Even before the pandemic struck, causing most of us to reinvent ourselves in the confines of quarantine, Canadian songwriter Michael Rault was in the process of rehauling his image following his 30th birthday and the end of the tour cycle for his last album—which happened to coincide with Rault moving on from a series of personal and professional relationships. The resulting creative output, then, is worthy of the mid-career self-titled designation it’s taken as it sees the musician fully reformed in various aesthetics culled from the 1970s. The latest sample of which blends sounds familiar to the Harry Nilsson discography with animation reminiscent of memorable visuals from the era like Schoolhouse Rock! or Cheech & Chong’s “Basketball Jones” short film.
In spite of its status as a pre-album single, Rault shares that “Exactly What I Needed” wasn’t initially slated to appear on the record. “I saw it as an exercise in getting something emotional off of my chest, and had thought it would likely not make the final cut of the record I was writing,” he explains. “I nonetheless ended up showing it to a few people who loved it and championed it being included on the album, so I subsequently went over the harmony and arrangement with a fine-tooth comb to try to spruce it up and make it suitable for recording. Once it was recorded it continually kept being chosen as a favorite song by the people I had shared early mixes with. By that time I had started to like it more as well, and now I’m very happy to be able to present it as my next single.”
As for the track’s video, Rault swapped the post–French Connection car chases of the first single’s visual with quavering animated minimalism more in tune with the new one’s jaunty charm. “The video is an amazing animation done by the extremely talented animator Mark Neeley. 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.”
Watch the video for the track below, and pre-order the record—out June 10 via Daptone and Wick—here.
