@Matty Osborne

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

Bold, epic and eclectic, this playlist collects recent indie rock and pop at its most anthemic—in other words, toe-tapping, head-bobbing songs that let you know you're alive. Our editors update these selections regularly. If you like a track, add it to your library.

Depending on your vantage, the 2010s were the decade where alternative went pop, or pop went alternative. As seasoned acts like Coldplay continued to evolve with the times, an emergent breed of alt-rock acts—Imagine Dragons and AWOLNATION among them—retrofitted angsty bluster for a post-EDM universe. At the same time, the likes of Lorde, Halsey and Billie Eilish forged the model for a new kind of pop star more spiritually in tune with the outsider ethos of alternative music than the upbeat energy of Top 40 radio. However, veteran rockers like Foo Fighters and The Black Keys ensured that loud guitars still had a place in the alt-nation, while a growing cadre of suspender-sporting reactionaries—Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men—steadfastly rejected the technological advances of the era to embrace the timeless sound of foot-stomping folk.

Given the breezy, laidback vibe of Milky Chance’s tunes, it’s surprising that high-school pals Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch grew up not in some idyllic surfer magnet but in central Germany. To be fair, the head-nodding grooves and coastal energy on their 2013 hit “Stolen Dance” are as much a reflection of their formative musical diet of Bob Marley and Jack Johnson (who appears on the jubilant “Don’t Let Me Down”) as any environmental factors, while the pair’s jazz-ensemble background is evident in the way their vocal melodies play syncopated catch-up with the hypnotic fingerpicked riff on “Down by the River”.