Musings On Music: March 2025
The weather is warm and the musical vibes are immaculate.
March is my birth month, so I’ll always love it for that. But between the weather in Texas getting warmer, the return of baseball towards the end of the month and the stream of new music releases really amping up, there aren’t many other months of the year that can stand toe to to with it. March 2025 was so awesome that most of the albums I was most excited for came out right at the end, not even giving me time to listen to them to add to this month’s monthly writeup!
As always, every song & album mentioned here is linked in each writeup, and a Spotify playlist from the month is located at the end of the article. Happy listening!
March 2025 Album Reviews
Album Of The Month: Panda Bear - Sinister Grift (from February): 8.5/10
Yes, this album did come out in February, but on the last day of the month. It’s one of the best side projects from an AnCo member: Full review:
Lady Gaga - MAYHEM: 7.7/10
Turns out New Gaga knows Old Gaga pretty well. Full review:
GFOTY - INFLUENZER: 5.0/10
To her credit, GFOTY finally put together a coherent project with INFLUENZER. It’s not half-finished like FEMMEDORM or abhorrently unlistenable like GFOTV. It’s just that she’s still years behind the rest of her hyperpop compatriots. For every sexed-up pop anthem here, you can find an artist who’s done it better a thousand times over. There’s a long way to go before GFOTY catches up, but at least she’s on a passable track now.
Playboi Carti - MUSIC: 5.5/10
Whole lotta songs, and there’s not many worth returning too. Full review:
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women): 7.6/10
J Brekkie finds beauty through the sadness on the band’s 4th LP. Full review:
Reviews Of 2025 Releases From Past Months
Miami Horror - We Always Had Tomorrow (from February): 6.3/10
We had to wait several years for the Australian synthpop act to… dumb down their sound? We Always Had Tomorrow opts for beauty over catchiness, finding plenty of time to stop and smell the roses while forgetting to make impactful music along the way. There are highlights for sure, but this album is missing the energy of a “Leila” or “I Look To You”.
Oklou - choke enough (from February): 8.0/10
Like listening to Cascada from a few rooms away. Full review:
Youth Lagoon - Rarely Do I Dream (from February): 7.4/10
The persistence of memory is at the core of Trevor Powers’ latest release, utilizing video recordings of his childhood to explore his past. It’s in line with his last album Heaven is a Junkyard if not as memorable to me as that record.
Marie Davidson - City Of Clowns (from February): 7.7/10
The surveillance state controls this City Of Clowns, but that doesn’t stop Marie Davidson from having fun under Big Brother’s watchful eye. The album pokes at big businesses and their need to datamine everything about their customers in the internet age, turning the pioneering technopop of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra into something sinister yet danceable. Davidson often winks at us listeners from her government-assigned factory job, like on the chunky techno bangers “Fun Times” and “Y.A.A.M.”, which stands for “your asses are mine”. She deadpans her way through “Sexy Clown”, perhaps a frightening view into what’s arousing in this dystopian future. Songs like “Validations Weight” and “Statistical Modeling” build a world worth exploring, and though this future ain’t bright, you can sure still dance to it.
Darkside - Nothing (from February): 6.5/10
Nicolas Jaar’s most interesting side project has long been Darkside, but its melding of organic and synthetic production on Nothing leaves me feeling just that. It’s plenty functional if not particularly notable, save for the funky “S.N.C.”, which makes me wish the rest of the album was that lively.
March 2025 Songs
Song of the Month: Chappell Roan - “The Giver”
Music’s “it” girl show she’s still got “it” in a whole new way. Full review:
10 Other Great Songs From March 2025
Black Country, New Road - “Happy Birthday”
Similar to “Besties”, the first single for BCNR’s upcoming album Forever Howlong, “Happy Birthday” condenses the complex sounds and emotions of a Isaac Wood-led track into something digestible without compromising those complexities that made the band so compelling to begin with. Super excited for this album to come out, I think it has AOTY potential.
Doechii - “Anxiety”
Re-released in earnest after the 2019 original was unearthed by Doechii’s rabid fanbase, “Anxiety” is an early sign of the star that was to come. Sampling one of this century’s greatest one-hit wonders in Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know”, Doechii totally makes it her own, swapping between singing and rapping with ease.
feeble little horse - “This Is Real”
One of the most visceral pieces of art rock I’ve heard so far this year. “This Is Real” switches between melodic sections and frayed screamo to make something akin to a Spirit of the Beehive song with a little more cohesiveness.
Kouek - “Ever Dreamer”
Like I wrote in my review of Apogee, Kouek understands that a great future funk song is more than just cool vibes and anime noises. Those alone won’t make a complete track, and his latest “Ever Dreamer” is a fully fleshed out track with an incredible amount of intensity.
Lady Gaga - “Zombieboy”
A delicious slice of funky disco pop, “Zombieboy” tributes a friend of Gaga who’s no longer with us with a spectacular chorus and some zinged-out guitars. It’s the classic, unhinged Lady Gaga song the world needed.
Marie Davidson - “Fun Times”
The way “Fun Times” chugs along with robotic precision makes me feel like I’m a worker in a factory line, operating at full capacity but with enough room to dance along the way. It’s a panopticon of a dance track, constantly watching you as it encourages you to groove along.
Panda Bear - “Just As Well”
Noah Lennox doesn’t just understand reggae, he freaking lives and breathes it. “Just As Well” combines his fascination with Caribbean pop with his own psychedelic stylings to create an immensely catchy song, full of whooshes, drawn out lyrics and rhythms that’d fit right in with AnCo’s best albums.
Playboi Carti - “COCAINE NOSE”
A song like this makes me yearn for a Playboi Carti album that’s as tight as this. The vicious guitar riff that brings the song to life is unlike what most other pop rap artists are cooking these days, making for a perfect backdrop for Carti to spit nonsense over.
PUP - “Get Dumber (ft. Jeff Rosenstock)”
True to their noisy punk origins, “Get Dumber” is PUP’s wildest single yet for their upcoming album Who Will Look After The Dogs?, due out in May. Fellow pop punk stalwart Jeff Rosenstock lends his voice and his melodic chops to reign in the raucous instrumental.
Tune-Yards - “Limelight”
It’s been a while since Tune-Yards has been essential art pop listening, but maybe this new album they’ve announced will change that. Lead single “Limelight” is as spritely as Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner have sounded since some of the songs on 2014’s Nikki Nack. You can feel Garbus’ big smile she features in the music video through the track’s catchy bassline and expressive chorus.
Classics Corner
The Beatles - “Birthday”
An obligatory birthday song to celebrate my own cake day.
Animal Collective - “My Girls”/“Today’s Supernatural”
AnCo’s period between 2007 and 2012 was as creatively explosive as any band this century. These are two of the best from that era, with the former a beautiful Brian Wilson psyche trip and the latter a bonkers vision into a cohesive noise pop world the band never really explored more.
Mark Morrison - “Return of the Mack”
“Return of the Mack” is one of those songs I always heard the instrumental to but never actually knew what the name of the song was. And that’s despite using the phrase “return of the "x"” numerous times throughout my life. The song bangs though.
Queen - A Night At The Opera
The best album from the legendary band. Full retro review:
Spacehog- “In The Meantime”
I rewatched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a few weeks ago, and this was the song from the movie’s soundtrack that resonated with me the most.
Until next month! Read more from my blog below.
