CTRL+ALT+REPEAT 2025: Best Alt Songs
Wet Leg, Nieve Ella, Not for Radio, and NoSo released some of the best alt songs of 2025.
Shoegaze. Grunge. Alt-pop. Punk. Alternative music is all that and more, and in 2025, there was a wealth of incredible alt songs bursting onto the music scene.
In the second installment of Off the Record’s 2025 CTRL+ALT+REPEAT series, we’re highlighting the best alt songs released this year. Check out our list of the best indie songs for more 2025 recaps!
“Sugar” by NoSo
Jane Flautt, Music Extras Co-Editor
NoSo is one of indie pop’s best-kept secrets, and it’s only a matter of time before their synth-heavy, shoegaze jams reach a wider audience. With the expansive reverb of ’80s pop-rock and plenty of catchy guitar licks, “Sugar” by NoSo immediately grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. Pushed as a single ahead of their sophomore album, When Are You Leaving?, released in October, “Sugar” takes the listener on an exhilarating journey, describing the sweet and sour rollercoaster of being with a charming yet mercurial lover. Singer, writer, and producer Baek Hwong strikes an excellent balance between longing and condemnation with lyrics like “Hold the land above me / Carrot on a string / Call me the problem / But you needed me,” which echo hauntingly throughout the track. The song is the epitome of a sugar high: upbeat, all-encompassing, and addictive, yet grounded by the inevitable pain of the comedown.
“Money Fight” by DERBY
Reegan-Tate Johnson, Co-Editor-In-Chief
Derby’s “Money Fight” is a masterclass of alt-pop. From his debut album Slugger, he’s already had a breakout year, collaborating with Kevin Abstract, Dominic Fike on Geezer, Maximillion, and willoh and more, but this track proves he’s carving his own lane. The production is futuristic and unattached, almost hyperpop adjacent in some moments, while the lyrics are tactile and vivid. Lines like “You float through the kitchen like you embody Christ/ Must look shameful through an angel's eyes” frames a high stakes connection with a balancing act of fist fights and human imperfection. The song in all of its captured holiness and ambition paired with an entire record of sharp hits secures Derby’s spot as a singular voice in alt music today.
“Cross Your Mind” by Shelly
Jane Flautt, Music Extras Co-Editor
You can count the number of songs Shelly has released on one hand, but that hasn’t stopped this collaborative project — made up of Claire Cottrill (Clairo), Claud Mintz (Claud), Noa Getzug, and Josh Mehling — from garnering a cult following. After five years, the Shelly drought finally ended in July with the release of the double a-side, Shelly 2, which includes the addictive single “Cross Your Mind.” A sunshine-infused track with all the signature catchiness of their previous discography, “Cross Your Mind” offers a more polished, determined sound and is the perfect song for beachside afternoons suffused with heat and saltwater. The coastal, reverby melody mixes well with Cottrill’s sweet and dreamy vocals as she sings about the melancholic pull of nostalgia for a failed connection and the memories she replays in her mind over and over. If Shelly’s first EP evokes the gentle freshness of spring, then “Cross Your Mind” showcases the band’s progression to summer: a mature, bold song for long days in the sun.
“pond song” by Wet Leg
Brooke Shapiro, Music Extras Co-Editor
With their sophomore album, moisturizer, duo-turned-quintet Wet Leg further cemented their status as stars of the current alternative rock scene. And just to make it clear, founding members Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers claimed they can be your “Betelgeuse” and “Bellatrix,” some of the brightest of Orion’s stars, in the standout track “pond song.” The LP as a whole sees a more romantic side of the group, but “pond song” drives the metaphors home in a way only the cheeky minds of a band like Wet Leg can. Referring to cult classic film The Princess Bride, Teasdale and Chambers sing, “On the hoof / Off the cuff / I’m Westley / And I’m Buttercup / I’ve never been / I’ve never been / I’ve never been so deep in love,” trading lines with playful cadences. With some gritty synths and wailing guitars, “pond song” captures the feeling of a love-struck heart growing until reaching catharsis.
Watch the music video for “Masquerade.”
“Masquerade” by Cardinals
Riley Hilbert, Live Coverage Co-Editor
Every once in a while, you come across a song that feels like it happens to you, not just around you. “Masquerade” by Cardinals is one of those dream-like releases. Placed on Rolling Stone UK’s Ones To Watch 2024 and deemed one of Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten’s favorite bands, Cardinals has burst out of the DIY scene in Cork, Ireland, and into the international alternative universe. In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, Cardinals frontman Euan Manning described the group as “noise music and if you can see past that sort of like chaos and stuff, it’s just very warm. There’s pop there, there’s real vulnerability and it’s honest.” You can feel that mix of grunge and warmth in “Masquerade,” and for fans eager for more, you won’t have to wait long — their eponymous debut album will be out Feb. 13, 2026.
