Monthly Music Recap: March ‘26
Hear ye, hear ye! The dregs of winter are behind us in the Northern Hemisphere, festival lineups are scattering social media feeds and sunny playlists are getting defrosted. Brighter days are quite literally ahead.
Before embracing April, Off the Record invites you to reflect on the musical tidings of March. We let the light in with Harry Styles, flew a plane to heaven with Snail Mail and filled empty space with Quarters. As always, keep reading for this month’s curtain call of stellar new indie, alternative and rock releases.
Grace Ives dances through life with nuance in new album
It’s a great time for indie pop. Artists like Malcom Todd, The Marías, Magdalena Bay and hemlocke springs’ stars were on the rise the past year and OTR staff favorites like Sarah Kinsley, Carol Ades and LAUNDRY DAY have expanded their discography in 2026. Inserting herself into the conversation with the release of her third album, Grace Ives’ penchant for indie pop perfection can’t be ignored.
Girlfriend unfurls like a formative Friday night, watershed self-realizations coming from moments of uninhibited mirth. Ives’ breezy soprano floats over dainty production in the introductory “Now I’m,” the lyrics, “Now I'm in the wild / Now I'm in the place I call home / Now I'm in the water / Now I'm on the edge of the world,” freeing her before one could even try to pin her down. Twinkling synths, addictive sample pad beats and gloriously disjointed melodies transport listeners to a euphoric dance floor on tracks like “Fire 2” and singles “Avalanche” and “Stupid Bitches,” while more relaxed tracks like “Garden” make space for Ives to proclaim she knows her worth.
In the age of nonchalance, Girlfriend is an ode to the art of being messy; Ives encourages us to embrace embarrassment as the key to knowing ourselves truly.
Taste catharsis with Young the Giant
Watch the music video for “Bitter Fruit” on YouTube.
I’m ashamed to say that aside from their beautifully depressing 2010 hit “Cough Syrup,” I have not been tuned into Young the Giant. The five-piece pop rock group is one of those bands that feels omnipresent, consistently dropping music that feels on-brand and on-the-nose. Their latest single, “Bitter Fruit,” made me question where I’ve been the past 16 years of Young the Giant’s musical output.
“Bitter Fruit” has that coming-of-age je nais se quois imbued in much of the band’s discography: a full-throated chorus, clean guitar strums and gang vocals turn simple melodies into catharsis. The band said the single is about “the struggle of being calloused by adulthood with a yearning to see the world fresh, through the eyes of a child.” The lyrics of the chorus naturally display this desire most clear-cut, with lead vocalist Sameer Gadhia singing, “I wanna feel alive again / I wanna laugh and cry just like a child again.” The verses don’t contain revolutionary metaphors, but Young the Giant doesn’t need grandiose allegories to make their message resonate. After all, what’s more existentially relatable than “Does anyone feel a thing? / Is everyone anxious?”
Lia Pappas-Kemps should be the world’s new indie darling
Lia Pappas-Kemps’ Winged is all about dichotomy. The LP is gentle and abrasive, narrative and symbolic and, as the Toronto-based artists sings in “The Hunches,” melancholic and elated. At just 22-years-old, Pappas-Kemps has planted her seed of introspective indie celebrity, blossoming early with a debut album that sounds like it could’ve been dropped by an artist four albums deep into their career.
No matter the energy or volume of the production backing her, Pappas-Kemps’ warbly voice is undeniably captivating; her siren song lures listeners in, but her sharp lyrics keep them charmed. “You effortlessly wing away to some delirium / I adore you right before you make me eat dirt and such / I would like to prove that my hysterics are not hysteria,” she sings in “Moths,” for example, a track that encapsulates plaintive heartbreak. Satisfying tension is paramount to the album’s sonic setting, exemplified by tracks like “Wound up and Coiling” and single “Reservations.”
Pappas-Kemps is taking her stunning debut on the road with fellow Torontonian Rachel Bobbitt this spring, a co-headlining tour that is bound to be ethereal for anyone who attends.
Satya offers warm meditation in new single
Here in Washington, D.C., every other day has been either 40°F or 80°F. And while it’s been a reprieve to trade in my puffer and jeans for a T-shirt and jorts, I yearn for spring. Alas, I found consolation in my playlist of sunny yet relaxed tracks that feel like a flowery 70°F day. The newest addition to said playlist? Satya’s “Project 10.”
Sonically, the three-minute track embodies breezy freedom, its bass-driven groove embellished with light guitar strums and floating cymbal hits; it’s folky, jazzy and effortlessly soulful. The Oakland native said “Project 10” explores how she processes depression: “The feeling is deeper than the sea, like the dark stretch of night, a wide feeling. Not all bad.” Lyrics like, “I only see stars when I turn out my lights / And yes I know that life can be sweet / Oh, then I slip away again,” frankly portray the push and pull that comes with depression and what it means to “live inside those lows,” as Satya reflected.
Just as spring eases us into summer with a reminder of what sun-induced serotonin feels like, “Project 10” is the opener of the 21-year-old artist’s June-arriving debut LP, Yellow House.
Staff Picks:
Caroline Goldschmitt - “Aggressive” by Yebba
Jackie Fortis - “Hanging Out To Dry” by Florence Road
Tabita Bernardus and Liv Strohecker - “Rabbits Can Swim” by Florence Road
Madelyn Aiken - “Didn’t Come to Argue” by James Blake and Monica Martin
Mitchell Stewart - “Clouds Will Carry Me To Sleep” by Gelli Haha
Lillian Hammer - “Somehow” by Hudson Freeman and The Bedroomer
Jane Flautt - “Come To God” by Indigo De Souza
Check out some of our March coverage!
Live Shows
“The show was destined to be memorable, even before it began.” - Tabita Bernardus on spill tab in Los Angeles
“From the Belmont students who still have hope to make it to their 8 a.m. class the next day, to the retirees who have parked themselves at the edge of the stage, excitedly peeking at setlists taped to the floor, every sort of person is here to immerse themselves in the world of Ratboys.” - Claire Cole on Ratboys in Nashville
“When played live, Monobloc’s stylish sound is a lesson in frisson, the sweet spot of skill and sentimentality that makes music feel visceral.” - Seay Howell on Monobloc in Brooklyn
New Music Reviews
“With the release of Burnout Days (Reimagined), the Florida-born quintet Flipturn has proven that their sophomore era is far from exhausted. Instead of simply retreading the sun-drenched, high-octane paths of the original 2025 record, the band has invited a diverse collective of collaborators to deconstruct and rebuild their most vulnerable work to date.” - McKenzie Blasi on Flipturn’s Burnout Days (Reimagined)
“When riding infatuation’s “sugar highs and lows,” how do we know where love ends and make-believe begins?” - Jane Flautt on Spacey Jane’s “Do You Really Love Her”
“On U, she’s here to show off her talent, not by flexing, but by taking a victory lap.” - Mitchell Stewart on underscores’ U
Interviews
“You can't force perspective because perspective comes with time.” - Kristiane in an interview with Syd Copeland
“Not to sugarcoat it, we were just in a basement doing a ton of gas and we were like, ‘Let's have a long jam.’” - Matthew Orr of Gnarcissists on the making of “Celebrity” in an interview with Emma Hug Rosenstein
Music Extras
It’s All Waiting There for You by Caroline Goldschmitt
The Art of the Protest Song, Then and Now by Ria Mirchandani
Women in the Music Industry We Look Up To by OTR Staff