ALBUM REVIEW: Falling In Reverse – ‘Popular Monster’

Uh-oh—new Falling In Reverse! Bet you’re offended by that, eh?! Bet you’re so triggered!

Well, no, not really. The general preface to any discussion on Falling In Reverse should be how they weren’t always the metalcore bogeyman that’s been thrust upon them as a reputation. They’ve had highs; they’ve had cavernous, crushing lows; and they’ve had points where people have stopped caring altogether. That’s not now, though. Now, Falling In Reverse are arguably more popular than ever, though you could hazard a guess that little of that is to do with the music. No, it’s more likely that—like all culture-war demagogues with nothing of value to contribute—Ronnie Radke has managed to parlay being a totally loathsome individual into some form of ‘defiance’. At the end of the day, when your entire enterprise is predicated on a man with multiple allegations of assault and impropriety to his name, and a well-documented footprint of being an outright bigot, you’re not attracting a clientele with the best of intentions.

Of course, those exact people are the ones who’ll take the greatest umbrage from that being brought up at all. There’ll be the ones who’ll spew the homophobic slurs and ultimately prove the point correct, but there’ll also be those who’ll take a more…shall we say, ‘measured’ approach. After all, shouldn’t you separate the art from the artist? Shouldn’t you give people a chance? Well, sure, you can, and on a case-by-case basis, you arguably should. But that’s clearly not what Radke wants. That’s not even a suggestion that can taken remotely seriously, just on face value alone. This album is called Popular Monster; the artwork is Radke’s mugshot. Come on, you’re already Falling In Reverse fans in 2024—you don’t have to convince anyone that you’re idiots.

Radke’s clearest muse on this album is Tom MacDonald—both are grown men with shitty face tattoos and an inordinate amount of their personality dedicated to owning the wokies. What’s gone amiss is how it helps to actually do something if you want to leave a mark. Say what you want about MacDonald and how awful and tiresome his music is, but he’s hitched his wagon to his beliefs with unerring frankness that’s almost admirable for how it just keeps going. Radke, on the other hand, doesn’t have the stones to really put his money where his mouth is. See, it’s just the voices in his head responsible for his views and past behaviour, leaving him so tortured and anguished, but also not above giving in when it comes to dishing out the most obvious, ineffectual bait possible.

As a result, the moments of actual ‘provocation’ feel all the lamer. It boils down a 40-year-old man whining about cancel culture on ZOMBIFIED, or how people are too scared to speak their mind on NO FEAR. Fancy going on about SJWs, too? That’s another tepid, dated talking point that’d fit right in! Because if this is supposed to offend or spark controversy, the Falling In Reverse brain trust is clearly spent. It’s nothing of value or consequence to anyone outside the brainlets who want to be fed this specific brand of slop. And when there’s Radke himself at the centre of it, trying to be a big man and play the villain, it’s more like a little kid acting out for attention. “If I’m a loser and you don’t like me / I dropped a pin now, come and try me,” he sneers on Bad Guy, in a specific tone of voice that gives ‘playground bully’ more than any convincing hard-man. As for All My Life’s offering of “I may have drew some blood but that was true love”, it’s too nonchalantly sung to convey the actual nasty toxicity in how it reads. Congratulations—one line on the entire album that believably conveys a piece-of-shit persona, and even that’s done wrong.

The thing is, it’s such an obvious grift that it’s not even surprising. Even on a conceptual level, that’s clear. A big clutch of the singles were loose releases throughout 2022; hell, the title track is from 2019! That’s not an album rollout; that’s bucketing together the songs lying around because a full release is hard to do, but would make more money. It’s probably why the attempts at ‘offense’ are as watered-down and impotent as they are, so not to jeopardise the label backing that Falling In Reverse rely on. Perhaps you could draw parallels to how many Conservative ‘free-thinkers’ and ‘independents’ are bankrolled by multimillion-dollar corporations as a propaganda arm, though considering there’s barely an effort to hide it on Falling In Reverse’s part, it’s not necessary. Considering there’s a line on Ronald where Tech N9ne alludes to increased levels of violence faced by transgender people—which, to the vast, vast contingent of Falling In Reverse fans, might seem like a betrayal of ideology to even show concern about—the game-playing is blatant.

Of course, because Falling In Reverse are just the best, you don’t even have to dig into any politics to realise that Popular Monster is garbage. Radke’s voice has only become more grating over time, with that now bleeding over into the multitude of styles—both singing and rapping—with little pleasantness between them. The fake country twang on All My Life makes you want to kill yourself even more than his normal voice does; Watch The World Burn has the super-fast white-rapper flow that’s indistinguishable from every other vacuous tryhard; and the orchestral cover—sorry, ‘reimagining’—of Papa Roach’s Last Resort is one of the most laughably oversold and self-serious performances put to record this year (or it would be, if it weren’t another leftover from over a year ago). As for the base form…well, you don’t even have to get half a minute through the opener Prequel before a snotty “Pardon me if that came off rude” shows Radke’s authority or bravado hitting negative numbers.

Honestly, the kindest assessment that can offered is how it doesn’t sound too bad. Money has been pumped into this to an absurd degree, and at least there’s a payoff when it’s slick and firm and, on Ronald and ZOMBIFIED, heavy enough. You aren’t confusing Falling In Reverse for metalcore chancers; they’ve ensured that’s true. Plus, it’s not like anyone else would put similar effort into their hip-hop side, rather than treat it as window-dressing. You can say it’s overblown—because it is; the symphonic swells and choral stings bring to mind NF and his own overestimated self-importance—but it is distinctive. As a body of work, Popular Monster feels like it couldn’t have come from anyone other than Falling In Reverse.

Treat that as a compliment or admonishment by preference, because both kind of apply. Sure, it’s good to have a band willing to exert themselves by this amount, but it’s impressive in scale rather than technique or content. There’s a reason why the actual band within Falling In Reverse are treated with disregard at best—the spotlight isn’t for them. They’ll supply the breakdowns and the thick metalcore monochrome, and leave Radke to swallow the lion’s share of attention for himself. It’s why Falling In Reverse albums are never as impactful as they strive to be. They aim for it, but they’re always designed in such a way that there’s never enough gas to get them there. Especially now when good chunks of instrumental are hip-hop production (and pretty bog-standard versions of it, to be truthful), it’s entirely ephemeral. All My Life, for the country-rock cash-grab that it is, is probably the best song on attempt alone, and even that’s only through placating Jelly Roll as the mainstream’s Kid Rock.

But doesn’t that just say it all? The best that Falling In Reverse can aspire to on Popular Monster is copying another grifter also better known for an insufferable public persona well above any music. It should go without saying that that’s the aim, at the end of the day. The infamy is more than enough to sate Radke; it’s why he can afford to put out crap like this with no repercussions. For the audience he’s courting, quality is of no issue, and that more than suitable enough a reason to treat Popular Monster with total disdain. The surface-level alignment is all the matters, not the details laid out or the way in which they’re informed. Nope, Radke’s ‘controversial’ ‘personality’ is enough. Sounding agreeable for what it is doesn’t make up for the artless intent at the centre, designed to feed the ego and facilitate the delusions of the black hole named Ronnie Radke, and make the chuds who’ll buy into it feel seen. On that basis alone, this is worthless.

For haters of: women, gay people, trans people

‘Popular Monster’ by Falling In Reverse is out now on Epitaph Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall