Earlier than this present album, mgk lodged a significant hit alongside Jelly Roll with “Lonely Highway,” primarily a rewrite of John Denver’s “Take Me House, Nation Roads,” whose success maybe explains Baker’s method on misplaced americana. So many huge songs as of late are simply shameless rehashes of previous hits that it’s barely price making the purpose, but when your document goes to put on its influences on its sleeve tattoos, you would possibly as properly draw from a Pinterest board stuffed with bulletproof melodies. The Pavlovian goodwill elicited by mgk borrowing the sound of “Operating Up That Hill,” on “indigo” is so highly effective that he almost will get away with rapping, “Residing fantasy like J.Okay. Rowling/I’m J.R.R. Tolkien these spliffs.” When he talk-sings, “I been up for day-ay-ay-ay-ays/Choppin’ up the yay-ay-ay-ay-ay” on the pre-chorus of the “Semi-Charmed Life” flip, confusingly named “starman,” it’s nearly inconceivable to not be a minimum of semi-char—uh, perversely amused—by his knuckleheaded capability to fall ass-backward into efficiently placing his personal stamp on a traditional pop tune about meth.
Typically, Baker tries to do an excessive amount of without delay with out providing a way of function. “dont wait run quick” feels like a misplaced collab between Def Leppard and Movement Metropolis Soundtrack, and the one different factor that you must find out about it’s it’s the official tune of ESPN’s School GameDay. “miss sunshine” is like Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers’ “Highway Trippin’” run by means of a Sugar Ray preset, and makes an attempt to evoke a imaginative and prescient of an idyllic, consequence-free youth that, charitably, may very well be learn as mgk trying to arrange the document’s darker second half, however principally feels vapid and misplaced. Elsewhere, he has the inverse downside: “vampire diaries,” which is mercifully one of many few occasions Travis Barker pop-punks up on the album, is written from the angle of a vampire. (There’s no metaphor there—he’s simply imagining what it could be prefer to be a vampire.) As a musician, mgk doesn’t essentially do one style notably properly, however he does so lots of them, every with equal enthusiasm. The gamut of kinds on misplaced americana means that if mgk weren’t well-known, he’d be the musical director/frontman of a very kickass and notably versatile cowl band.
One of many outstanding issues about misplaced americana is its constant, understanding nods to cocaine use, which could be learn as a nod to Baker’s very publicly no-good late-2024. “I miss my medicine, they’ve been my pals since 21,” he sings on “Outlaw Overture,” earlier than the beat switches and he continues, “All the pages are clean until my life goes to shit/I do know I do this on function simply to put in writing once more.” The document’s two greatest tracks, “goddamn” and “inform me whats up,” proceed this confessional mode. The previous sounds extra like Lil Peep than it doesn’t, and mgk nails the project, dashing up his metronomic stream to match the urgency of the traces, “I’ve been drowning in one thing, I’m a downer on substances/I’m a functioning junkie turning my life round.” It’s a melding of lyric and supply that means Baker could be turning a nook as a songwriter, in a position to embrace the concept that substance and kind are complementary ideas.
