Kevin Bronson on May 4th, 2022

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Here’s a new batch of singles — “songwriterly” ones, at that — from Rachel Goodrich, Mapache, James Combs and Michael Rault. Enjoy …

RACHEL GOODRICH, “Think About Me”

Singer-songwriter Rachel Goodrich says she wrote her entire forthcoming album on her Rickenbacker. And damned if there isn’t an earful of jangling goodness on her new single “Think About Me.” The album, the follow-up to 2020’s trippy “Ibba Jibba,” materialized after Goodrich shared her demos with Jenny O. (who co-produces), who in turn shared with engineer/mixer Kevin Ratterman of Invisible Creature. “This song came together late one evening knowing I was reaching towards the end of a relationship, hunched over a pretty drenched guitar, sitting beside the only light in my small studio in Venice,” Goodrich says. “The song pretty much wrote itself.”

MAPACHE, “Tend Your Garden”

The L.A. duo of Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch introduced their new album “Roscoe’s Dream” (out June 10 via Innovative Leisure) back in March with the smile-inducing single “I Love My Dog.” After following with “Love Can’t Hold Me,” they’re back with the hushed beauty of “Tend Your Garden,” a tender love song. It’ll make you wanna hold somebody’s hand.

JAMES COMBS, “Joy Is Allowed”

It turns out that last year’s double-single “Strange Signs” / “Circle Days” was only the tip of the iceberg for veteran singer-songwriter James Combs. “Faced with untold lockdown days,” he says, “I found myself in my studio with a head full of melodies, sounds and lyric ideas. The songs came fast and furious. Songs about protest marches and true believers and going nowhere fast and wild dance parties in safer times. Songs for my wife and son. Songs for my friends. Songs for my achin’ head.” So here’s a sanguine (sound the horn) song (and its visual) to remind us about “all the joy and color and humor of being alive, even if things are weird.” It’s the latest from his forthcoming fifth solo album, “Falling Under Spells” (out May 27). Grammy-winning John Would, guitarist virtuoso Paul Lacques (I See Hawks In LA), drummer Matt Hergert, violinist Wendy Kline, horn player Joe Hellerstein and singers April Mann and Kelly Atkins contributed.

MICHAEL RAULT, “Exactly What I Needed”

The follow-up to “Neither Love Nor Money,” “Exactly What I Needed” is the latest single from Michael Rault’s self-titled album, out June 10 via Daptone. This is one of those albums that sounds like rock history … especially as history was written in the 1970s. Mark Neeley animated the visual to accompany the new single, and, Rault says, “there was something about the song that seemed reminiscent of Harry Nilsson, so I wanted a video that had a bit of the vibe of ‘The Point,’ and Mark is the perfect guy for that job.” Rault celebrates the album release with a show on June 10 at the Airliner with Pearl Charles.