The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in March

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The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in March

This year has already provided us with dozens of albums we’re going to be listening to for a while. Judging by the release schedule, next month will bring more enduring records to add to our collection. Some of today’s finest songwriters are set to release albums in March, like U.S. Girls’ Meg Remy, Stephen Malkmus and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, and we’ll also receive records from exciting newer names looking to climb the ranks, like Disq, Deeper, Overcoats and Porridge Radio. Whether you’re seeking familiar comforts or something new, you’ll have no trouble finding something you like this month—especially if you read this guide of albums that we at Paste are looking forward to.

March 6

U.S. Girls: Heavy Light
4AD

“Overtime,” the lead single from U.S. Girls’ eighth album, Heavy Light, is an immediate thrill-ride. Singer Meg Remy begins her breathy delivery in a track that’s pure excitement as she and company roar back for the first time since the group’s 2018’s breakthrough album, In A Poem Unlimited. After hustling for more than a decade, U.S. Girls are now finally a hotly-anticipated musical force, with Remy leading a potent stable of horns, strings, multifaceted percussion and unpredictable vocal arrangements that keep us on the edges of our seats. And perhaps even more importantly, a new U.S. Girls album means that one of the best live bands on the planet will be back on tour for your pleasure. —Adrian Spinelli

Disq: Collector
Saddle Creek

Madison power-pop five-piece Disq have spent the past couple of years stealing hearts. The young band’s impressive debut single for Saddle Creek back in 2018, plus a strong showing at last year’s SXSW festival, made them a band to watch, but their forthcoming debut album, Collector, crowns them with staying power. Painting with various shades of pop, punk and indie, Disq delivers guitar flare and emotional sincerity. With a retro sheen, guitars crumple, chime and squawk while lead singer Isaac deBroux-Slone brings his own vocal versatility. As a rock band of young millennials, there’s an understandable amount of existential dread and self-doubt, but their playful charm softens the blow. When songs like “Fun Song 4” and “I Wanna Die” are on the same album, you know you’re in for a good time. —Lizzie Manno

Caroline Rose: Superstar
New West Records

With her all-red wardrobe and wild dance moves, you may feel an urge to assign Caroline Rose the description “quirky.” Resist it. The Austin, Texas-based indie pop artist isn’t an oddity—she’s a hungry artist on a quest for constant evolution. Beginning in the Americana scene back in 2014 with her debut album I Will Not Be Afraid, Rose later abandoned her country pursuits for a chance at making something much more unique: satirical, endlessly catchy synth-pop. That was the crux of her 2018 record LONER. Now, she’s back with something new: an underdog’s odyssey set to music. Lead single “Feel The Way I Want” is a lose-yourself dance track, but “Freak Like Me” is a classy piano ballad. There’s no telling what the entirety of Superstar will sound like. What can’t this girl do? —Ellen Johnson

Overcoats: The Fight
Loma Vista Recordings

Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell of Overcoats have always made songs with a decidedly sororal harmony; theirs is music of empowerment through thick and thin. But where the folksy electro of 2017’s YOUNG proved to be deft art-pop, The Fight looks to be the moment where the New York born and bred duo unfurls into a full-blown pop sensation. With the help of producers Justin Raisen (Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon) and Yves Rothman (Miya Folick, Freya Ridings), Overcoats have crafted singles like the layered, decadent and choral “The Fool” and the absolutely explosive, guitar-heavy “Keep The Faith.” “We realized the thing to do is not to wait for life to get easier, but to start fighting harder,” the pair said in a release, and I’ll be damned if this maxim isn’t bursting through all of Overcoats’ new material. —Adrian Spinelli

Stephen Malkmus: Traditional Techniques
Matador

Stephen Malkmus has always been one shaggy poet. From his Pavement days to his free-for-all rocking and rolling with The Jicks to whatever the hell that 2019 electronic album was (It was called Groove Denied and no, there was not, in fact, any consistent “groove” to be found), he remains an inquisitive writer and songsmith. But, as many Pavement fans will agree, Malkmus is at his best when he’s rambling, spouting sneakily smart sentences that verge on incoherent. It looks like we’ll be getting more of that beautiful nonsense on his new album Traditional Techniques, his third album in three years after Groove Denied and 2018’s Sparkle Hard, a rather endearing Jicks project and one of the best rock releases from that year. Marketing materials are touting this new album as a brush with folk music. In reality, it seems to be just another chapter in Malkmus’ success story: a waltz of words, timed to enjoyable—occasionally masterful—guitar music. —Ellen Johnson

More notable March 6 releases: Anna Calvi: Hunted, Snarls: Burst, Tricky: 20,20, Bacchae: Pleasure Vision, Military Genius: Deep Web, THICK: 5 Years Behind, Down Time: Hurts Being Alive, The Saxophones: Eternity Bay, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: Blue Moon Rising, Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It

March 13

Porridge Radio: Every Bad
Secretly Canadian

Tension-building holds a whole new meaning when Dana Margolin utilizes it. As lead singer of Brighton quartet Porridge Radio, Margolin emotes such unbridled theatricality that every song becomes a vigorous hurricane. Her raw vocal oscillations are menacing, compassionate and sultry—often at the same time. There’s a fire burning underneath their raucous guitar-pop, and it’s made of desire—a desire to understand and be understood, to love and be loved and to cast aside bitterness, cynicism and judgment. That sentiment coupled with Margolin’s animalistic vocals and majestic yet unhinged strings on “Lilac,” and we’re not only presented with the album’s pièce de résistance, but a modern-day anthem of radical kindness. Following the band’s compelling 2016 self-recorded debut Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers and their recent signing to Secretly Canadian, their bold, tantalizing new LP Every Bad makes them one of the most exciting bands on the planet. —Lizzie Manno

