2024 will probably be remembered as an extension of the age of great female artists. Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé, among others, dominated music. Oasis decided to get back together for a 2025 tour and that made news, but anything Swift did was bigger.
Almost as if Swift is truly bigger than the Beatles used to be and Oasis ever was. Just don't tell that to Noel Gallagher.
Still, the year also gave us overrated fluff. Some of these albums were not even bad; they were just unnecessary. Four of those records are below.
Four of the most overrated albums of 2024
Camila Cabello - C,XOXO
Cabello left her old self behind on this drivel. Instead of fun ballads and safe-for-work lyrics, she appeared to want to inhabit the realm of Charli xcx. The issue wasn't just the lyrical change, but the sonic one as well. Cabello's vibe is uncomfortable nearly the entire time.
In fact, one song, "Uuugly," hardly finds the featured artist on the track at all. We get a Drake track instead. Maybe this was truly how Cabello felt about the record: She had to put it out to make the record company happy, but she didn't really want to be a part of it.
Usher - Coming Home
The album was timed with Usher's forgettable Super Bowl halftime performance, and the album was as dull as the show. The singer gives fans all they might want over 20 songs: Sexually charged R&B that people might play as background music on a romantic evening. The issue is that the album grows stale if one listens to it more than once.
Tellingly, out of all the tracks on the album, only three were released as singles, and none after the LP's release date of February 9. Sure, the album peaked at number one on Billboard's Top Albums Chart but faded relatively quickly. How many of the songs from the record are you still humming in December?
Bon Jovi - Forever
This is definitely not a diatribe on Jon Bon Jovi's vocal issues. He had surgery for that in 2022, and his voice will never be the instrument it once was. Still, he sings well enough on the album, though he sounds a bit weathered. Many vocalists do after decades of singing, however.
The problem with this record is that it came as part of a full-force marketing program that included the Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. If you are a fan of the band, then with all the ads about the new record you might have felt guilty if you did not buy it. In 20 years, you might still be listening to Slippery When Wet, but you won't be hearing Forever.
Jelly Roll - Beautifully Broken
Country music must be the low-hanging fruit of the music industry. If a musical artist has worked in one genre and wants to explore another - i.e. Jelly Roll or Beyoncé - they seemingly like to go with country as maybe that is the easier genre to have a hit song or album. It worked for Jelly Roll.
The problem is that the performer is more popular now, even though he is singing about the same things he used to rap about. His voice is far from the best, but his fans seem to have accepted it for now. One might not be surprised if his career begins to descend rapidly after the newness of his country gimmick wears off.