California Sounds: Miguel, Anna St. Louis and Lee Hazlewood

Miguel, “Told You So” (RCA). On this teaser from the San Pedro native’s forthcoming fourth album, “War and Leisure,” the rock ‘n’ soul artist born Miguel Jontel Pimentel rides a squiggly beat that recalls a Chicago acid-house track at half-speed.

The song features a chorus so catchy it’s a wonder no one’s harnessed the phrase before. Swiping a line we’ve all thought at one point or another, Miguel seems to relish singing it: “I don’t wanna say I told you so — but I told you so.”

Across the song, Miguel addresses the object of his seduction with the confidence of a cult leader: “I am gonna show you the world/And all that you desire,” he sings, adding, “I don’t wanna control you/I wanna set you free, just come with me.”

The track is co-produced by frequent Miguel collaborator Happy Perez, who’s also responsible for production on songs by Frank Ocean, Halsey, D.R.A.M., as well as Miguel’s stellar collaboration with Mariah Carey, “#beautiful.”

In the video to accompany “Told You So,” Miguel rides in the passenger side of a Chevy station wagon as it rolls across dusty country roads. After parking, he breaks into dance (of course) as he sings those sweetest of all utterances. Behind him, missiles begin shooting from bunkers and into the sky — first a couple, then more. Are we witnessing Armageddon? Is Miguel saying “I told you so” as the world is ending? Way to rub it in.

Anna St. Louis, “First Songs” (Mare/Woodsist). A Kansas City expat who relocated to Los Angeles three years ago, the Cypress Park-based guitarist and singer glides along the frets of her acoustic guitar with the delicacy of a centipede rolling across a knotty branch.

Employing a percussive folk guitar style that nods to John Fahey’s instrumental work, the eight songs on “First Songs” are recorded simply, with a microphone set closely against St. Louis’ amp to capture the full frequency range.

On “Evermore,” she mixes piano, guitar, organ and full band to explore a realm that recalls the echoed beauty of Mazzy Star and Angel Olsen. For “Fire,” she sings of fire and caves, of walls and bleeding hearts while she finger-picks a circular melody. Best, the record hums with a menace, as though the noises echoing beneath the guitar lines might seep up to attack.

Lee Hazlewood & Ann-Margret, “The Cowboy & the Lady” (LHI/Light in the Attic). Neither Hazlewood nor Ann-Margret were at all “country,” but that didn’t stop the team from traveling to Nashville to make a duet album in 1969. Its return to print arrives as part of the label Light in the Attic’s ongoing series of Hazlewood reissues, which also just issued his solo albums “Forty” and “Requiem for an Almost Lady.”

A kinda-sorta concept album, “The Cowboy & the Lady” features original liner notes in which “The Cowboy” (Hazlewood) recalls being chauffeured from the Nashville airport to the recording studio on a gurney in the back of a Cadillac ambulance.

Once there, he and the singer-actress Ann-Margret spun through country and soul songs including “Am I That Easy to Forget,” “Dark End of the Street” and Tom Rush’s “No Regrets.”

The highlight, though, is the Hazlewood original “You Turned My Head Around.” Three-and-a-half minutes of maximalist psychedelic pop, it swirls with a wild, dynamic energy.

For tips, records, snapshots and stories on Los Angeles music culture, follow Randall Roberts on Twitter and Instagram: @liledit. Email: [email protected].