Carnival of Soul

If you don’t believe that Machine Gun Kelly is actually making good rock music now, just let the Billboard charts tell you. Kelly’s album Tickets to My Downfall debuted atop the Billboard 200, along with the Top Rock Albums chart, becoming the first rock album to hit No. 1 in over a year. The last rock album to top the charts was Tool’s Fear Inoculum, in September 2019. In a year that’s been dominated by rappers, who’ve so far topped the chart during 23 out of 41 weeks, it’s fitting that Kelly, a former rapper himself, would be rock’s chart breakthrough. The Travis Barker–produced record is his first No. 1 album, bolstered by a strong 126,000 equivalent units. Congrats to Kelly and his collaborator Megan Fox.

Kelly leads the biggest top-ten shake-up in almost two years for the album charts, according to Billboard, with six new albums in the top ten. At No. 2 is K-pop group SuperM with their debut album Super One: The 1st Album, also notching a six-figure debut with 104,000 units. It follows the boys’ No. 1 EP SuperM: The First Mini Album, from last October. Japanese YouTuber turned singer Joji is at No. 3 with his second album Nectar, while Deftones enter at No. 5 with their return-to-form Ohms, and Carrie Underwood’s Christmas album debuts at No. 8. And rounding out the top ten is that album we begged you not to listen to last week, Tory Lanez’s pathetic Megan Thee Stallion reply DAYSTAR. Meanwhile, we were watching Saturday Night Live.