Kevin Bronson on April 21st, 2021

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Midweek singles trifecta: Hear new songs from Rosie Tucker, M.A.G.S. and Claire George, all of whom have full-length releases on the way …

ROSIE TUCKER, “Barbara Ann”

“Barbara Ann” is the lead track on Rosie Tucker’s forthcoming album “Sucker Supreme,” and, well, to abandon any attempt at being erudite, holy shit. It has corn and soybeans and baseball bats under the bed … dead birds, God and red meat … motherhood, the great Midwest and electrical shock. It rocks, too. Of the song, the follow-up to “Habanero,” Tucker says: “I have many vivid memories of visiting my maternal grandparents, who worked out a living on a farm in northeast Illinois. I was allowed total freedom to roam. Once, in complete secrecy, I laid an open palm on the electric wire that ran around the property even though I’d been told a million times not to. I desired the knowledge more than I feared my parents. The shock felt like falling to the ground from a great height. I didn’t cry and I didn’t tell a soul for many years. … The song is about the Midwest, how corn and soy monoculture relate both to wider industrial food systems and to farmers trying to make a living. It’s about my grandmother, who spent every second working, not just the work of mucking the chicken house and raising children but of imbuing a hard life with sweetness for herself and her daughters, the work of reminding them that survival means laughing a lot and refusing to yield to the will of any man, be it boss or husband.” Tucker’s album is out April 30 via Epitaph.

M.A.G.S., “Choked Out”

After closing out 2020 with the singles “Smile” and “Sunrise,” M.A.G.S. marches toward the July 9 release of his sophomore album, “Say Things That Matter.” The project of Buffalo-bred, Los Angeles-based artist Elliott Douglas, M.A.G.S. shifts between unflinching indie-rock and gleaming alt-pop — with other stylistic curveballs thrown in for good measure. His new single “Choked Out” falls on the rock side. It “explores the journey of self-love and the duality of our internal dialogue,” M.A.G.S. says. “Sometimes the darkest part of the human experience is the constant battle between the truth and what our inner voice tells us. We realize our fears because it’s easier to accept the lies we feed ourselves, rather than standing up and trying to change our way of thinking.”

CLAIRE GEORGE, “I Promise”

The follow-up to “Pink Elephants,” “I Promise” is the latest waft of indie-pop from singer-songwriter Claire George, whose debut album, “The Land Beyond the Light,” comes out May 21 via Cascine. “‘I Promise’ is about staying devoted to the people you love even when they are struggling to be their best selves,” she says. “It’s about the importance of holding space for people to exist in whatever shape they show up in, and a reminder to those who feel flawed or unworthy that they are singularly spectacular.”