There is one universal commonality that unites all musicians — making bad music. Whether you are making music for the first or thousandth time, you will inevitably create something that is objectively bad. But whether you release it to the public is what separates the tactical, strategic artists, and the artists who release music just to get it out. Here are three underwhelming songs and projects of 2022.

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“Lightswitch” by Charlie Puth

Charlie Puth, one of the most talented musicians in the industry, dropped what is undoubtedly one of the worst songs of 2022. With a fragile vocal performance, generic beat, and bland, meaningless lyrics, “Lightswitch” misses on all fronts. Somehow, the song has racked up nearly 200 million streams on Spotify and blew up on TikTok — likely due to the corny lightswitch sound effect that can be heard in the chorus of the song.

It always shocks me when I hear unbelievably talented musicians make subpar music, so when I listened to “Lightswitch” for the first time, I was stunned. Through the course of his career, Charlie Puth has released dozens of quality songs, but that does not mean that he is incapable of releasing something terrible. “Lightswitch” is that terrible song.  – Nate Fenningdorf

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“First Class” by Jack Harlow

Like anybody who owns a cellular device and scrolls through TikTok once or twice a day, I heard the famous “First Class” chorus before it was available to stream. At first, I grew to love it, and quickly after that – to hate it. Hate in the sense of overplay as opposed to hate in the sense that it was bad. I do have to say it was clever, and since the chorus seemed to be such a hit, I assumed so would be the song in its entirety. However, once “First Class” came out, I was instantly turned off by the whole idea of the song.

Turns out the teaser was exactly that, a tease. Short in length yet hard to physically sit through, the chorus and verses don’t exactly match dynamically, despite the common instrumental. Combined with the repetitive lyrical themes, “First Class” mostly feels like an overdone party-trick. At first it was cool, but now it feels like a little much – or nothing at all. – Olive Soki

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Every Song on Machine Gun Kelly’s Latest Album

I knew Machine Gun Kelly’s most recent album, mainstream sellout, would be a rough one before I finished listening to its first song. The intro track, “born with horns,” finds 32-year-old MGK discussing everything from being the devil’s spawn to Mercury being in retrograde, and the album doesn’t get much better from there.

Maybe I was bummed it didn’t sound or feel original. Everything, right down to the album cover, which looks a little too similar to this Japanese Breakfast cover art, seemed like a knock-off. Part of the reason I feel so strongly is because I actually loved his last album, Tickets to My Downfall. mainstream sellout just sounded like a compilation of songs that didn’t make the cut for the last project.

One thing I can’t complain about was the long list of features. The project brought in everybody from iann dior to Pete Davidson to British screamo band, Bring Me The Horizon. Ultimately though, it wasn’t enough. If you put together an album with unlimited budget and the best musicians in the world, it needs to be better than this. – Nate Rummel