EDIT: This list started with 6 records, which I was inherently uncomfortable with. The number 6 is, historically, terribly unlucky. As a result, I’ve added to the original 6 to present a much more comfortable Top 7 records for 2026!
We’re halfway through a strong year in music, the perfect time to start considering incredible 2026 alternative albums so far. My listening is lagging only a little bit behind, made possible by unemployment. I have NOTHING BUT TIME to listen. I’m still churning through June releases but this list should be a good marker of top alternative listens through…let’s say mid-June.
The year 2026 started with a bang on the first day of January when The Interpretation Cultures released their debut full length from Indonesia. Things continued apace throughout May with fantastic albums by Kevin Morby and Aldous Harding. The 2nd quarter also included unexpected (by me) returns to form by Social Distortion and Broken Social Scene. I may have even identified my favorite record of the year in the first three months of 2026, and that is just not like me.
Evaluating the best 2026 alternative albums so far
Let’s get right to it. I’ve downloaded parts of 125 or so albums so far this year, and bought 25 or 26 releases from which I compile this list of top 2026 alternative albums. I only put albums on any kind of list I publish if I have bought it to support the artist.
A few records that I really like didn’t make what is honestly a pretty arbitrary Top 7 albums. A few of those are included in a supplemental list at the end of this post.
The albums are not in order of preference, although maybe they kind of are.
Every year, but moreso in 2025 than recently, I feel like I’m not going to be able to identify truly great albums. This is an ongoing neurosis, I guess, because it wasn’t hard to find a selection of really outstanding 2025 alternative albums.
That isn’t the same as saying 2025 was a great music year. For the first time in awhile, I thought, “this year was a bit off.” Normally I’m the You’re Just Not Listening Enough guy. Generally I think rock and roll improves every year. But it’s not a straight line and 2025 was definitely a strange year for alternative music.
These 25 records, and a dozen or so honorable mentions, were the exception. So let’s have a listen!
How does anyone chose literally the BEST alternative songs in 2025?
Only a professional rock music writer, record store employee or avowed masochist should actually rank the literal best songs in a year. I mean what does that even mean, “Best Song?” There are approximately fourteen billion songs written in year and I’ve only listened to half of them (joke). So I don’t attempt the hubris of canonizing the best songs in a year. These are some of my favorites. I hope you like them enough that you buy from the artists and find something new to love.
Assembling a list of alternative songs in 2025
I pick my favorite songs for this list from albums that I specifically DO NOT expect to be on my favorite records list for 2025. This is a completely arbitrary and irrational way to assemble two dozen plus of the coolest songs for you to hear, but stick with me for a second. My top albums list features a couple of songs from each of those records already. If I didn’t choose from a different pool of songs, you’d be missing out on a ton of great music. So here they are.
I had two or three 2024 alternative albums in mind all year and I was SURE one of them was going to be my #1. But no! I ultimately surprised myself with my top choice this year. Still, I’ve never been more persuaded in my favorite record of 2024.
Every year it seems I can inevitably conjure just one or two records that I think will be worth writing about. Then I spend two weeks in rapturous review — oh that was so good! and wow that one was amazing! Canonizing my favorite 2024 alternative albums is really more for me than for you.
These 24 remarkable alternative songs from 2024 are a kind of a soundtrack of the year.
The songs range from post punk to dream pop to alternative country. I’ve been adding to this list of tunes all year from hundreds of album and song downloads. A few of the songs may be a teeny bit obscure. But all of them were written with infectious hooks. They are immediate and super easy to fall in love with.
A quick preface that these aren’t the biggest alternative singles of the year.
In fact, most come from records that WON’T make my Top 20 Albums list for 2024. So Pom Poko’s “Champion” isn’t on this list and none of the one billion songs on Cindy Lee’sDiamond Jubilee are here. Those bands released records that are almost certain to be among my favorite albums. So I’m cherry picking songs that both easy to love but NOT on my favorite albums list. Although the albums list is still an undefined mental catalogue. STOP WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS.
Best alternative songs from 2024: The most insanely catchy
Let’s start with the catchiest alternative songs from 2024. Ready?
Would I have preferred to post my best indie albums 2023 list four or five weeks ago. Yes. Yes, I would. Am I losing sleep over it? No. It simply has low cultural relevance now.
I had most of these 20 records scratched onto a cute, pink “Mom’s To Do List” note pad at the end of the year. But one distraction lead to another and I didn’t sit down to start writing until February 1st. But get off my back already — this is the best 2023 album list you’ll read the entire month of February!
