Blogocentric Formulations

Forget Me Too

DAY 17

"Forget Me Too"
by mgk feat. Halsey

mgk is an artist that's grown on me over the past few years. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that, for the first part of his career, he was a rapper and then he dramatically changed his musical style to more of a pop/rock/punk aesthetic starting with his album Tickets to My Downfall in 2020. I've featured mgk songs on my playlists before, and I think they've all been from the post-2020 reinvention phase of his musical career.

I've been listening to his newest album a lot (last year's Lost Americana), but nothing has hit me quite like Tickets to My Downfall which has a number of songs I listened to last year. I almost went with "My Bloody Valentine" or "No Cell Phones in Rehab," but this is the song I find myself returning to again and again because of its strong rock elements, and the way he and Halsey duet and alternate verses and play off each other so well.

If you look close, you'll also catch Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker playing the drums in a fleeting scene of the music video below; Barker was actually a producer on this album and collaborated on developing mgk's new sound. And, honestly, it's kind of hard not to hear Barker's influence on his music after knowing that.