Grammy for Best Alternative Album: Lana Del Rey, Boygenius and Caroline Polachek look like early favorites
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In the past few years, the Grammy for Best Alternative Album has been a highly contested award. With recent nominees and winners including critically beloved masterpieces like Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” Phoebe Bridgers’s “Punisher,” Wet Leg’s self-titled album, and Japanese Breakfast’s “Jubilee,” it’s no wonder that the caliber of the nominees is expected to be pretty high, especially since alternative music tends to enjoy better critical reception than most genres these days. This year the race already seems to be quite competitive, with still a few months left until the September 15 eligibility deadline.
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The bestselling projects eligible this year may end up being Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” and Melanie Martinez’s “Portals,” though both could face being moved to pop instead of competing in alternative. “Portals” is the bigger of the two, scoring the best first-week sales for any female soloist so far this year. While Martinez’s relative lack of acclaim and past misconduct accusations might keep her from winning, Del Rey could finally be looking at her first Grammy, having both the acclaim and the commercial success. “Ocean Blvd” is not the most acclaimed album currently in the conversation — more on that below — but it’s still got an 81 on Metacritic, indicating universal acclaim. Plus, alternative voters don’t always go for the most acclaimed: Beck’s “Colors” won not so long ago with a 72 on Metacritic against highly celebrated records from St. Vincent and Bjork.
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Del Rey will face competition from newer artists with greater acclaim, though. Two in particular seem to be in it for a possible win. First and most likely is supergroup Boygenius, a collaborative project by musicians Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and four-time Grammy nominee Phoebe Bridgers. Their debut studio album, simply titled “The Record,” launched with a whopping 90 score on Metacritic, besting all of their individual efforts except for Bridgers (“The Record” is tied with her aforementioned “Punisher“).
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Commercially, the album also represented the biggest first week sales for any of them, debuting at number-four on the Billboard 200. This is important because, since 2011, all winners in the category have been top-15 albums, with most of them peaking in the top five. Boygenius also could benefit from being a supergroup, as many voters are likely to be fans of its members individually. However, “The Record” isn’t quite the highest-rated album of the year.
That title belongs to Caroline Polachek’s “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You,” which has an incredible 94 score on Metacritic, making it the best reviewed album of the year. Polachek, however, has the disadvantage of never having been nominated before, which means that there’s a chance many voters just don’t know her. Del Rey and Boygenius would also likely be locks for nominations based on being high on the alphabetical ballot, while voters would have to actively search for Polachek’s album.
But there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t do that: her album has those glowing reviews, and she’s been building buzz on the indie scene for quite a while. “Desire’s” biggest roadblock is the fact that it didn’t chart on the Billboard 200. Albums have been nominated without charting in the USA before, though, like Arlo Parks’s “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” nominated at the 2022 ceremony. That said, Parks’s record did chart well in Europe, while Polachek’s really didn’t, so it all comes down to whether voters know of the album.
Polachek vs. Boygenius vs. Del Rey could be a very interesting race to watch. Del Rey takes the cake commercially, Polachek takes it critically, and Boygenius are right there in-between with both factors in their favor. Ultimately, a lot of time is left for one of the three to solidify their status as frontrunner — or for another album to arise. In the meantime, let’s just be happy that it’ll likely continue the streak of amazing winners in the field. Plus, the streak of female winners might also continue (women have won the last three in a row), so there’s that to celebrate too.
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