude),” where she and Kelly talk about their relationship.

In “kiss kiss,” Kelly revisits his problem with drug abuse while trying to be reckless and still live his life. It’s a genuine feeling he expresses in the song, which shows that the best music comes from bad situations. He expresses that mindset in “all I know” featuring Redd with the lyric, “I gotta go through s*** to keep writing.” “Forget me too,” featuring Halsey, is a breakup song, and matches the energy and the tempo of the rest of the project.

Kelly’s father and aunt both passed away earlier this year, and the track “lonely,” explains how he’s grieving his father’s death. The song basically says how he wishes his loved ones were here to experience his with life with him. Another emotional song “play this when I’m gone” was written for his daughter. It’s a deep and personal track that is an open letter for his daughter after he dies. It’s the perfect acoustic song to end a good project with.

“Concert for aliens” was the second single, which proceeds an interlude of Kelly and comedian Pete Davidson discussing themselves as aliens. The track has heavy guitar on it and a high energy throughout the song. MGK’s music has always had a rock influence which has been shown in his past work. “Tickets to My Downfall” is completely MGK showing his love for rock/ pop-punk music. A lot of people have been referring to this era of his music as “switching genres.” This project was Kelly showing his versatility as an artist and showing the different sides to his voice.

Kelly is set to host two virtual concerts from the Roxy theatre Los Angeles, CA in celebration of the new album. The first concert on Oct. 1st will be a performance of “Tickets to My Downfall,” and the second will be songs from Kelly’s last album “Hotel Diablo.”

My main takeaway from the project, is that Kelly has mastered his cadence and understands melody when it comes to this style of music. You can feel the joy and pain in music, and this project is a collection of lows and highs. It’s a project showing Kelly progressing as an artist, but also shows a little bit inside his head and what he’s going through. I noticed that some of the songs sound a little similar, but I still liked the project as a whole.