When tickets for the Jensen McRae concert at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on May 16 sold out weeks in advance of the tour date, I thought something was up.
McRae’s debut album Are You Happy Now? was released more than three years ago, in 2022; surely that couldn’t be the reason that tickets vanished into thin air? Then it occurred to me: McRae, a black and Jewish singer/songwriter from California, had also released two singles from the new album – Praying for Your Downfall and Massachusetts – both of which are remarkable and serve as the closing codas for this latest album: I Don’t Know How, But They Found Me. Both of those songs could have driven tickets out of sight when they hit the streaming services; and it appears that they have done that.
The real kicker is that all of the fans who believed and bought tickets to the Varsity Theater show have won the live music lottery. The new album is bangers all the way down. Every single track. It is breathtaking.
And the effect upon the faithful is undeniable. I attended a release-day “listening party” sponsored by her distributor, Bandcamp, and marveled at the reactions of fans who heard the newest tracks for the very first time. During the album’s eighth track – Tuesday – some of McRae’s fans openly wept. The die-hards who had come out to hear her work shouted on cue with her, cheered for her, and yes, even cried alongside her. I have never experienced another album release party like it. And doubt that I will again.
As McRae explained to her audience that day, the key to this new album is that it follows the arc of so many early relationships, when young people are really finding out about love: The overwhelming first fumes of attraction, the heartbreak of dashed hopes and crushing disappointments, and the melancholy lookback on the indelible marks from having loved so thoroughly. And each track is a one more step along that very real-life journey.
In the middle of the album, at the peak of McRae’s musical mountain, is the track Let Me Be Wrong. It is the anthem of every lover who ever had a heart and used it to a fiery end:
Let me be wrong,
Ride love ’til the wheels fall off
Right but delusional,
I′m loud at a funeral
Let me get lost,
The hard way is the way I want
And I’ve been good too long
Let me be wrong!!!
It is a torch song that is attached to a flamethrower: Everyone in the room is getting singed by that one.
One cautionary note, however, this is not an album to play in the car while driving the children to Talmud Torah classes. There is some profanity on the album, but all of it is in service of making emotionally appropriate points. Still, these are tracks that should wait until the children are safely inside the schoolhouse doors, and then cranked up loud. You won’t be sorry that you did.
Eric Lipman lives in the eastern suburbs of St. Paul and loves live music.
Eric – thank you for bringing this talent to my attention. Hope you are well.