Jensen McRae

One Liner: Fantastic folky pop with clever lyrics
Wikipedia Genre: Folk, alternative folk, folk-pop, indie rock
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 13
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Pleasantly surprised.  That name made me think I was about to get some vapid teenybopper thing, and instead this is really pretty confessional pop indie type stuff that is well-written with strong vocals.  Draws me right in.  Oh, that is Tate McRae I was thinking of.  She sucks on toast.

Instead, this is wonderful.  Makes me think of boygenius and Maggie Rogers.  She claims early childhood influences of Carole King, James Taylor, and Alicia Keys, and has been singing and playing piano since age seven.  She attended something called Grammy Camp in high school, which helped her decide to pursue music.  Now I want to know about this camp.  A seven-day non-residential music industry program to help high school students interested in careers in music.  Three in 2025 - Miami, New York, and L.A.  You can choose a track - music production, songwriting, music business, vocal performance, etc.  Pretty rad.

Anyway, she graduated from USC's Thornton School of Music with a degree in music performance.  She has said that the music industry has tried to shove her into the R&B and soul categories because she is black, but her music is neither of those things.  At all.  She has had multiple great co-signs, with Phoebe Bridgers re-tweeting her, Joy Oladokun collaborating on a song, NPR naming one of her songs one of "16 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing," she got to open for Noah Kahan, and was featured on a CBS morning show.

Two albums - 2022's Are You Happy Now? and 2025's I Don't Know How But They Found Me.  IDKHOW was a band on the poster last year!  It all comes full circle, y'all.  Her top streamer was a single that popped up in that first album.  "My Ego Dies in the End" has 20.5 million streams.

That little "Exodus" drum roll that pops up over and over in there made me laugh out loud the first time it fired out.  That video is brutal though - who knew that watching someone remove makeup and cry could be so affecting.  The top track from the second disc is also very good, confessional folky pop.  "Massachusetts" fires up 5.6 million streams.  And no, I cannot spell that state name without help.

Sort of like a Taylor Swift vibe in there for me too.  I love the idea of her knowing she could make some cash off of that chain, but also clearly knowing it ain't for sale.  Her videos are definitely pretty crappy and low-rent!  But her voice is liquid honey and her lyrics are clever and interesting.  I feel like maybe she should change her performing name so that it doesn't make me think of crappy Canadian pop singers, and then she'll be #1!  I'd go check her out for sure.