Top 20 'Golden-Hour-Glow' Indie Folk Albums to listen to for winding down your summer evenings in 2025 - Goh Ling Yong
There's a specific, almost magical quality to a late summer evening. The oppressive heat of the day finally breaks, replaced by a gentle breeze that rustles through the leaves. The sky, a canvas of fiery oranges, soft pinks, and deep purples, puts on a silent, spectacular show. This is the golden hour—a time for reflection, for deep breaths, and for letting the day's worries melt away. It's a moment that deserves its own soundtrack.
This isn't the time for stadium anthems or high-energy pop. This is a time for music that feels like a warm blanket and a cool drink. It’s the sound of gentle acoustic guitars, hushed vocals, and harmonies that feel like old friends. It’s the 'golden-hour-glow' of indie folk, a genre perfectly crafted for these fleeting, beautiful moments. As the host of this blog, Goh Ling Yong, I've spent countless evenings curating the perfect playlists for this exact mood, and I believe the album format provides the most immersive experience.
So, pour yourself a glass of something nice, find a comfortable spot on your porch or by an open window, and get ready to wind down. Here are the top 20 indie folk albums that will provide the perfect, shimmering soundtrack to your summer evenings in 2025.
1. The Weatherman - Gregory Alan Isakov
This album is the auditory equivalent of watching dusk settle over a vast, open field. Isakov is a master of quiet profundity, a farmer-turned-musician whose lyrics are as rooted and organic as the food he grows. His songs are patient, building slowly with layers of banjo, piano, strings, and his signature warm, melancholic voice. The Weatherman feels less like a collection of songs and more like a single, cohesive atmosphere—one of gentle introspection and quiet wonder.
It’s an album that rewards close listening, revealing new lyrical and instrumental details with each spin. The arrangements are lush but never overwhelming, creating a sense of space that feels both intimate and expansive. It’s the sound of finding beauty in the stillness and accepting the gentle melancholy of a day's end.
- Golden Hour Tip: Play this album from start to finish on a late-evening drive through the countryside. Let tracks like "Saint Valentine" and "Amsterdam" be the soundtrack to the fading light on the horizon.
2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
It’s impossible to talk about golden-hour music without mentioning the album that arguably perfected the sound. The 2008 self-titled debut from Fleet Foxes is a masterclass in harmony. Robin Pecknold's soaring vocals, backed by the band's cathedral-like harmonies, feel like they were recorded in a sun-dappled forest. The intricate acoustic guitar work and reverb-drenched production create a timeless, pastoral soundscape.
This album evokes a powerful sense of nostalgia, even for places and times you've never experienced. It’s the sound of mountain air, crackling campfires, and the longing for a simpler existence. Songs like "White Winter Hymnal" and "Ragged Wood" are so vivid and immersive they practically transport you to another world, one bathed in perpetual amber light.
- Golden Hour Tip: Best enjoyed with a group of close friends as you pack up after a day at the beach or a picnic in the park. It’s the perfect music for that shared, contented silence.
3. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
Recorded in a remote Wisconsin cabin during a harsh winter, this album paradoxically captures the warmth and intimacy of a summer evening. Justin Vernon’s raw, falsetto voice, layered over a solitary acoustic guitar, creates a sound that is both heartbreaking and incredibly comforting. The album is a testament to the beauty that can be found in isolation and sorrow.
The lo-fi production quality, complete with the creaks of the cabin and the hum of equipment, only adds to its charm. It feels immediate and deeply personal, like someone is whispering secrets directly into your ear. It’s an album for the quieter moments, for when the sun has dipped below the horizon and the first stars begin to appear.
- Golden Hour Tip: Listen to this one alone with headphones and a warm cup of tea. Let the sparse beauty of "Skinny Love" and the haunting layers of "re: Stacks" wash over you.
4. Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron & Wine
Sam Beam, the man behind Iron & Wine, is a poet of the whisper. This album is a collection of delicate, intricate folk lullabies that feel both ancient and immediate. His gentle, multi-tracked vocals and finger-picked guitar create a web of sound that is intricate, beautiful, and deeply soothing. The lyrics are impressionistic and often dark, but they are delivered with such tenderness that they feel like comforting folk tales.
