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Tickets to My Downfall: The Horns Ending (Da Sequel)
There is a boy. Locked out from the outside, I let my hand clutch tightly onto the prized slip in my hand. It's a ticket.
Holding the ticket, I can feel that it held a lot of memories, plenty of angst and a collection of distortion.
But I didn't pay it no mind; it was simply a ticket, an entry to a downfall experience that I couldn't hear yet.
There is a man. Lights turn off, and the crowds dissipate, he clutches onto the important possession in his clutches. It's a guitar.
Holding the guitar, he contemplates the newest chapter in his life, the change in scenery, and a collection of polarizing eyes.
But he pays it no mind; it was simply a guitar, and came the downfall that he could see from miles away.
He's brought a new light, the latest trend-setter in punk; but he's a poser.
He's pushed his love of pop-rock, the loud distortion to hype the ears; but it's outdated.
He means true to his style, the music speaking through his heart; but he's a fucking sellout.
Signing a coward devil's contract, all for a boy with horns.
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Poem over. This is definitely the sequel I've been waiting on for a long while; and every single track is amazing! And not only are they amazing, but each of them taking a note of its predecessors and cranking the distortion up-a-notch and bringing it to its full potential; every single one of them feeling its own sequel/Part 2 indirectly. 'born with horns' being the sequel to 'title track', 'god save me' feeling like the next 'nothing inside', 'sid & nancy' being the spiritual successor to 'jawbreaker', 'make up sex' is like the version of 'my ex's best friend' from an alternate universe, 'drug dealer' taking inspiration from iann dior's 'sick and tired', and 'twin flame' following up a different topic than 'play this when i'm gone' (THE CLOSER IS GREAT, THERE'S A HEAVY LOUD PUNK INSTRUMENTAL OUTRO LIKE I WANTED FROM TTMD'S CLOSER).
It made me so unbelievably happy to listen to the full album back to front and not be reminded every time that Travis helped produce a backbone of this album. You know how in a few of the latest Marvel Spiderman movies, each one of them, up until No Way Home, never felt like it was Peter Parker's movie just because how he was held down with a lot of conflict that didn't contribute to his character? Same applied to here, whenever I would listen to TTMD, every time I heard drums, I would go "Oh, that's Travis Barker playing". But in here, Kels has really pulled through so much effort to make this album his own, and not just be held down as Barker's apprentice in the pop-punk scene, because by the time I played the album again halfway through, only then I realized that Travis Barker is indeed in the album.
My only criticism is how the album shoots itself so bad in the foot with die in california with Gunna and Young Thug. Like why the fuck is this on the album??? I didn't mind "ay!" because it grew on me, but wow, does this song go for way too long and the features gave no effort whatsoever. I don't fuss about rap songs as much, but in an album full of pop-punk tracks, it feels so unnecessarily random to have trap songs like ay! and die in california tossed in the mix. But it isn't the worst thing cause Landon Barker's feature was a surprise to see and hear, all that talk and rumours of him appearing on so many albums on Genius (I saw so much speculation from jxdn, Huddy, to Avril) finally paid off to see him in an MGK album lmao.
Anyway, this album fucking blows and has officially ruined the scene.
Favs: ALL but wall of fame & die in california
1 | born with horns / 89 |
2 | god save me / 94 |
3 | maybe / 95 |
4 | drug dealer / 91 |
5 | wall of fame / 56 |
6 | mainstream sellout / 100 |
7 | make up sex / 95 |
8 | emo girl / 88 |
9 | 5150 / 100 |
10 | papercuts / 85 |
11 | WW4 / 92 |
12 | ay! / 93 |
13 | fake love don’t last / 97 |
14 | die in california / 55 |
15 | sid & nancy / 94 |
16 | twin flame / 87 |