The 10 Best Songs of March 2025
March was a spoil of riches.

2025’s Q1 is officially over. St. Patrick’s Day came and went, and it looks like the winter is finally beginning to wane here on the East Coast. March was full of memorable New Music Fridays, including the spoils of 3/28’s riches, which saw album releases from Lucy Dacus, Destroyer, Free Range, OHYUNG, Great Grandpa and many more. This month, we also got remarkable deep cuts from the new Backxwash and Perfume Genius releases, the single Chappell Roan teased on SNL last fall, feeble little horse’s return and a few unexpected treats from the likes of Paco Cathcart and Moon Mullins. So, let’s take a moment to celebrate the best of the best from these last 31 days. Here are our 10 favorite songs of March 2025. —Matt Mitchell, Music Editor
Backxwash: “History of Violence”
A synth begins like a lullaby on “History of Violence” before patiently building into an armor of metal drums and Michael Go’s thrashing guitars. “Is Heaven the only semblance of peace?,” Backxwash asks. The song is not just a reflection of her own political climate-inciting agony, or an uncomfortable interrogating of cultural abuse, but an annihilation on global power, corruption and gluttony; Backxwash prosecutes the fascists enabling the ongoing genocide in Gaza, shouting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” She condemns the world’s leaders using freedom as a bartering chip; she recalls videos of dying Palestinian children and reckons with what power fuels a slaughtering of innocent children: “These fuckers gonna say it’s all about peace. Check the stats, motherfucker, it’s all about greed.” The perspective repeatedly switches between micro and macro, as Backxwash, ever the intergenerational, socio-political magician in rap, casts a spell on Black trans life through gothic, scorched-earth overtures, unpredictable pop tangents and prompt lyrical critiques of global corruption and genocide. —Matt Mitchell
Chappell Roan: “The Giver”
Last Friday I listened to Chappell Roan’s “The Giver” no less than half a dozen times with my friends as we drank wine and put on makeup before heading to our favorite queer bar; I have no doubt in my mind this is only the first of many such “Giver”-filled nights. Chappell Roan’s celebrated debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess nods to her Missouri upbringing in its title but not so much in its ‘80s-inspired pop sound—but “The Giver” rectifies matters. High, sassy fiddle invites you to try your hand at line dancing, while Chappell assures us with a wink and a smile that “I get the job done.” While it’s disappointing she didn’t include the spoken section from her already iconic Saturday Night Live performance (“All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right—well only a woman knows how to treat a woman right”), likely to improve airplay chances on more conservative radio stations, this is still one hell of a country pop song. For those in the know, this is a top anthem. And for everyone else, well, it’s a barnburner. —Clare Martin
Colin Miller: “Porchlight”
Colin Miller’s voice, frankly, is limited, but that’s okay, because it’s truly lovely—just this wisp of a drawl, a barely-there brush of the breeze against your skin. There’s a delicious sweetness to his shy whisper, one that lends itself quite nicely to his tenderest ballads, like his latest single, “Porchlight.” To me, it’s something like what Jeff Buckley’s standard “Last Goodbye”—another irresistibly melodic, sweeter-than-bitter soft-rock kiss-off—might have sounded like if Buckley were a Southern boy living in the 21st century. Xandy Chelmis’ weepy pedal steel infuses an alt-country flavor; Miller admits to a departed lover that he’s got a sweetheart in Beaumont, Texas. As always, his lyrics are lined with humanity and intelligence; he possesses a remarkable ability to imbue his rustic surroundings with great emotional depth, most notably by christening his humble porchlight as a lodestar for his lost lover. Technically speaking, his voice is ordinary but, in a similar vein, that’s exactly what makes it so affecting and what makes his words register with such sincerity. When he coos, “Darling, you’re still my #1 tube top angel”—oh, I could just melt. —Anna Pichler
feeble little horse: “This Is Real”
Babe, wake up. New feeble little horse just dropped. After two years of periodic touring, not to mention a brief yet alarming rumor that the band had disbanded altogether, our favorite Pittsburgh noise-poppers are back with “This is Real.” It’s their first single since 2023’s Girl With Fish, which we named one of our favorite albums that year, but “This is Real” sees the band decidedly coloring outside the lines of their sophomore LP. The song unfolds like a Pompeii-level eruption—one second Lydia Slocum is nonchalantly singing about smoking in the back of a car, only to quickly pummel us with waves of double kick drum, bit-crushed guitar and a near-screamo pre-chorus of “Like I could be the moon / Like I could be the moon / Like I could be the moon.” Then, just like that: The detonation is over, punctuated by a warped acoustic guitar and a calm, warm outro. When I say I was floored upon my first listen, I’m putting it lightly (I didn’t know Slocum had it in her to scream like that, but it was absolutely awesome, and I hope this isn’t the last we hear of it). “This is Real” manages to feel both more structured and more spontaneous than anything feeble little horse has done so far—like it’s mutating unpredictably with every inharmonious guitar note. I also can’t get enough of the cybercore meets webcore, late ‘90s aesthetic that ties together the whole release. If “This is Real” is a launchpad for feeble little horse’s next album, I’m fully on board and I want more of it as soon as possible. I get it though, genius takes time. —Gavyn Green