I’ve been missing for a few…but I’m motivated tonight to tell you about 6 alternative songs in 2023 you need to jump on ASAP! Some of these from spring and summer will make my year-end list of favorite alternative songs in 2023. A few are just in my head and deserve a broader audience.
How to listen to the best alternative songs in 2023
The music of Brooklyn’s Ashwin Prasanna has been circulating for awhile, now landing as the debut of his jangly soft 70’s band The Angles. I basically fell in love with Prasanna’s self-titled debut The Angles — an old romantic’s comforting melodic jangle with shades of 70’s soft rock.
Prasanna is a meticulous manager of his sound, playing most instruments and self-producing. His gorgeous indie pop debut is a grower! Here are 3 reasons you need to download The Angles.
The Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup promises a blowout before Sunday night’s lineup featuring Pavement. I’ve scouted out every Saturday band from renowned to obscure. You can hear samples of most of every band below.
HEY HEY STOP! Are you looking for the **2024** LINEUP?!! Click here for band reviews!
Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup: Topline takeaways!
Here are some quick expectations for the Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup:
Saturday will have higher highs than Kilby’s Friday night lineup. If The Strokes’ Casablancas throws himself into it — and that’s an open question — the jog from Weyes Blood at 6:25p to RTJ at 7:35p and The Strokes at 8:45p could be a hoot.
Get to the venue early on Saturday! I’m excited to see Salt Lake City’s Kipper Snack for the first time. They play shortly after 12p noon. If you’re not there by noon, DO NOT miss Tamino at 1:20p and Grace Ives at 1:35p.
Couple of Saturday conflicts, starting with dual start times for Alex G and Wallice at 3:25p. Those two will probably split the audience by age. Also, Osees and Run the Jewels both play at 7:35. I’d really like to see both. However, Osees will play a late DJ set at the Urban Lounge Saturday night.
Here is my recommended Saturday plan. Listen for all these bands below. As always, IMMV.
Saturday
12:15 Kipper Snack 12:45 This looks like Break #1 for me 1:20 Tamino 1:55 Grace Ives 2:30 Tanukichan 3:25 Alex G (May cross over to see Wallice) 4:15 Break #2 5:15 Indigo De Souza 6:25 Weyes Blood 7:35 Run the Jewels 8:45 The Strokes
Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup: The headliners
The wild gamut from Alex G to Weyes Blood to Run the Jewels is going to blow some minds. Let’s have a look at (my) headliners in order of appearance. We’ll start with Alex G’s afternoon performance.
Alex G
It’s actually not the easiest thing in the world to find an image of Alex Giannascoli.
I think part of that is the Elliot Smith mythos, a mystery partially burst with recent network TV appearances. Alex G has become an increasingly influential part of the indie folk/lo fi rock scene for the larger part of a decade, particularly since Beach House (2015) and Rocket (2017).
The Pennsylvania native once again charmed critics with 2022’s God Save the Animals. I didn’t immediately buy it after listening last year, but I think I am basically alone on planet Earth on that take. Here is “Miracles,” which includes the touching lyrics:
“‘I have fears that I have not addressed,’ she says Some things from my past make me feel powerless, well Baby, I pray for the children and the sinners and the animals too And I, I pray for you
Weyes Blood
Natalie Mering had been releasing music for nearly ten years before sinking the music industry on her iceberg with 2019’s Titanic Rising. She returned all the stronger in 2022 with And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. It’s a delicate throwback to pastoral soft 70’s – but punctuated with Weyes Bloods’ powerful emotion and earnestness. In her promotional material, she actually describes her heart as a glow stick.
A friend of mine in NYC, not easily impressed, was blown away by Weyes Bloods’ performance at Brooklyn Steel this spring. He noted particularly the lighting and set, with some in the audience “moved to tears” at the show’s end. I’m ready to have my cynical cold heart warmed in Mering’s ambience. And, joking aside, this is woman who knows how to write pure melody.
This is the opening track from her current album, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody.”
Run the Jewels
I previously speculated we could get RTJ5 just in time for the Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup takes the stage. Bad news: That’s a No. Good news: Killer Mike is putting out his first solo release in a long time, Michael, on June 16. That’s pretty awesome!
Michael Render will be touring major metros with the Midnight Revival Choir starting in July. I have to believe we’ll be treated to Run the Jewel classics and previews of Michael when RTJ plays Saturday night.
