

California singer-songwriter Jensen McRae’s cut an impressive figure over the last few years, from her striking breakout single “Wolves” and her debut LP Are You Happy Now? to a profile-raising stint opening for Noah Kahan on 2024’s Stick Season tour. Her sophomore bow I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! finds the 27-year-old taking her confessional folk-rock style—equally influenced by Tracy Chapman’s raw lyrical expressionism and Taylor Swift’s melodic grandeur—and blowing it up on the widest screen possible. Over bell-clear production courtesy of studio wiz Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee), McRae’s songwriting breathes like never before, from the countrified and Phoebe Bridgers-esque “Savannah” to the closely-mic’d piano ballad “Tuesday”, which features McRae leaning into her sturdy lower vocal register and spinning the type of quietly devastating lyrical gestures she’s become renowned for: “If you spent a day in my shoes/You’d know how it feels to be used.”