March 2026 Playlist: I'm Back, and So Is Everyone Else
Gorillaz on SNL, Robyn's return, a War Child supercompilation, and a Dimes Square band going global.
I’m back. The playlists never stopped — I just stopped hitting send. (If you missed the 12 playlists I owe you, they’re all here.)
March was one of those months where every artist I’ve been following for years decided to drop something at the same time. New Robyn. New Gorillaz. New Ladytron. Tiga. James Blake. Wet Leg remixed by The Dare. It felt like 2024 and 2025 were the quiet years, and suddenly everyone showed up to the party in March.
But here’s the thing — I almost missed the Gorillaz album entirely.
I was visiting my parents and they started describing this band they’d seen on Saturday Night Live. After a few minutes of increasingly confused hand gestures, I realized they were talking about Gorillaz. That’s how I found out about the new album. Not Spotify. Not Instagram. Not a playlist algorithm. My parents watching SNL.
We’re living in a world where music promotion is so broken that you don’t even hear about the things you want to hear about unless you really go digging. Which, honestly, is kind of why this newsletter exists.
Two tracks from the album made it onto this month’s mix: “Damascus” featuring Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey, and “Skinny Ape.” Both are worth the listen.
FCUKERS: From My Block to Your Feed
Speaking of artists I’ve been tracking — Fcukers have two tracks on this playlist, and their trajectory has been one of my favorite things to watch. Shanny, the vocalist, owns a restaurant, Betty, essentially on my block. I think I first followed her on Instagram and saw what she was building musically on the side.
They’ve gone from Dimes Square recognizable faces to getting booked by MeanRed — that’s my friend Jen Lyon‘s production company, and Jen has a really great eye for spotting talent early. Once MeanRed booked them, I knew these guys were going somewhere. Fast forward to now and they’re NME cover stars, they just dropped their debut album Ö on one of my favorite labels, Ninja Tune, they’ve opened for Tame Impala, LCD Soundsystem, and Harry Styles, and they’re playing Coachella, Glastonbury, and Primavera Sound. Billboard did a whole feature on them. It’s exactly the kind of thing that reminds me why I love living here — watching your neighbors turn into something.
Help(2): The Charity Comp You Need to Hear on Repeat
The Help(2) compilation from War Child has been on repeat since it landed on my radar, and it deserves multiple plays from everyone reading this. Beth Gibbons covering “Sunday Morning” and Young Fathers‘ “Don’t Fight the Young” both made it onto this month’s playlist, but honestly I had to hold myself back from including half the album.
The lineup is absurd: Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C., Pulp, Bat For Lashes, Arlo Parks, Olivia Rodrigo — all contributing original or cover tracks for War Child. It’s the kind of compilation that shouldn’t exist in 2026 but somehow does, and it’s for a great cause. Go listen to the whole thing.
The Dare × Wet Leg
“Mangetout” remixed by The Dare is exactly what you’d expect and also somehow surprising. The Dare has become this interesting figure — in a lot of ways he feels like a distilled and repurposed version of the best parts of so many artists from 2005–2015. But this collaboration with Wet Leg is genuinely unique. Two very different energies that shouldn’t work together but absolutely do.
Full Track List:
New Life - Midnight Version | Daniel Avery; yunè pinku
Don’t Fight the Young | Young Fathers; War Child Records
Forge | Tycho
Broken Animal | Matt Jaffe
Damascus (feat. Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey) | Gorillaz; Omar Souleyman; Yasiin Bey
Skinny Ape | Gorillaz
Black Diamond | Jaakko Eino Kalevi
FRICTION | Tiga
Sunday Morning | Beth Gibbons; War Child Records
Perfect Hand - Power Snatch Version | This Is Lorelei; Hayley Williams; Daniel James
I Had a Dream She Took My Hand | James Blake
Take you away | Julia Takada
What Is Stand-Up? | Chassol; ALA.NI
Bem Bom | Pupillo; Cut Chemist; General Elektriks
Blow My Mind | Robyn
Time Is A Bomb | Metric
mangetout - The Dare remix | Wet Leg; The Dare
Fade Away | Susanne Sundfør
Narcisc0 | Rina Mushonga
American Girls | Harry Styles
Days Of Us | Tom Misch; Kaidi Akinnibi
if you wanna party, come over to my house | Fcukers
Avalanche | Grace Ives
This Is The Place | Joshua Idehen
Mate | PVA
Out Of Rhythm | Lean Low; Jaydonclover
Vista | Okonski
If you haven’t listened to previous months: