If you’re a 90’s alt-rock fan, this will be your favorite out of this selection by far. Look past the voice that could belong to a 16 year old, and you can imagine that her Spotify Wrapped is full of Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails and 90’s alternative jams that have influenced her sound. The lyrics sound well-read, there are actual, honest-to-god guitars on a lot of the tracks, and the songwriting is stellar. Beabadoobee has brought guitar pop to the mainstream in a way I wasn’t expecting to hear in 2024.

The only negative is the cover - why does she look so confused? Beabadoobee is the least confused of anyone I’ve listened to this week - she’s self assured in her songwriting, confident in where she comes from musically, and seems unafraid of writing music for herself and not for the algorithm. None of the other top of the charts artists are even in the same league as the songwriting on this album - and it’s not remotely close.

These days not writing music to target an algorithm is in itself an act of rebellion. For a generation whose lives have been dictated by algorithms and feeds and phones, this makes perfect sense, and it’s a rebellion I’m fully onboard with. Between the alt-rock influences and the subtextual rebellion, I’m totally onboard with Beabadoobee. (Damn, I guess it’s beabadoobee, all lower case. I guess I’m too old to understand, but I’ll be doing my best not to mis-Case anybody else in the future).

Jams

“California”
“Girl Song”
“Ever Seen”
“Everything I Want”

From the roundup Jamwise #45 - Special Edition: 2024's Chart-Topping Albums.