TOPNOTE’s Monthly Picks: March
TOPNOTE’s Monthly Picks: March 2026. Image credit: TOPNOTE
This month’s collection of new music picks is a real chocolate box of variety.
From the restrained darkness of Die Twice to the toffee tones of Sienna Spiro, there’s a decadent selection to pick from here. March also brought us two huge albums from Harry Styles and RAYE – putting maximalism back on the menu.
Let’s delve into March’s monthly picks below.
Die Twice, ‘Jakobo’ single cover. Image credit: J C Publicity
Die Twice – Jakobo
‘Jakobo’ sounds like the lonely walk home from a late-night bar, moving in and out of troubled thoughts and the chaos of the city surrounds. Die Twice have dished a restless, tempo-shifting single that will call up fans of early Radiohead, with lead singer Olly Bayton’s haunting vocal leading the charge. The British band of four are intent on introducing their sound as one that doesn’t stay in the same place, trusting you’ll get swept up in the current despite their lack of conventional song structure.
BABY NOVA – Ain’t It Such A Bitch
‘Gaps in my teeth and my box dyed hair / With my sister’s ID and a doe-eyed stare’. Lovers of Lana will click with Baby Nova’s alluring voice and laser-sharp penmanship, using both to draw listeners into her world of mysticism. The Canadian singer’s debut album ‘Shugar’, released at the start of the year, offered a sweet taste of her songwriting abilities, and new single ‘Ain’t It Such A Bitch’ follows on from its theme of exploring gendered power dynamics.
Harry Styles ‘Kiss All The Time, Disco, Occasionally’ cover art. Image credit: Columbia Records
Harry Styles -Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally
Most people had at least a small degree of interest in what the UK’s biggest male pop artist Harry Styles had cooked up over his three-year break from music, especially after a record-breaking Wembley Stadium residency was announced. It seems he has served up an album capable of delivering on the promise of splendour and summer silliness. ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally’ is a genre-spanning, disco-fied experiment from an artist learning to have fun again. You can read our full review of the album on TOPNOTE.
Sienna Spiro – The Visitor
Sienna Spiro is a rapidly rising name in the pop landscape, and for good reason. Press play on ‘The Visitor’ and it’s like listening to Adele’s ‘Chasing Pavements’ – knowing you’re hearing a one-of-a-kind voice that’s only just beginning to flower. Spiro told her Instagram followers that the song's inspiration came from an exhibition of the same name, serendipitously followed by a jazz-club band’s performance on ‘the temporary nature of life’. Expect chills and a strong desire to find out more about the 20-year-old Londoner behind the exceptional voice.
Ed O’Brien ‘Blue Morpho’ EP artwork. Image credit: Stay Golden PR
Ed O’Brien – Blue Morpho
Songwriter and musician Ed O’Brien is stepping out of the shadows, be it from his role as Radiohead’s guitarist or his previous EOB pseudonym, and releasing solo music for the first time under his full name. ‘Blue Morpho’, the first track from a forthcoming EP of the same name, is a simply stunning, string-filled ode to the harmony and healing powers of nature. The single came with the announcement of select film screenings for ‘Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play’ directed by Kit Monteith, a short that crystallises the fleeting serenity of a walk in the woods.
Paris Paloma – Miyazaki
Paris Paloma said her latest single is named after Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki, who called generative AI in animation 'an insult to life itself’. The song is a defiant stand against AI-generated art, and a reminder to all who create that it is an inherently human expression, even when ‘unpaid, unseen, unthanked’. Coupling a music video fuelled by a tree in flames with a lyric video compiling handmade fan art, ‘Miyazaki’ is rooted in a burning passion for the uniquely human condition of mortality and emotion that no computer can conquer.
Tom Misch ‘Full Circle’ album artwork. Image credit: Beyond The Groove Records
Tom Misch – Full Circle
Returning from an extended music career break, bedroom-turned-internationally-acclaimed artist Tom Misch teased new tracks from ‘Full Circle’ live in Kingston and Brighton, before dropping his second solo album. Alongside a string of buoyant singles celebrating family past, present and future, Misch has delivered an album where each track can confidently stand on its own. Further highlights include the sun-kissed strums of ‘Goldie’ with its sweetly confessional chorus, and ‘Echo From The Flames’ – a beautifully building soundscape of fireside contemplation.
RAYE, ‘This Music May Contain Hope’. Image credit: Simon Jones PR
RAYE – This Music May Contain Hope
RAYE’s second album is one all-encompassing, makes-everything-feel-better hug. It’s much more than a hug too – it’s a sweeping soundtrack of a woman coming undone, at Bond-scale drama. RAYE weaves almost every instrument and genre imaginable into ‘This Music May Contain Hope’; ripping open her ribcage to pour out her deepest insecurities. Behind the clouds, she finds a pool of optimism and shares it in abundance, with features from sisters Amma and Absolutely. This album is truly on a different plane, precisely because it sounds so (im)perfectly human.
Underrated Gem:
Troye Sivan — The Good Side
The world knows him now for dance pop 2023 hit album ‘Something To Give Eachother’, but Troye Sivan’s music career goes back over a decade. Nestled in 2018 album ‘Bloom’, ‘The Good Side’ treads carefully over the topic of moving on from a relationship, eeking a guilt that forces sympathy for both parties. There are too many beautiful lyrics to spotlight, unfolding the story until an electronic outro captures whatever’s left that words weren’t able to.
Listen when:
You’re feeling guilty for moving on from a person or situation.