Mind Over Matter by Young the Giant

Mind Over Matter, the second studio album from Irvine, California's Young the Giant, arrived on Fueled by Ramen on January 21, 2014, four years after the band's self-titled debut. Justin Meldal-Johnsen produced it, and the five-piece that once called itself the Jakes sounds like it has been handed a bigger room and told to fill it: Jacob Tilley and Eric Cannata stack their guitars into shimmering walls, Payam Doostzadeh's bass and Francois Comtois's drums push harder, and Sameer Gadhia sings with the wide-open throat of a frontman aiming at the back rows.

It's indie rock with its sights on bigger stages, glossy but still restless. "It's About Time" and "Crystallized" went out as singles to carry the message, the title track has its own staying power, and the critics were mostly kind. Home of the Strange came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.