Kevin Bronson on November 30th, 2022

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File today’s singles roundup under mellow and moving: Hear new music from Wallice, Isaac Watters and Scott Goldbaum …

WALLICE, “Japan”

When we last spotted Wallice, she was tooling around southern California with Londoner Oscar Lang on the collaborative single “I’ve Never Been to L.A.” Now she’s waxing deeply introspective on “Japan,” her first solo release since this spring’s EP, “’90s American Superstar.” “My father was born and raised in Tokyo and lived there until he was 27, and my mother lived there for a couple years in the ’90s, so Japanese culture has heavily influenced my identity,” the singer-songwriter says. “I don’t know my father’s family in Japan at all. I’ve only met them once when I was little at my grandfather’s funeral, and since then my grandmother has passed. Recently, my mother moved across the country from California to Georgia which has left me without that familial sense of home. This song explores where home is and why I am so drawn to Japan.” See Wallice, along with Jackie Hayes, on Dec. 6 at the Lodge Room.

ISAAC WATTERS, “Child in the Rain”

Isaac Watters, too, poignantly connects with his past on the typically immersive “Child in the Rain,” the third single from “Extended Play 001,” the EP he will release on Jan. 17. In this case, it’s of his childhood memories of playing in a rare rainstorm in Arizona … and how they are even rarer now. “Try driving around your city and think about where the streams used to be, how wide the river would get when it would flood, before we encased it in concrete,” Watters says. “We’ve made this desert into something entirely different, less wild, more controlled. It feels like we’ve robbed the landscape of its child-likeness, and dressed it up in a suit to go work in a tall building.” The song, produced by Matt Linesch and featuring delicate backing vocals from Sydney Wayser (Clara-Nova), is the follow-up to “Listen to the Wind” and “Sadness.”

SCOTT GOLDBAUM, “Mourning Coffee”

“I wish I could navigate the world,” singer-songwriter Scott Goldbaum muses on the second single from his EP, “Protector,” which is out on Friday. The follow-up to “Drive Too Fast,” it features Goldbaum’s magical guitar playing with strings from his wife, Molly Rogers, upright bass from Kaveh Rastegar and percussion from Kiel Feher. Over five tracks, “Protector” shares the hopes (and doubts) of someone who himself is in need of protection. It’s emotive and erudite work from an artist who’s donning his folk hero’s cape after years spent as an in-demand side player, band leader and guitar teacher. See Scott Goldbaum on Friday night at the Hotel Café Second Stage.