Tickets to My Downfall
Tickets to My Downfall is the fifth studio album by American musician Machine Gun Kelly. It was released on September 25, 2020, by Bad Boy Records and Interscope Records. The album marks the departure from his established rap sound and became a more guitar-driven pop-punk album. It was his first collaborative project with drummer and producer Travis Barker, and features guest appearances from Halsey, Trippie Redd, Blackbear, and Iann Dior, as well as Bert McCracken and Yungblud on the deluxe edition.
Tickets to My Downfall
Tickets to My Downfall was preceded by the release of the singles: "Bloody Valentine", "Concert for Aliens" and "My Ex's Best Friend". The album was a commercial success, debuting atop the US Billboard 200, his first to do so. It was well-received by critics, and went on to be his first album to be certified platinum by the RIAA.
Background and recording[edit]
Machine Gun Kelly, birth name Colson Baker, had released four studio albums through the 2010s. While his first four studio albums had been hip hop/rap styled, by the end of the decade, Baker started moving into a rock music direction.[3] In 2019, Baker appeared in the film The Dirt, a biographic film about the band Mötley Crüe where he played drummer Tommy Lee.[4] The same year, Baker released his fourth studio album, Hotel Diablo, which ended with the track "I Think I'm Okay", a more rock-leaning song collaboration with Yungblud and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.[3][5] It was released as a single and became very popular,[5] hitting number 8 on the year-end Billboard US Hot Rock Songs[6] and ended up being certified platinum in the US.[7]
Baker, wishing to explore the sound further, booked a day in recording studio to work with Barker, to record what would become the song "Bloody Valentine".[5] The session was so powerful to Baker that he asked Barker to set aside two months for them to collaborate on an entire studio album, to which Barker obliged.[5] For much of the rest of the year, Baker would refer to working on the album informally referred to as "the untitled pop punk project".[2] Along with Baker on vocals and guitar, the entire album would feature Barker on drums and as a producer.[2]
Prior to the recording of the album, Baker expressed a wish for the album to include features from Bert McCracken of the Used and Chris Fronzak from Attila.[8] The album went on to feature collaborations with Halsey on the track "Forget Me Too",[9] Blackbear on the track "My Ex's Best Friend",[10] Trippie Redd on the track "All I Know",[11] and Iann Dior on "Nothing Inside",[12] as well as McCracken and Yungblud on "Body Bag",[13] from the album's deluxe edition.[14] Other collaborations in the studio included Goody Grace,[15] Mod Sun,[15] Young Thug,[11] and another collaboration with Yungblud.[11] "Body Bag", features heavy similarities to Fall Out Boy’s 2005 single "Dance, Dance", which require clearance from the band for use, which was given by Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump just a day prior to release.[16] Baker also noted that the album originally concluded with a track titled "Times of My Life", but that he couldn't get authorization to publish the song from Tom Petty's estate, who felt the hook was too similar to a song of Petty's.[14] A year after the release, Baker noted that Corey Taylor of Slipknot had recorded some vocals for an unidentified track, but Baker wasn't happy with how it turned out and it didn't make the album.[17] Conversely, Taylor argued that he passed on the song himself, stating he was not happy with the song ideas he was presented with on the track "Can't Look Back".[18]
Accolades[edit]
Awards and nominations[edit]
Baker took home the award for Top Rock Album at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards[63] and at the iHeartRadio Music Awards for the Alternate-Rock Album of the Year.[64] Tickets to My Downfall did not receive any nominations from the Academy for the Grammy Awards, fans showed their support for the album over Twitter following a tweet from Baker,[65] as fans and Baker argued that the album should have been included in the nominations list.[66] This follows further backlash from the public directed towards the Grammy's as notable artists such as Halsey, The Weeknd, Fiona Apple, and BTS were not included in the nomination list,[67] with the #Scammys trending on Twitter.[68]
Commercial performance[edit]
Tickets to My Downfall debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 all-format albums chart, moving 126,000 album equivalent units in its first week.[76] It became his first number one album, tripling the opening numbers for his prior album, Hotel Diablo in 2019, and made it the first rock album to top the chart in just over a year, since Tool's album Fear Inoculum in September 2019.[76][77] It became the fifth longest charting album on Billboard's Top Rock Albums history after spending thirteen weeks in the number one spot.[78] The album was confirmed to have just sold over 200,000 copies in pure album sales, as of April 8, 2022.[79] The album received a Platinum certification in the United States RIAA after a year with 1 million units sold.[80]
In Australia, the album debuted and peaked at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart for the chart dated 5 October 2020, held off from the number one position by Joji's Nectar.[81] The following week, the album fell three positions to number five.[82]
In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart for the chart dated 10 October 2020. The album was confirmed to have sold over 49,000 units by 13 July 2021.[83] The album received a platinum certification that year indicating over 60,000 units sold.[84]
The popularity of the album began a pop punk revival in the 2020s.[85] The Evening Standard credited the album as "bridg[ing] the gap" between the modern pop punk scene and the mainstream interest that developed from the emo rap scene.[86]
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