Have you heard “Don’t Let the Devil?!” El-P guests along with thankugoodsir and it’s super good.
The Strokes
I feel it’s important to manage expectations with The Strokes.
I’ll go back and experiment with 2020’s The New Abnormal. Most of us, though, will be hoping for competent performances of Is This It and Room On Fire.
Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup: Supporting Acts
Part of the joy of this year’s KBP is not just the big name acts but the introduction we get to dozens of strong independent performers, many of whom I am hearing for the first time. If you’re similarly looking for an introduction, then read on.
Tamino
I am absolutely wrecked hearing Tamino tonight for the first time.
When someone is out there creating music like this and it doesn’t cross my radar, I simply feel inadequate. He hasn’t exactly labored in obscurity – Tamino played several shows at SXSW in 2019. Although in my defense, the Belgian-Egyptian music scene is not super strong.
Tamino’s hypnotic vocals are unearthly. Cairo’s Nile FM (this is an actual radio station, at the evenly numbered MHz 104.2 FM) identifies him as the grandson of Egypt’s “legendary Muharram Fouad.” Last year he released the album Sahar but I want you to hear the song I just sampled, 2017’s “Habibi.”
You cannot NOT hear Jeff Buckley singing. I am dead.
I will absolutely be at the Utah Fairgrounds at 1:20pm to hear Tamino early in the Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup.
Osees
John Dwyer’s long time project Osees, aka Thee Oh Sees, have lived a dozen or more musical lives. From freakout to psych rock, I actually like his current thread which is closer to pure punk.
A Foul Form came out last August although I didn’t catch it then. This is pretty good! It’s on the tolerant side of the hardcore spectrum, which is about the sweet spot for a 50-something white guy like me.
Songs like the freaky surf of “Perm Act” and punk blasts of “Funeral Solution” and “Scum Show” could be a wild part of the Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup.
Indigo De Souza
North Carolina’s Indigo De Souza is all rough edges and blunt, confessional lyrics. De Souza has a great sense of dreary melody, a bit like Dana Margolin of Porridge Radio. De Souza just released All of This Will End two weeks ago and I enjoyed the several tracks I’ve downloaded.
The artist profile on Bandcamp quotes De Souza saying, “I was finally able to trust myself fully.” I don’t really know what that means but it sounds good!
On “You Can Be Mean” she disses on a Luva like Taylor Swift would, but with 100x more venom.
Caroline Polachek
I actually kind of liked parts of the song and video for Caroline Polachek’s “Welcome to my Island,” at least the images of her running through a construction site. (Hey that’s what Weyes Blood serving her coffee!) But its hard for me to take the former Chairlift singer too seriously, and I’m definitely not the target demographic.
Here’s “Welcome to My Island,” which I realize while listening and not watching, loses some interest without the construction video and throwing up blood or coffee.
Dreamer Isioma
Dreamer Isioma continues the suave Freak&B of 2021 debut Goodnight Dreamer on April’s Princess Forever.
Early single “Love & Rage” shows how Isioma deftly combines funk, Afrobeats and a rhythmic indie palette. Princess Forever is also a deep concept album – rarely a necessity – that envisions Isioma transcending an apocalyptic something-or-the-other in an alternate universe.
Best to focus on the Chicago native’s beats, as here on “Touch Your Soul.”
Wallice
Behold the sardonic, self-deprecating indie pop of Wallice!
Just a single EP under her belt, last year’s cutting 90’s American Superstar, Wallice grimly mocks her career trajectory on “Rich Wallice.” The LA artist absolutely shreds on “John Wayne” (actually I don’t know if that’s her on guitar!?) and on the imagined end of her career arc on the EP’s narrative closer “Funeral.”
After a couple of pandemic hits, Wallice Hana Watanabe spent part of the year opening for The 1975 and I can totally hear it. For Rolling Stone AU, Wallice describes hours of added music and dance rehearsals to prepare for her big break.
I dig the way she shifts from 2nd to 5th gear about 1 minute into the EP’s opening cut, “Little League.”
Grace Ives
Synth pop marvel Grace Ives is the author of last year’s Janky Star. Endlessly entertaining, Ives specializes in 2 minute pop gems that show off her breathy vibrato. Sometimes working in a dream pop space, other times breaking into a Cars twee power pop, Ives delivery always matches the material perfectly.
She soars on “Butterfly” from her 2019 debut 2nd.
