2004 called, and even it doesn’t want Machine Gun Kelly & WILLOW’s “Emo Girl” back

We included fellow Travis Barker collaborators Machine Gun Kelly and WILLOW in our list of 10 songs from the pop punk revival you need to know, so we were of course interested to hear that they teamed up on a new song together, and that song has just been released. It's a very mid 2000s-sounding song called "Emo Girl," and it comes hot on the heels of When We Were Young Fest and the Emo's Not Dead Cruise sparking mid 2000s emo nostalgia.

Part of liking Machine Gun Kelly's new pop punk phase has always been knowing it's kinda cheesy, but his not-so-guilty pleasures are often too hard to deny, even with dumb lyrics, annoying antics, and so many other factors working against him. "Emo Girl," however, is very easy to deny. The blink-182 influence on this era of MGK has been obvious from the start, but this one really sounds like blink-182, and it has even less depth than blink's most intentionally dumb songs. The "I fell in love with an emo girl" hook sounds like something Bowling For Soup might've come up with in in 2004 and thought, "nah, that's a little too silly." WILLOW's verse sounds great, I just wish she would've saved the energy for a better song. Maybe next time, MGK.

"Emo Girl" will be included on MGK's new album, which is now called Mainstream Sellout (not Born With Horns, as originally announced). That comes out March 25 via Bad Boy/Interscope.

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