Young the Giant

Melding glossy pop and arena-shaking rock with gusto and a keen knowledge of the wider world, Young the Giant have been one of American alternative’s standard-bearers since their breakthrough in the early 2010s. Formed in 2004 in Irvine, CA, as The Jakes, Young the Giant rechristened themselves while working on their self-titled 2010 debut, which spawned the radio hits “My Body” and “Cough Syrup.” Performances at the MTV Video Music Awards and festivals like Austin City Limits helped grow their fanbase, and their second album, 2014’s Mind Over Matter, showed how their sound had also mushroomed, with slick synths and soul-inspired hooks. Young the Giant’s third album, Home of the Strange, arrived two years later and reconciled America’s political mood with the band’s experiences meeting people on the road and the immigrant backgrounds of their members, drawing inspiration from Kafka and the lives of first-generation Americans while leaning even further into burgeoning pop instincts. Mirror Master, released in 2018, chilled things out a bit, with songs like the bed-headed “Brother’s Keeper” and the funky “Tightrope”—but the group’s hooks and observations remained razor sharp as they continued to cut a singular path through alt-pop.