Here are my favorite songs from March 2020, a month where we needed good music even more than usual. Each of these tracks speaks to our post-COVID reality in different ways, from bemoaning separations to appreciating the upsides of nesting to calling out all the craven shitheads who keep pointing at a trainwreck and calling it a fender bender. More importantly, they all slap. So press play, stay safe, and remember that while we’re physically apart, that can’t stop us from harmonizing.

1. Swamp Dogg (ft. Justin Vernon & Jenny Lewis) – “Sleeping Without You Is A Dragg”

I thank god every day that I can still hug and kiss and sleep next to my wife. The ache in this 77-year-old R&B legend’s voice speaks for those who can’t.

2. Dixie Chicks – “Gaslighter”

Every time Trump says COVID is just like the flu, this should get a million streams.

3. Caroline Rose – “Do You Think We’ll Last Forever?”

The panic attacks that go hand in hand with true love serve as a hell of a metaphor for our shared existential crisis – and the fizzy synth-pop arrangement helps it all go down easy.

4. R.A.P. Ferreira – “Leaving Hell”

A song about how art is a pathway to joy is itself a pathway to joy.

5. Waxahatchee – “Can’t Do Much”

Katie Crutchfield nails what it’s like to work from home with your soul mate: “In my loneliness I’m locked in a room / When you see me I’m honey on a spoon.”

6. Cupcakke – “Lawd Jesus”

“When I hop off my flight / Naomi Campbell with the wipes.”

7. Deb Never & Kenny Beats – “Stone Cold”

This ethereal R&B track about a famous wrestler speaks to our need for human connection, which ironically connects all of us.

8. Protomartyr – “Processed by the Boys”

“When the ending comes, is it gonna run at us like a wild-eyed animal?” barks lead singer Joe Casey over a feral, cleansing cacophony of guitars.

9. Laura Stevenson – “Time Bandits” 

Over hopeful “Don’t Think Twice” acoustics, Laura Stevenson makes it a little bit easier to not give in to despair: “Quit smoking baby / Even though the world is ending.”

10. Channel Tres – “Weedman”

Whether it’s via THC, or an impossibly chill rap song about loving THC, we’ve gotta revel in our moments of bliss when we can find them.