Tanuchikan
You can hear the Cranberries influence on Tanukichan’s 2023 sophomore release GIZMO. I don’t know that the reference is good or bad, it’s just there. Particularly on songs like “Been Here Before” and “Take Care,” Hannah van Loon sounds like the late Dolores O’Riordan, minus the yodeling.
I appreciate Tanukichan’s crunchier dream pop to the poppier dream pop. Album opener “Escape” is more of a Lush soundscape.
Kipper Snack (Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup local feature)
Loving everything I’ve heard from Salt Lake City’s Kipper Snack, whose Insta says the band is half finished with “a real rock and roll album.” Last year Kipper released Pretty as a Flower, whose seven tracks look like an EP or mini album. Tracks fall somewhere between indie folk and high desert alt country.
Check out this impressive number, “Stick It With Me.”
Other standouts include “No Surprise” and “Mama.” Kipper is getting some well-deserved attention this year. Besides their opening slot for the Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup, they’ve played Soundwell, The Depot and Kilby Court. Kipper is a band to watch.
I’m also going to include a video. Readers of this site know I focus on audio. But I was so struck by the tenderness of this video shot during the pandemic. I hope whatever rock and roll Kipper releases soon includes this purity of spirit.
Also include the pedal steel, I want this young man to show off more pedal steel.
Kipper Snack at Studebaker Studios in Provo
Anais Chantal (Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup local feature)
Anais Chantal released Where Do I Go?? just a couple of months ago. Salt Lake’s Chantal drops between soul and torchlit piano ballads. This is difficult territory to stand out! Chantal has the voice to pull it off, although not all of the melodies here cut through for me.
The opener “CLASSIC” captures Chantal’s presence and range perfectly.
Hippo Campus
Bright indie pop not wildly removed from The Killers, the Minneapolis veterans have been around since 2013. Hippo Campus last month released the Wasteland EP, from which the fan favorite seems to be “Yippie Ki Yay.”
Kilby Block Party Saturday lineup: Other bands playing
I could have and maybe should have broken out The Moss and Josh Doss separately. Links provided for all.
The band Appleseeds! are a Copenhagen indie-pop duo that released the bright and delightful indie pop æblefrø one month ago. The melodies of Kasper Clemmensen and bandmate Ditte Duus are as catchy as the enchanting packaging and internal illustrations.
Duo share lead vocals on the band Appleseeds! debut
Appleseeds! started releasing songs for æblefrø last spring. Appropriately, the earliest tunes that became album closers “Someone to Talk To” and “Spinning ‘Round” featured each singer on lead vocals.
As you listen to each simple, ever-so-jangly number — most barely two minutes — you can’t help but create a column of “Kasper songs” and “Ditte songs” depending on the singer. Both have the same throaty, desultory delivery. Here is Kasper on “Hungry Mouth,” with Ditte’s backing Ahhh’s!
…and let’s show off one more with Kasper on lead, since he voices the majority of the songs. He’s also credited with all the songwriting. I love this guitar line and the pregnant pauses in “Nightmares.”
Ditte Duus the perfect complement in the band Appleseeds!
When Ditte takes the mic she reflects the same innocence and sensibility as Kasper. Breathy and light, she offers the perfect complement on tracks like “The Reach” and original single “Someone to Talk To”
Appleseeds! started as foodie band Tampopo
For the five years or so before launching the band Appleseeds! Danish* duo Kasper Clemmensen and Ditte Duus helmed Tampopo, a band conceived to write and sing mostly about food products. I’m not entirely clear why.
Multiple releases since 2017 included songs like “Pancake Tuesday,” “Swordfish! (What do You Eat?),” “Soft as a Muffin” and the catchy (heh) “Ketchup.”
To be fair, as the years went on, Tampopo appeared to write fewer songs with titles like “Milkshake Zombie” and more tracks that transitioned closer to non-food subjects and the sound Appleseeds! displays on æblefrø.
*Googles “Are people from Denmark called Danish or Dutch?”
Love yourself some Nordic pop?! Check out Finland’s Teini-Pää!
I can’t talk about the band Appleseeds! without promoting the CD illustrations that bring you to a complete stop as you leaf through the pages of æblefrø.
Each song is accompanied by its own painting by renowned Japanese artist Mamoru Yamamoto. You should really learn more about Yamamoto at the artist’s website. The tender artwork is both engrossing and also a perfect visual representation of the band Appleseeds!
As I finished writing this, it occurred to me the band Appleseeds! retained their foodie origins in their new name. Cheers to foodie and jangle pop music alike!
