Call it Tumblr revival or post-quarantine activation, but this year saw plenty of established alternative and indie rock musicians make highly anticipated returns with fresh albums.
Of that set, plenty were recognized in the 2023 GRAMMY Awards’ inaugural award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Arctic Monkeys’ orchestral single “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball," Florence + The Machine’s triumphant "King," and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first song in nearly a decade, "Spitting Off The Edge Of The World," featuring Perfume Genius, are all up for the trophy.
These long standing musicians are joined in the category by two acts who more recently got their breakthrough moment: Big Thief, who was recognized for their folksy track, “Certainty,” and Wet Leg, who is up for their viral hit, "Chaise Longue.”
The 2022 Best Alternative Music Performance, which aims to honor and uplift the alternative genre, is just one of the new categories that have been introduced for the 2023 GRAMMY Awards. It will exist in tandem with the Best Alternative Music Album category — which was established in 1958 and was referred to Best Alternative Music Performance in 1991, and from 1994 to 1999.
Having both categories will provide more opportunities for the Recording Academy to recognize the diverse communities of musicians and creators who work in the alternative genre.
Read on to learn more about the nominees ahead of the 2023 GRAMMY Awards ceremony, taking place Feb. 5 at Los Angeles’ Crypto Arena.
Read the full list of nominees for the 2023 GRAMMY Awards here.
Arctic Monkeys — "There'd Better Be A Mirrorball"
To follow-up their loungey, high-concept 2018 record Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, Arctic Monkeys returned in 2022 with The Car. Their seventh studio album folds in elements of jazz, traditional pop, and flourishing film soundtracks.
The album’s opening track, "There’d Better Be A Mirrorball" begins with a passage of elegant strings and piano that sets the tone for the rest of the project. Frontman Alex Turner told Variety that the song was specifically influenced by Nat "King" Cole’s 1963 ballad "Where Did Everyone Go?"
Founded in 2002, the indie rock band from Sheffield, England has received six total career GRAMMY nominations. They were first recognized in 2006 when their debut record, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album.
Big Thief — "Certainty"
On "Certainty," Big Thief vocalist and songwriter Adrianne Lenker describes a devotion that fluctuates like a sine wave. "Maybe I love you is a river so high / Maybe I love you is a river so low," she sings.
The stripped-down song is one of 20 that appear on the indie rock band’s sprawling fifth studio album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe You. It follows the four piece's 2019 albums U.F.O.F. and Not, which have both previously received GRAMMY nods.
While making Dragon, Lenker said she was becoming more fearless as a writer. "I definitely had a desire for things to be complex: Is this chord progression too simple? Is this lyric too simple? Is this cliche? Is this corny?," she told Pitchfork. "I feel less of that noise in my head, and more of just, 'This is what I want to sing.'"
Florence + The Machine — "King"
"I’m no mother / I am no bride / I am king," Florence Welch repeats like a mantra on her determined pop-rock anthem "King." It marks Florence + the Machine’s seventh GRAMMY nomination since they broke out in 2009.
Written and produced by Welch and Jack Antonoff, the song captures the English artist's sudden "tearing of [her] identity and [her] desires," according to a statement. Though Welch never used to think much of her gender, being a woman in her 30s has brought upon a realization: "To be a performer, but also to want a family might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts."
"King" appears on the band’s fifth studio album, Dance Fever, which was partly inspired by the work of Iggy Pop and choreomania — a Medieval social phenomenon where groups of people danced erratically.
Wet Leg — "Chaise Longue"
"Chaise Longue," the debut breakout single from Wet Leg, marks the British indie rock act’s first GRAMMY nomination.
The energetic song went viral for its tongue-in-cheek lyrics that allude to academic life ("I went to college and I got the big D") and the 2004 film Mean Girls ("Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin"), bringing the duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers into new visibility.
In a Rolling Stone interview, Teasdale said Wet Leg weren't "making a conscious effort to write anything," and that "Chaise Lounge" came from "that 13-year-old girl sleepover head space." The song leads their self-titled first album, which debuted at No. 1 on the UK charts only two years after Teasdale and Chambers decided to become a musical duo.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs feat. Perfume Genius — "Spitting Off the Edge of the World"
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs returned this year with their first song in nine years: "Spitting Off The Edge Of The World," an insurgent indie rock track that confronts the climate crisis.
Produced by longtime collaborator Dave Sistek of TV on the Radio, the song is a duet between frontwoman Karen O and Perfume Genius that is equal parts vulnerable and resolute. "Spitting Off The Edge Of The World" was the lead single from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ long-awaited fifth studio album Cool It Down.
First breaking out in 2000, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have received three previous nominations for Best Alternative Music Album: 2003’s Fever to Tell, 2006’s Show Your Bones, and 2009’s It’s Blitz!