I put my faith in a loaded gun

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

15/08/25 : Lost Americana - MGK 

I didn't think I knew MGK until I Googled him and realised he's Machine Gun Kelly, who I am vaguely aware of and he's been mentioned in passing a few times on here, but this is our first proper visit. 

I was excepting rappy stuff (because I know he's had beef with Eminem and others in the past) but apparently he doesn't really do that any more. What it seems like he does instead is be influenced heavily by others because I got strong hints of Green Day, Linkin Park, Yungblud and a few others whose names escaped me in a "you know, that guy" kinda way. I didn't think any of it was dreadful but it was all definitely bang average - it’s all almost catchy but doesn’t quite manage it. I did like the chorus of "starman", but I don't know if that's because I'd heard it before or if he stole it off someone else (and it's not a single, so I suspect the latter) - I certainly won't be revisiting this. 

We're at #2 in the charts this week with a new entry (his previous two albums got to #2 and #3, so the top spot is eluding him) and the rest of the top five are Oasis (time for them to go, surely?), Oasis, The Royston Club (another new entry) and Alex Warren. So what other new entries have we got this week?

The Royston Club (#4)
Their name sound like they'll be an indie band - and the sounds they make certainly back this up. It's all pretty decent - maybe not top drawer, but it would be perfect fare for a sunny festival afternoon. #4 seems like a decent effort for the lads though.

Gunna (#9)
25 tracks and 68 minutes of laid back hip-hop - it's not something I need in my life but it wasn’t dreadful, so if forced I'd pick this above plenty other hippy-hopsters.

Craig David (#10)
I suspected I could guess what this sounded like beforehand - and I certainly could. But there’s nothing wrong with that - he’s giving the fans what they and he’s doing it well.

Ethel Cain (#12)
Whereas you never quite know what you’re getting with Ethel, but given we're in the charts it’s probably not going to be as unlistenable as Perverts, her album from January which is almost unlistenable (and believe me, it takes something "special" for me to say that). Fortunately, here she's in her Southern gothic Lana del Rey mode - none of it jumped out at me on first listen, but I suspect multiple listens would be rewarding.

Halestorm (#16)
I struggled to imagine I was going to like anything by anyone called Halestorm - and I can’t say I love it but at least it doesn’t have the shouty growly vocals that I suspected it might have. I can imagine they’re fun live and apparently they’ve been going since ‘97, winning a Grammy in ‘12.

Babymetal (#17)
Whereas these girls do go for the shouty growly vocals - if it wasn’t for that I think I’d quite like the genre clashes going on here. I've got a soft spot for them because social media loves to argue whether they're really metal or not - on the evidence of this, I'd suggest they very much rock.

The Black Keys (#47)
I always think I don't like them Black Keys, but I'm also never sure whether I'm just getting them confused with someone else. This was more mellow than I was expecting - I didn’t love it on first listen, but it might be a grower given a chance.

Gracie Abrams (#51)
This is a decent enough example of this sort of thing. Oh sorry, word's just come in from our guest reviewer that it's a great album (like duh, Dad!). However, what is weird that it was released in ‘20 and this is its first week in the chart.

Jid (#69)
My guess here was a K-pop mopey lad - and boy was I wrong. It's very n-wordy rap - definitely not for me.

Deftones (#98)
Just sneaking under the wire, this appears to be a box set of all their albums - and at 78 tracks and just over six hours I did not listen to it, Bizarrely, this was released in ‘16 - strange things are going on this week. 

We're very lacking in wild and wacky re-entries this week - the only one is Taylor Swift (#88) because she announced a new album. Last week I said that Reneé Rapp would go down to #37 so imagine my absolute surprise to see her at #40 - that's an absolute win for me. I actually think MGK is gonna do something similar, but not quite so well, so let's go for #45. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top forty and six in the entire chart - and we can only expect things to get worse as the release date for The Life Of A Showgirl approaches.

Wikipedia tells us it's his seventh album, but apart from that there's very little of info in there except for one very surprising piece of information which is that the trailer for the album was narrated by Bob Dylan, who never normally does such things but apparently he's a fan. Weird. Critically, the reviews were pretty middling but it's done well commercially, getting to #2 in Germany, #3 in Australia and #4 in Belgium, but that #1 spot is eluding him - but he stands a good chance in the US later in the week.

discogs.com only has one copy available in the UK which is a peppermint candy vinyl version for a mere £75 - an absolute bargain. I'm sticking with "not dreadful but bang average" for my verdict - I just don't see why anyone would need this in their lives. Picking the album of the week is a tricky one because none of them jumped out at me but I'd say The Royston Club, Gunna, Craig David, Ethel Cain, Halestorm, Babymetal, The Black Keys and Gracie Abrams have all done a decent enough job within their genre.

08/08/25 - All very meh
22/08/25 - Pretty forgettable