Machine Gun Kelly, Hotel Diablo, Album Review
Machine Gun Kelly
Hotel Diablo
Album Review
Machine Gun Kelly was somebody who I discovered at what could arguably be one of the worst times to do so. MGK had a pretty eventful 2018, in which I enjoyed his feature on Mike Shinodas "Blast Off" from last years album Post Traumatic.
However, the most notable part of MGK's year last year was his brief diss track battle against none other than Eminem. This began with the legendary rapper calling out MGK on his (not so legendary) album Kamikaze. Kelly then wanted to strike while the iron's hot and release an Eminem diss track titled "Rap Devil". I've never been a massive fan of diss tracks in general, but as far as Rap Devil went, I found it okay to listen to.
Eminem then clapped back with a diss track of his own titled "Killshot", and while I found this track equally as average, the Eminem stans regarded it as "career ending" for MGK.
With this unfortunate course of events slightly soiling MGK's reputation, I would admit that I was a little hesitant to listen to his latest album, despite the recommendation from a reliable source and good friend.
However, upon skimming across the tracks briefly I found myself quickly getting into the album. Ultimately, I listened fully to the whole thing.
I personally found the albums first track "Sex Drive" to be a slightly forgettable and underwhelming intro. However, the track that followed; "el Diablo" gave me a true taste of the artists potential. I really enjoyed this track both in terms of lyrical flow and the gritty and jazzy production. I feel that this was the track to kick things off on the album, and the true introduction in my eyes.
The tracks that followed (for the most part) felt extremely heartfelt and genuine. They tell a story, addressing MGK's past as well as his mental struggle. As a means to supposedly raise awareness that this kind of mental struggle is a widespread issue, Kelly brings up names such as Lil Peep, Mac Miller and Chester Bennington. All of which had lost their lives to their own mental struggles.
Furthering this as the general theme of the album, both the album and MGK himself sound incredibly similar to Mike Shinoda and the album Post Traumatic. And with this, they kind of share a very similar atmosphere and feel.
But while Post Traumatic felt very consistent through and through, Hotel Diablo comes across as a much more versatile album stylistically, largely thanks to the production.
The interludes on this album also serve quite a notable purpose of providing a little comic relief, just so the album doesn't completely come off as all doom and gloom.
This album has given credit to a large number of producers, and its very clear that they all had an input into making the beats for each track as professional sounding as possible.
In terms of good tracks on this album, there is again, quite a wide range of different moods and atmospheres. For comparisons sake, "Floor 13" is a track on the album, which still carries quite an aggressive and diss-track-esque feel, while a song like "Candy" is much more mellow and would fit into the grunge rap subgenre that Lil Peep was so well-known for.
I also really enjoyed the albums final track "I Think I'm OKAY", which features YUNGBLUD. It has a very rock-like production which compliments both vocal styles of each respective artist.
Do I have a favourite track on the album you ask? Not yet actually. I feel that this is because there is quite the handful of enjoyable tracks on Hotel Diablo. I'm sure that one will emerge from the grey area as my personal favourite, but for now a lot of the tracks could pass for the best. And this, I find, is always a good sign that an album is special.
In short, Machine Gun Kelly's Hotel Diablo came as a very pleasant surprise, and had come just in time for me to want to see him live at Reading festival this year.
This is truly an album with a tonne of sincerity behind it. There are a lot of listeners and other artists alike which this album might relate to lyrically, and the production behind it boosts the right feeling a lot of the time.
Thank you for reading
Booth Boy
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