Ultraísta: Sister
Partisan Records

You’ve heard Nigel Godrich’s music before, but he’s rarely the main act. He’s most well-known as Radiohead’s longtime producer, though he’s also worked with Beck, U2, Paul McCartney, Warpaint and more. But with Ultraísta, who are gearing up to release their sophomore album (and first since their self-titled debut in 2012), he finally gets to be part of the main band, playing synth and bass. With vocals from Laura Bettinson (aka FEMME) and percussion from his Atoms for Peace bandmate Joey Waronker, Ultraísta are about to unleash a dazzling electronic record, as intelligent as it is danceable. Sister is quite reminiscent of Thom Yorke’s solo work, a testament to how much Godrich himself contributed to the overall sound of those records. But Bettinson’s clear vocals and Godrich’s alien synths sound quite a bit more human than ever before. —Steven Edelstone

More notable March 13 releases: Peter Bjorn and John: Endless Dream, Caitlyn Smith: Supernova, Code Orange: Underneath, Hilary Woods: Birthmarks, Grouplove: Healer, The Garden: Kiss My Super Bowl Ring, Porches: Ricky Music, Vundabar: Either Light, The Districts: You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere, The Wants: Container, Dogleg: Melee, Fake Laugh: Dining Alone

March 20

Låpsley: Through Water
XL Recordings

It’s hard to believe that it was already four years ago when a 19-year old Låpsley released one of the most promising debut records in recent memory in the spectacular, Long Way Home. Songs like “Hurt Me,” “Falling Short” and “Operator” are still on heavy rotation for us (the latter thanks in part to DJ Koze’s popular Disco remix), and Through Water is an exciting next phase for the songwriter and producer. Låpsley’s early work came with a certain elegance that she’s certainly built upon on last December’s These Elements EP. Two songs from that EP, “My Love Was Like The Rain” and “Ligne 3” will also appear on Through Water and show the exquisite production and distinct vocal duality that put Låpsley on our radar to begin with. —Adrian Spinelli

More notable March 20 releases: Moaning: Uneasy Laughter, Baxter Dury: The Night Chancers, The Weeknd: After Hours, Alicia Keys: Alicia, Rustin Man: Clockdust, Delta Rae: The Light

March 27

Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud
Merge Records

Katie Crutchfield is this month releasing her fifth album under the alias Waxahatchee. Never content to stay in one place musically, she began with the lo-fi renderings of her debut American Weekend before diving headfirst into searing freak-folk on her immaculate 2013 follow-up Cerulean Salt. 2015’s Ivy Tripp went back to her lo-fi roots for a little bit before 2017’s Out in the Storm scrambled the formula entirely, making space in her catalogue for a classic Merge Records rock masterwork that touched on her humble beginnings in the Philly punk scene. Now she’s reversed her methods all over again, just as masterfully as she has on each record prior. On the incredible Saint Cloud, Crutchfield looks to country/rock greats like Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams (one of her personal favorites—she once wrote an entire essay for Stereogum about Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, her “favorite album of all time”) while recounting the events during and after her getting sober. There’s both internal dialogue and almanac-like assessments of her surroundings, as well as subtle yet strong confessions of love. Katie Crutchfield has managed to astound us once again. —Ellen Johnson

Deeper: Auto-Pain
Fire Talk

Deeper were and are a band of brothers. They’re not related by blood, but the young Chicago group lights up most when they bring up the goofy or heartfelt moments they’ve shared together. The four-piece band, made up of singer and guitarist Nic Gohl, guitarist Mike Clawson, bassist Drew McBride and drummer Shiraz Bhatti, arose from Chicago’s rich DIY scene, and like many from those communities, they found refuge in each other. Deeper released their self-titled debut album in 2018, and it melded frantic, abstract lyrics with nimble guitar work that bordered on indie rock and post-punk—in turn, making them a staple band in the city’s altruistic music scene. Auto-Pain does ultimately push their spring-loaded sound even further, adding buoyant synths into the mix and even stickier riffs than before, but more than that, it depicts shades of despair that aren’t always easy to articulate. Their guitarist Mike Clawson’s death puts their stream-of-consciousness lyrics of inner turmoil into an entirely new context, and though the songs were written before his passing, listeners may hear them through this especially poignant lens. —Lizzie Manno

More notable March 27 releases: Nap Eyes: Snapshot of a Beginner, Half Waif: The Caretaker, Catholic Action: Celebrated By Strangers, The Chats: High Risk Behaviour, Neon Waltz: HUNA, Sorry: 925, FACS: Void Moments, Jordana: Classical Notions of Happiness, Activity: Unmask Whoever, Cable Ties: Far Enough, Pearl Jam: Gigaton, Brian Fallon: Local Honey, Jim Lauderdale: When Carolina Comes Home Again, Lilly Hiatt: Walking Proof, Sufjan Stevens & Lowell Brams: Aporia

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