“Second Sleep” by Magdalena Bay
Brooke Shapiro, Music Extras Co-Editor
Psychedelic pop-rock duo Magdalena Bay set a high bar with their 2024 sophomore album, Imaginal Disk. Yet with their slew of 2025 singles, they jumped it with ease. From the first batch of this year’s double a-sides, “Second Sleep” is impossible to listen to without feeling like you’re floating. The four-minute track is an eruption of smooth synths, virtuosic strings, and funky bass lines, tied together with the bow of singer Mica Tenenbaum’s satisfying croon. Using the historical phenomenon of sleeping in distinct phases before the advent of artificial lighting, the song is a critique of the suffering people endure while the world keeps on spinning: “Yeah, the world’s waking up, it’s not the proto-days / No sleeping in / Call the cops, drug me up, send the men off to war.” “Second Sleep” is an infectious listen from start to finish — but it’s no surprise coming from the musical magicians that are Magdalena Bay.
“Back to You” by Not for Radio
Daisy Calderon Arredondo, Contributor
María Zardoya, lead singer of the indie pop band The Marías, surprised fans with the release of her first solo project, Not for Radio, and her subsequent debut album, Melt, this year. Zardoya’s stunning vocals, soft melodies, and hauntingly beautiful lyrics produce an intimate 40-minute, 10-track album. Released on Oct. 10, Melt is the album of the fall, diving headfirst into themes of nature, love, and loss. Track four, “Back to You,” quickly became a fan favorite, emerging as Melt’s top track, per its Apple Music homepage. The song centers around a failed relationship and perfectly encapsulates what it means to accept the absence of love while simultaneously longing for its presence. And for fans of The Marias, Not for Radio’s TikTok reposts show that yes, she knows about the matching song title to the band’s single, “Back To Me,” released in April. Zardoya knows how to write a gut-wrenching love song, and “Back to You” is no exception. A quiet and devastatingly raw depiction of what it means to be human, this song is perfect to listen to on a quiet autumn day.
Watch the music video for “Count The Ways.”
“Count The Ways” by The Last Dinner Party
Daisy Calderon Arredondo, Contributor
What’s British, alternative, theatrical, and made up of five women? Rising indie rock band The Last Dinner Party, of course. Formed in 2021, The Last Dinner Party made headlines both in the U.K. and across the pond with the debut of their first album, Prelude to Ecstasy, in 2024. Their second release, From the Pyre, draws on the energy and confidence garnered from the success of their previous work, exploring the dark and grisly emotions of a “dead” relationship. The album’s second track, “Count The Ways,” specifically dives into the complexity of violence in a failing relationship. Lyrics such as “You’ll break into my house / I'll break into your house” and “If you twist the knife right / I will twist the knife left” paint an intense image of mutually understood destruction between the protagonists. With a sound similar to Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, and Catfish and the Bottlemen, “Count The Ways” is reminiscent of the leather-clad, golden era of underground rock bands.
“Lucky Girl” by Nieve Ella
Tabita Bernardus, Head Writing Editor
On the brink of a new chapter both as an artist and an adult, alt-pop sensation Nieve Ella considers herself a “Lucky Girl,” and points it back at you, too. Written and composed from a place of unfamiliarity, the crux of the song lies in the singer’s triumphant tone backed by rich, crackling chords. In the face of change, she’s learning to ground herself in her music, and this time it’s an empowering, rock-leaning number that might be one of her best ones yet. Embarking on a summer-long festival run meant that Ella and her band took it to the stage first, and the fans' eager responses sealed the deal. If there was any ounce of doubt in her mind of what the future might hold, she trades it in for a guaranteed lucky hand, completely absolving any hexes in its searing chorus: “I get what I want / I’m a lucky girl / I'm the objective / In your ugly world.”
“Right? (mercury Version)” by flipturn
Reegan-Tate Johnson, Co-Editor-In-Chief
The reinstallation of flipturn’s “Right? (mercury Version)” puts nuclear energy into contemporary alt-rock. The song itself, already a sarcastic push back at caving to societal notions but mercury, the project of Nashville singer-songwriter Maddie Kerr, pushes it into a more extreme focus, adding more depth and fiery tone to the track. The collaborators invite the listener to explore the difference of meaning found versus meaning performed, the questions burning at the edges. The song stakes itself in primal emotions and grunge texture that makes for quite the introspective rendition, leaving behind no answers, only an open ended line of interrogation.