Our Endless Numbered Days is the perfect album for when the world feels too loud. It’s a retreat into a quieter, more thoughtful space. The production is clean and warm, allowing every nuance of Beam's voice and guitar to shine through, making it a foundational text for modern indie folk.
- Golden Hour Tip: Put this on while you’re cooking dinner, letting the gentle rhythms of "Naked As We Came" and "Cinder And Smoke" fill your kitchen with a sense of calm.
5. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - Big Thief
If most golden-hour albums are a quiet porch swing, this one is a rambling, joyful wander through the woods. Big Thief’s sprawling double album is a celebration of life, friendship, and music itself. Recorded in four different sessions across the country, the album seamlessly blends country, folk, and lo-fi rock into a singular, beautiful mess. Adrianne Lenker's songwriting is at its peak—quirky, profound, and full of surprising turns of phrase.
The album is a journey, full of rollicking banjo tunes, tender acoustic ballads, and fuzzy, experimental moments. Its warmth comes from the audible joy of the band playing together. It’s the sound of letting go, of embracing imperfection, and of finding magic in the everyday.
- Golden Hour Tip: Perfect for a backyard bonfire with friends. The album’s eclectic nature means there’s a song for every mood, from the singalong joy of "Spud Infinity" to the quiet intimacy of "Change."
6. I Love You, Honeybear - Father John Misty
While Josh Tillman's lyrical persona is often cynical and sharp, the sonic landscape of this album is undeniably lush and romantic. It’s a folk-rock opera, complete with sweeping string arrangements, mariachi horns, and Tillman's powerful, crooning voice. The album is a grand, often hilarious, and surprisingly tender exploration of love and commitment in the modern age.
The "golden hour" feel here isn't one of quiet contemplation, but of cinematic, widescreen romance. It's the soundtrack to a dramatic sunset, the kind that makes you feel like you're in a movie. The arrangements are so rich and detailed that you can get lost in them, making it a perfect album for a moment when you want to feel everything.
- Golden Hour Tip: Share a pair of headphones with someone you love and listen to the title track as the sky turns from orange to deep blue. It’s an experience.
7. Strange Trails - Lord Huron
Lord Huron creates entire worlds with their music, and Strange Trails is their masterpiece. This album is a collection of campfire stories set to a soundtrack of reverb-soaked guitars, driving rhythms, and Ben Schneider’s evocative vocals. Each song is a vignette, a tale of drifters, lovers, and ghosts haunting the open road under a vast, starry sky.
The album perfectly balances upbeat, road-trip-ready anthems with slower, more atmospheric ballads. It’s music that sparks the imagination and a sense of adventure, making you want to pack a bag and drive off into the sunset. The production is cinematic, creating a hazy, vintage feel that is endlessly appealing.
- Golden Hour Tip: The ultimate playlist for a late-summer road trip. Roll the windows down and let "The Night We Met" or "Fool for Love" carry you down a dusty two-lane highway.
8. songs - Adrianne Lenker
Created in isolation during the 2020 lockdown, songs is one of the most intimate and raw albums you will ever hear. It’s just Adrianne Lenker, her acoustic guitar, and the ambient sounds of the small cabin where she recorded. You can hear the rain, the wood creaking, and the birds outside, making you feel like you're sitting right there with her.
Her guitar playing is virtuosic and unconventional, and her lyrics are a stream-of-consciousness collage of memory, pain, and breathtaking beauty. This is not background music; it’s an album that demands your full attention and rewards it with a deep sense of connection and catharsis.
- Golden Hour Tip: Listen to this on a rainy summer evening, preferably by candlelight. The album's raw intimacy is best experienced in a quiet, focused setting.
9. Pink Moon - Nick Drake
The blueprint. The original. Nick Drake’s final album is a stark, stunningly beautiful collection of songs that clocks in at just 28 minutes. It's just Drake's intricate guitar work and his hushed, melancholy voice, recorded with no overdubs. The effect is timeless and profoundly moving. Pink Moon captures a feeling of late-night solitude that is perfect for when the evening transitions into night.
Decades after its release, this album's influence is immeasurable, and its power has not diminished one bit. It's a reminder that sometimes, the most powerful statements are the quietest. It’s an album that feels like a shared secret, passed down through generations of music lovers.
