Happy Lana Del Rey month to all who celebrate. Given the sheer volume of music flying out these days, and especially this month, we thought we'd step in and offer you our own top picks from March. From Shygirl and Unknown Mortal Orchestra to The Beths and Angel Olsen, these are the new songs coursing through our headphones in March 2023.
1. bella amor, sentimental
Release date: March 2
Brisbane musician bella amor breaks the seal on 2023 with a deliciously upbeat and fun track about situationships. The artist told RUSSH that, "The whole vibe of both the song and video is kicking the past lover out when things get too serious or they get too involved. We're letting them know this is how us baddies are gonna do it this year.” Featuring Bryn Chapman-Parish of Heartbreak High fame in the music video and the signature candour of amor, it's a feel good serve to get the blood pumping this March.
2. Kali Uchis, Red Moon in Venus
Release date: March 3
When people talk about the divine feminine, this is what I imagine it sounds like. Kali Uchis taps into the cosmos for her latest album recorded almost entirely in English, named after the rare lunar eclipse. The sumptuous Love Between is a highlight, while the following Hasta Cuando drives the pace from loyal lover to taunting femme fatale in a matter of minutes. Whiplash-inducing? Not at all. Just a woman who is comfortable with all her angles.
3. Angel Olsen, Nothing's Free
Release date: March 7
The world feels a little more bearable when Angel Olsen announces a new EP is on the way. To start us off and get us in the mood for Forever Means, Olsen dropped Nothing's Free, a track that was recorded while making her acclaimed 2022 album, Big Time. All of which serves as a reminder that nothing truly ends or is complete in life, it lives on as long as you do.
4. Miley Cyrus, Endless Summer Vacation
Release date: March 10
Miley promised, and this month she delivered. Priming us earlier in January with the single Flowers, which is currently the reigning choice for affirming breakup songs, the rest of the album charts the aftermath of a broken relationship; the regrets, self-doubt, self-rousing and mourning that takes place when the party's over.
5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, V
Release date: March 17
Baked under the Hawaiian heat, Unknown Mortal Orchestra returns after its singer, songwriter and guitarist, Ruban Nielson, spent time in Hilo in 2019 after his uncle was diagnosed with cancer. As a result, V was written between the Pacific and Palm Springs and has the sun-bleached streaks to prove it. Released as a single, I Killed Captain Cook was a song Nielson wrote for his mother, a native Hawaiian and hulu dancer, that retells the story of the colonisers fitting end after he attempted to kidnap and ransom Hawaiian chief Kalaniʻōpuʻu in 1779. It's just one of the many gems tucked away on V.
6. Shygirl ft. Björk, Woe (I See It From Your Side)
Release date: March 23
Shygirl revisits her track Woe, calling on the inimitable Icelandic icon Björk to lend her own vision for the song. Speaking on her contribution, Björk said, "Shy told me in her lyric she is talking about both different amourous interests and fame and how suddenly everyone wants something from you and you should be thrilled but you're not... And I decided to take an angle as an older "amour" and give advice... Because in "Woe" she is asking a question and I decided to reply to it from the SUFI angle which is: enjoy the wanting and the longing and NOT getting what you want but enjoy wanting it... How the whirling dervishes reach up when they turn, it is meant to represent that longing and being content with that..."
"Also on a more everyday personal level it is about sometimes when you are not satisfied in a relationship, you should not expect your partner to heal that or fix that... Rather look at him or her as a partner in crime or a fellow-not-getter.... Another human with that insatiable longing."
7. Lana Del Rey, Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?
Release date: March 24
Excluding Lana from this list amounts to a war crime. Nine albums in and Elizabeth Woolridge Grant has cultivated a larger than life reputation, but for all of this, her latest album is the most hushed and introspective we've seen her. It's haunted by figures of her family, one track is even named after Margaret Qualley, the girlfriend of her producer Jack Antonoff. She continues to whittle away in the dark at her own complexities, in ways that cross genres and lean into candour, but Lana Del Rey has seemingly traded in the underlying melancholia for a quietly assertive optimism.
8. Milku, You Make Me Feel Beautiful
Release date: March 24
Milku returns with a debut national tour and an earnest album to bulk it up. You Make Me Feel Beautiful sits in the realm of indie pop, playfully navigating the general malaise that sets in during your mid-twenties, helped along by a global pandemic and recession. Personally, it hits very close to home.
9. Boygenius, The Record
Release date: March 27
No, I will not shut up about this record. After dropping three singles all individually written by a different "boy", the supergroup comprising of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers have sent out a full-length album that is as complete, and completely brilliant as one hoped. We're in Love is a stand out.
10. The Beths, Watching the Credits
Release date: March 29
Another example of a discarded song from a previous album that holds its own as a single. Meet Watching the Credits, the newest track from New Zealand indie rock group The Beths. And while you're listening to the track, why not check out The Beths' recent Tiny Desk Concert.
11. DMA'S, How Many Dreams
Release date: March 31
The latest album from DMA'S debuts a new direction for the band, something its quietly chipped away at over the last year. Massaging in euphoric electronic textures, the vibe shift is surprising yet not misplaced and Tommy O'Dells earnest vocals ring with feeling.
12. Royel Otis, Sofa King
Release date: March 31
Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic (yes, the nephew of Modular Recordings founder and music entrepreneur Stephen Pavlovic) have dropped new single Sofa King. The title song, with its addictive chorus, guitar and phrasing nostalgic of Passion Pit and Grouplove, is spearheading an indie-pop renaissance and reminding us of those halcyon days.
