Jensen McRae – “I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!” (Released 25th April 2025)

Description

//Dead Oceans//

£25.99 – 1xLP, Violet Coloured Vinyl

£23.99 – 1xLP, Standard Edition Vinyl

From the very beginning, fans have fallen in love with Jensen McRae for her sharp, evocative and clear-eyed songwriting.

McRae songwriting is vulnerable, yes, but it’s also powerful for not holding back. Now, ‘I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!’ delivers McRae’s evolution from a promising young artist to a bona fide songwriter and star. “The most profound choices of my life,” says McRae, “have often felt like things I did before I was ready to do, and I had to grow into them.”

‘I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!’ is about what follows when you have withstood what you thought might crush you. It’s about meeting your limits and learning what you’re capable of. “I connected with the idea that I could’ve easily collapsed beneath the weight of what happened to me, but I didn’t. I didn’t even know it,” she says, “but I was bulletproof the whole time.”

‘I Don’t Know How but They Found Me!’ takes McRae’s now-considerable powers and hardwires them for mass appeal. Stealth single “Savannah” is one for the yearners. The pulsing, country-adjacent song immediately brings the best of Phoebe Bridgers to mind, with McRae singing in an acrobatic whisper over a feather light acoustic guitar. By the time “Savannah” hits its crescendo, it’s crystal clear McRae is an artist with her own singular power, as piano layers with guitar and McRae delivers a series of scathing indictments with grit and conviction: “You swore you’d raise our kids to end up just like you / well you’re a false prophet / and that’s a goddamn promise.”

Meanwhile “Let Me Be Wrong” is a bona fide anthem, a “buoyant ode to rejecting perfectionism.” Built once again on a simple vocal and acoustic guitar, “Let Me Be Wrong” builds step over step in its defiance; guitars layer, drums pick up the pace, and McRae makes space for everyone’s mistakes. When McRae growls “fuck those girls got everything” it’s a punch of both power and vulnerability, begging to be shouted in unison the biggest possible crowd.

Tracklisting:

1. The Rearranger
2. I Can Change Him
3. Savannah
4. Daffodils
5. Let Me Be Wrong
6. Novelty
7. I Don’t Do Drugs
8. Tuesday
9. Mother Wound
10. Praying For Your Downfall
11. Massachusetts