- Golden Hour Tip: Play the album in its entirety as the very last light fades from the sky. Its brevity makes it a perfect, self-contained moment of reflection.
10. Good Woman - The Staves
The Staveley-Taylor sisters possess some of the most beautiful and intricate harmonies in modern music. On Good Woman, their voices are front and center, weaving in and out of each other over a bed of electronics, pianos, and guitars. The album is a powerful exploration of love, loss, and resilience, produced with help from the aforementioned Justin Vernon.
While some tracks are more produced and energetic, the heart of the album lies in its quieter moments. The blend of their folk roots with more modern, electronic textures creates a sound that is both comforting and excitingly new. It's the sound of sisterhood, strength, and finding your voice.
- Golden Hour Tip: "Good Woman" is a fantastic track to listen to while journaling or reflecting on your day. The harmonies are like a supportive hug in musical form.
11. Caamp - Caamp
There's an honest, earthy grit to Caamp's music that feels incredibly refreshing. Taylor Meier’s raspy, soulful voice paired with Evan Westfall’s bright banjo creates a sound that is pure Americana joy. Their self-titled debut album is full of foot-stomping folk songs and tender ballads that feel like they were born around a campfire.
This is music for celebrating the simple things: good friends, cold beer, and a warm night. The songs are unpretentious and full of heart, with lyrics that tell relatable stories of love and adventure. It’s an album that can’t help but make you smile.
- Golden Hour Tip: Put on "Vagabond" or "Ohio" during a backyard barbecue. It’s the perfect, laid-back soundtrack for good times and easy conversation.
12. Veneer - José González
Minimalism at its most beautiful. José González’s debut album is built almost entirely on his nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and his gentle, understated voice. The intricate, classically-inspired fingerpicking patterns are mesmerizing, creating complex rhythms and melodies from a single instrument.
Veneer is an album of profound quiet. It never shouts for your attention, but instead invites you in with its subtle beauty. The songs are meditative and calming, making it the perfect album to help you de-stress and clear your mind after a long day. His cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" is a modern classic for a reason.
- Golden Hour Tip: A perfect companion for reading a book on a quiet evening. Its gentle, unobtrusive nature won't distract you but will enhance the peaceful atmosphere.
13. Mt. Joy - Mt. Joy
This album perfectly captures the feeling of a youthful, carefree summer. It’s a blend of breezy folk, indie rock, and a touch of psychedelic soul that is impossible to resist. Matt Quinn’s distinctive vocals and the band’s knack for writing incredibly catchy hooks make this a standout debut.
Songs like "Silver Lining" and "Astrovan" are filled with a sense of hopeful wanderlust, making them ideal for an evening when you're dreaming of future adventures. The album is optimistic, energetic, and full of a warm, communal spirit.
- Golden Hour Tip: Play "Sheep" with the windows open as you get ready to go out for the evening. It has an infectious energy that’s perfect for starting a fun summer night.
14. Blindfaller - Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange)
Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz are masters of the folk duo. Their harmonies are so seamless and intuitive that they sound like a single, perfect voice. Blindfaller is a stunning collection of songs that showcase their brilliant songwriting and musicianship, blending elements of bluegrass, folk, and classic country.
The album is filled with rich storytelling and impeccable instrumental work, from Marlin's mandolin to Frantz's fiddle. The songs are thoughtful and often poignant, exploring themes of love, home, and the passage of time with a gentle, knowing grace. This is Americana at its most refined and beautiful.
- Golden Hour Tip: This is the ideal music for a slow, leisurely dinner on the patio. Let the beautiful melodies of "Wildfire" and "Take This Heart of Gold" accompany the conversation.
15. The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man on Earth
Don't let the name fool you; this is the work of one man, Kristian Matsson of Sweden. The Wild Hunt is an album of raw, kinetic energy. Matsson's intricate, open-tuned guitar playing is a force of nature, and his gravelly, Dylan-esque voice is filled with an undeniable passion.
This isn’t quiet, contemplative folk. This is folk music that feels urgent and alive. The songs are full of poetic, vivid imagery and a yearning romanticism. It’s the sound of running through a field at dusk, heart pounding with emotion. An absolute classic that I, Goh Ling Yong, find myself returning to every single summer.
- Golden Hour Tip: Feeling a bit restless? Put on "The Gardener" and go for a brisk walk as the sun sets. The album’s energy is invigorating and cathartic.
16. Birthplace - Novo Amor
If you’re looking for ethereal, atmospheric folk, look no further. Welsh multi-instrumentalist Ali Lacey, known as Novo Amor, creates vast, cinematic soundscapes. Birthplace is a breathtaking album that blends his delicate falsetto with soaring strings, ambient textures, and crashing crescendos.
The album feels like a force of nature itself, evoking images of oceans, forests, and changing seasons. It’s deeply emotional and cathartic, a perfect soundtrack for moments of major life reflection. The production is immaculate, creating a sound that is both grand and deeply intimate.
- Golden Hour Tip: For maximum effect, listen to "Birthplace" or "State Lines" with good headphones, lying in the grass and watching the clouds go by.
17. Evening Machines - Gregory Alan Isakov
Yes, he deserves a second spot on this list. While The Weatherman is the sun setting over a field, Evening Machines is the deep blue and purple of twilight. This album is darker, moodier, and more electric than its predecessor, but it retains all of Isakov's signature lyrical genius and atmospheric depth.
The songs here feel like they were recorded in a barn under a blanket of stars. There’s a sense of mystery and late-night contemplation running through tracks like "Dark, Dark, Dark" and "San Luis." It’s an album that perfectly captures the transition from dusk to true night.
- Golden Hour Tip: The ideal album for the very end of the evening, perhaps by the faint light of a dying fire or a single lamp. It’s music for the quietest hours.
18. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes’ sophomore album is a more complex and ambitious affair than their debut, but it’s no less beautiful. The harmonies are still there, but the songs are longer, the arrangements more intricate, and the lyrics more existential. It's a record about questioning your place in the world, a theme that feels particularly resonant during the reflective moments of a summer evening.
The album is a journey, from the frantic, beautiful title track to the epic, multi-part "The Shrine / An Argument." It's a richer, denser listen that solidifies the band's status as folk-rock royalty. It’s a slightly more challenging listen, but infinitely rewarding.
- Golden Hour Tip: Listen to the sprawling masterpiece "The Shrine / An Argument" as you watch the last sliver of sun disappear. Its epic scope matches the grandeur of the moment.
19. Hozier - Hozier
Blending folk, blues, and gospel with a literary, gothic sensibility, Hozier's debut album is a powerhouse. Andrew Hozier-Byrne's voice is a phenomenal instrument—rich, soulful, and capable of both a gentle whisper and a righteous roar. The album is filled with passion, poetry, and a deep sense of righteous anger and romantic longing.
While "Take Me to Church" is the massive hit, the entire album is a treasure trove of beautifully crafted songs. Tracks like "Cherry Wine" and "Work Song" have a raw, acoustic intimacy that fits the golden hour mood perfectly, offering a more soulful and intense flavor of folk.
- Golden Hour Tip: "Cherry Wine (Live)" is one of the most beautiful, intimate recordings of the last decade. Play it on a quiet, warm night for a truly moving experience.
20. Stranger in the Alps - Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers is a master of crafting songs that are simultaneously heartbreaking and bitingly funny. Her debut album, Stranger in the Alps, is a collection of quiet, beautifully arranged folk-rock songs about death, loneliness, and flawed relationships. Her gentle voice and clever, specific lyrics draw you into her world completely.
The album is bathed in a melancholic, blue-hued light. The instrumentation—soft electric guitars, mournful strings, and touches of trumpet—creates a dreamy, late-night atmosphere. It's the perfect album for when you're feeling a little sad but want to find the beauty in that sadness.
- Golden Hour Tip: Listen to "Motion Sickness" while you reflect on the bittersweet nature of past summers. It’s a song that perfectly captures the feeling of looking back with a mix of fondness and pain.
Music has a unique power to elevate a moment, to turn a simple sunset into a profound experience. These 20 albums are more than just background noise; they are invitations to slow down, to listen closely, and to fully inhabit the beautiful, fleeting magic of a summer evening.
Now I want to hear from you. What are your essential 'golden-hour-glow' albums? Which artists provide the soundtrack to your summer nights? Share your favorites in the comments below—I'm always looking for new music to add to my own winding-down rotation.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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